UXBRIDGE 0 EGHAM TOWN 7

TUESDAY 29 SEPTEMBER 2015
SOUTHERN LEAGUE DIVISION ONE CENTRAL
UXBRIDGE 0 (0) EGHAM TOWN 7 (3)
EGHAM TOWN SCORERS: 1-0 BAJRAM PASHAJ (5) 2-0 JAKE CASS (37) 3-0 CHRIS HENRY (39) 4-0 CHRIS HENRY (49) 5-0 BRENDAN MATTHEW (50) 6-0 BRENDAN MATTHEW (60, pen) 7-0 BAJRAM PASHAJ (81).

The players representing Egham Town tonight can look back on this performance with pride; they set a club record away win. Three goals in a barnstorming first half were followed by another four as they picked off their hapless hosts to make it three wins for the Sarnies in three successive league visits to Honeycroft. The teams meet again in a fortnight at the same venue in the Integra Red Insure League Cup First Round.
New Egham Town manager Gary Meakin had led his side to a 1-0 win at Barton Rovers for his first competitive fixture but the early departure from the FA Cup at the hands of Slimbridge (to whom Egham travel on Saturday in the FA Trophy) gave him the chance to have a look at some new players in friendlies against Hendon (2-2) and Metropolitan Police (5-1, albeit against a largely youthful line-up). Like the 7-1 against Southall these games gave him the chance to run the rule over the players he inherited from Trevor Norris and make the changes he deemed necessary to make Egham more competitive. Clearly, so far, he has got it right, but nevertheless I would defy anyone to say with hand on heart that they saw this hammering of Uxbridge coming.
Egham started with further additions to the squad after the Barton Rovers game. Jerome Ecclestone at right back, Callum Webb and Jake Cass in midfield and Chris Henry as a sort of marauder-in-chief all settled in immediately and Egham were a goal up after only five minutes. Henry, who had tested veteran home keeper Paul McCarthy after two minutes, linked with Brendan Matthew on the right. Matthew drilled the ball across the box, the defence looked jittery already and Bajram Pashaj, at the back post, hooked the ball at hip height into the home net. Henry and Matthew tested McCarthy again, in amongst some clunking tackles from the home players, particularly on Cass, who was replaced at half time by Ollie Jones. McCarthy made a superb save on the line on the half hour when Pashaj connected with Henry’s cross then Cass made Uxbridge pay for their roughhouse tactics with a 25 yard screamer that doubled the Sarnies’ lead in the 37th minute. Two minutes later it was 3-0 when Henry’s free kick just outside the box clipped off defender Dan Bailey’s head and found the netting. It could have been an incredible 4-0 before the break but Matthew’s fierce shot hit the inside of the left post and spun away for a corner. McCarthy kept it to 3-0 with another save off a Matthew shot, this time as the forward latched on to Pashaj’s pass.
I would guess that the home management would have said at half time something about keeping it tight at the back and hope to nick a goal to cause jitters in what was to this point a largely untroubled Egham defence. Five minutes after the restart Egham had added two more. Another Pashaj-Matthew link up and McCarthy save two minutes in showed that the visitors had had a team talk too, presumably along the lines of doing what they had been doing so far. The Egham talk worked better. 4-0, four minutes after the break, came from Henry’s 20 yard first time wallop from Pashaj’s feed, then almost from the kick off Henry went down the inside right leaving defenders in his wake before lifting the ball to the far post for Matthew to rise and shine with a perfect headed finish. Pashaj was denied by McCarthy again with Egham looking more ruthless than at any time since they beat Potters Bar Town 6-0 two seasons ago. On the hour Egham keeper Jamie Norris launched the ball downfield, left back Neil Scott got it all wrong with a header back towards McCarthy, Matthew saw his chance and got flattened for his pains and then rammed home the subsequent penalty. The hitherto untested Norris made a superb save from Brian Phillips at the foot of his left post and the same home player later hit the top of the bar with a hopeful punt into the box from the left wing. Danny Bassett had come on for Webb in the wake of Matthew’s penalty and, having survived a heavy challenge four minutes later, contributed to the seventh goal of a remarkable and memorable evening by closing down Ben Pegden and forcing him to panic and pass the ball to Pashaj. The Egham No. 10 cut inside and then curled a magnificent shot into the far corner to add the final gloss to this excellent team performance.
Egham have won big before, of course, with 7-1 wins at Cove in the Combined Counties League and at Langney Sports ground in 1994 in the FA Cup. Also in the CCL Egham recorded an 8-2 at Banstead Athletic and 7-2 and 8-3 at Chessington & Hook United. This tops the lot. It is the best win Egham have ever had, home or away, at this level. There is a cautionary tale here though; Jack McKinlay began his tenure as boss with a 6-0 win at home v Guildford City and ended it with a 0-6 loss at Merstham. These are very early days and there is a lot of hard work still to come, beginning with making sure that at Slimbridge they record the club’s first ever away win in the FA Trophy. So far the Sarnies have won all their home ties and lost all those away in this competition. Egham, now 12th, are away to Beaconsfield SYCOB on Monday 5 October and away to Arlesey on Saturday on 10 October.
EGHAM TOWN: Jamie Norris, Jerome Ecclestone, Mitchell Gutteridge, Reece Yorke, Luke Neville, Kurtney Brooks (Captain), Callum Webb, Jake Cass, Brendan Matthew, Bajram Pashaj, Chris Henry. Subs: Mason Yorke, Dean McDonnell (Matthew, 65), Tarome Hemmings, Ollie Jones (Cass, HT), Danny Bassett (Webb, 61).