Cove 1 Egham Town 1

COMBINED COUNTIES LEAGUE PREMIER DIVISION
THURSDAY 11 APRIL 2013
COVE 1 (0) EGHAM TOWN 1 (0)
Egham Town scorer: Luke Muldowney (80)

There is some interesting psychology at play when a side surrenders a lead, when it loses a lead with almost the last kick of the game and when the genesis of that loss is a bloody silly mistake.
I wonder how many of the Egham contingent going to Cove, in 3rd place, would have settled beforehand for a 1-1 draw. I know I would, but the gall rises when you see your side dominate possession, have two shots cleared off the line in the first half and manage to maintain their cool under the added pressure of a frighteningly inept referee. His first error was in the fifth minute as Reis Stanislaus’ charge into the box was illegally terminated by Michael Buck. Egham took inspiration from this initial surge and two minutes later Joel Jacobs and Luke Craig worked an opening for Jamie Read, whose header was well saved by Stuart Harris. Then Read and Stanislaus both had headers cleared off the line by Pat Kirby’s header and Julian Sills acrobatic hook off the line. In between Kemo Maphela’s slalom run ended with an overstruck shot that flew over the bar. Four minutes from the end of the half a cross by Jacobs and another Stanislaus header looked to have given Egham the breakthrough their attacking play deserved, but Harris pulled off another fine save.
In the second half the referee, Mr P Bain cranked up the weirdness of his decisions, chief of which was the lack of a yellow card for a hacking foul on Hedges, followed towards the end of the game for a caution for Stanislaus for a clean tackle. It seemed as if most aerial challenges were adjudged to be fouls by Egham men. Then there was a foul by an Egham man, right back Tim Pitt clashing with left back Hassan Al Haddad, who stayed down, got up, went down again and stayed there. The incident happened with 24 minutes played. Emergency help was called for, as our physio Phil Routledge and his Cove counterpart treated the stricken man on the pitch. Happily it was only a gash on his right leg, although deep enough to require pressure on the wound from a team mate. After about 20 minutes the ambulance turned up and took him off to hospital. Hope he’s alright. The restart put paid to fears of abandonment, and it all looked good when Stanislaus raced clear and lobbed Harris, the ball looping over the keeper – and hitting the foot of the left post. The ball was scrambled clear as Jacob Lambe rushed in and from the corner an almighty scramble ended with Luke Muldowney racing clear from the pack celebrating. Then it all went very Pete Tong. Lee Pasmore had enjoined Hedges not to do anything silly, but with time running out a pass went awry, Egham were left chasing back, a corner was conceded and Liam Eagle jumped, not soared, and got enough on the ball for the equaliser. In the few seconds left Egham went straight on the attack but Cove held on. That’s three winnable games that have ended in draws in the last five, six points wasted that will only serve to give Guernsey hope of seeing us bugger this up.

EGHAM TOWN: Paul Borg, Tim Pitt, Joel Jacobs, Alex Rodrigues, Jim Ward, Luke Muldowney, Luke Craig, Tommy Hedges, Reis Stanislaus, Jamie Read, Kemo Maphela. Subs: Louis Chandler-Joseph, Steve Coultas (Maphela, 77), Junior Wright, Jacob Lambe (Read, 77), Brendan Matthew.