Egham Town 0 Raynes Park Vale 1

COMBINED COUNTIES LEAGUE PREMIER DIVISION
SATURRDAY 14 JANUARY 2012
EGHAM TOWN 0 (0) RAYNES PARK VALE 1 (1)

A disappointing performance by Egham Town ended 2012's 100% record as well as an eight game unbeaten home sequence. With manager John Hamsher on a family holiday coaches Wayne Noad and Colin Bartholomew were unable to field cousins Luke and Charlie Muldowney after a family bereavement.
Egham started as if they were going to tear their visitors to pieces. Matt Grave found Enrico Rossoni, who blazed the ball over, Tom Hedges found Grave, whose shot was woefully weak and easily gathered by Vale keeper Dean Culpit, and Hedges found Grave again for a shot that flew wide, and all in the first ten minutes. After twelve Hedges, Grave and Jamie Houghton combined for a shot that thumped against the inside of Culpit's left post. That was as close as Egham were going to get. A nasty injury to Lee Pasmore saw the arrival of Tom Brunton, and a minute later, with no blame to the young sub, Egham were behind. The ball was lumped into the box, defenders didn't defend and Hugo Campos smacked a half volley in for a 33rd minute lead that could hardly have been more against the run of the play. From the sidelines came Noad's assessment, that skipper Aarron Taylor-Ives should have put his foot through it. Rossoni had a shot cleared from danger by Danny Alderton, and Dale Marvell shot wide from Hedges' pass as the first half petered out.
Attacking impetus in the second half was sporadic at best, the best opening coming nine minutes in as Jake Galbraith's long pass gave Hedges a half chance he did his best to turn into an equaliser but for all his close control he was well marshalled by the Vale defence, and when he did get the ball back and drill in a cross there was no-one on hand to press home the attack. Facing a side no better than the Banstead team they had beaten without any undue difficulty on Tuesday Egham failed to find the necessary creative spark. Time after time they were forced into dead ends, with left back Daniel Thomas particularly outstanding. That and the tendency to try walking the ball into the net served them ill.
Egham fell back to 4th place and next face a trip to Mole Valley SCR, tenants of Cobham FC, on Saturday, and 24 January are at home to Guernsey, of CCL One, in the EL Records Premier Challenge Cup third round. The winners travel to Staines Lammas.

EGHAM TOWN – Paul Borg, Dan Hartlebury, Jake Galbraith, Aarron Taylor-Ives, Paul Bartholomew (Chandler-Joseph, 69), Lee Pasmore (Brunton, 32), Jamie Houghton, Enrico Rossoni, Dale Marvell, Matt Grave, Tom Hedges. Subs: Ken During, Louis Chandler-Joseph, Brendan Matthew (Grave, 62), Josh Henry, Tom Brunton.