Egham Town 1 Hartley Wintney 6

COMBINED COUNTIES LEAGUE PREMIER DIVISION
SATURDAY 27 APRIL 2013
EGHAM TOWN 1 (0) HARTLEY WINTNEY 6 (4)

Egham Town scorer: Luke Craig (93)

Good heavens, what horror is this? Hard on the heels of a club record away success with the 8-1 mauling of Chessington & Hook United comes this, a CCL home defeat to rank alongside the 0-5 Guildford City tonking on 11 August 2007. This felt worse - Egham Town were hoping, and should have been able, to carry on their good form against a side third from bottom, whom they had beaten 3-1 away, and to take half the points needed to guarantee the Cherry Red Records Combined Counties League Premier Division title. With a proud record of 14 straight home league wins since Lee Pasmore took over from John Hamsher it was understandable that the Egham faithful turned up fully expecting a win. Perhaps that was the problem; did Egham expect their guests to roll over for them? Perhaps if safety were assured Hartley Wintney would have been less cussed. Egham’s only rivals for the title are, of course, Guernsey, held at home the night before by Ash United but perhaps buoyed by the news of this Sarnie surrender able to muster enough from tired limbs to beat Molesey 3-2 on Saturday evening. At the time of writing there is still hope that Sandhurst Town can do Egham a favour on Sunday. The League table top two after this reads;

1	Egham Town	40	29	5	6	109	48	61	92	98
2	Guernsey	36	24	6	6	114	52	62	78	96

Guernsey still have an immensely difficult task ahead of them. In the last week of the season they have on Tuesday a trip to Bedfont Sports, who are Egham’s last day opponents, then have four games in four days from Friday 3 May to Bank Holiday Monday, against Dorking, Hartley Wintney, Epsom & Ewell and Farnham Town. With the dread expectation of an 18 point haul for the Channel Islanders (perhaps not too likely as fatigue has clearly already affected recent performances) the Sarnies look likely to need their own maximum haul from their last two games.
That’s approximately 300 words with not one about what happened on the pitch. When the club you follow turns in a howler like this it’s bad enough to watch; it’s bloody difficult to write a match report on it. Put it this way, saying that the defence as a whole had a shocker is bound to get a reply along the lines of “No **** Sherlock”. Egham did, though, start off like a train, and skipper Arran Taylor-Ives was only narrowly off target with a second minute header that was wrongly followed by the award of a corner, from which strong appeals for a penalty for handball were waved away. After 13 minutes Jim Ward headed over then three minutes later the unnecessary concession of a corner kick precipitated a first half collapse that beggared belief. Jason Graham scored with a header. It was 0-2 on 21 as Ryan Stevens slid home a cross shot for a first half brace. On 26 minutes the pain increased with Ben Dillon’s goal, then the visitors missed a sitter. Reis Stanislaus had a shot blocked as Egham tried to claw a way back into a game they had lost in the first half hour but the nadir was the concession of the fourth. Describing it would involve naming the guilty party or parties, but it’s a team game. .. Lee Pasmore could take no more and with three minutes left of the half made an extremely unusual decision. Not waiting until half time when arguments could be had, fingers pointed and voices raised, as would be inevitable when going in 0-4 down, he took off 32 goal top scorer Jamie Read and fellow striker (12 this season) Reis Stanislaus, along with centre back Jim Ward, replacing them with midfielder Luke Craig, defender Josh Andrew and Brendan Matthew, second best striker with 18 goals. It was baffling to those who watch, not make decisions, and it made not one iota of difference. In all probability it made things worse, even though the visitors scored just the two after the break, because the attacking duo of Matthew and Jacob Lambe looked lightweight until it was too late. Craig Barker took advantage of more atrocious defending on 61 and 63 minutes, his first a shot and the second a header. After 77 minutes Andrew showed a glimpse of his early season form for Egham before he jumped ship with the Hamsher/Noad exodus for Chipstead, an exercise that saw the Ryman One side slide from top six to 20th, and Hamsher resigning. Andrew’s shot was struck firmly, but wide, and with seven minutes left Joel Jacobs saw his header hit the Hartley Wintney bar. Two minutes to go and Lambe cut in from the left and whacked a powerful drive that keeper Craig Atkinson tipped over. Matthew and Luke Muldowney had shots blocked as Egham fought to get at least one back, a feat eventually achieved with Luke Craig playing a one-two with Matthew before rolling the ball in, three minutes into injury time.
So, what now? Do Egham, even guaranteed as they are a runners-up berth, snatch what would feel like defeat from the jaws of the victory of achieving a landmark first place? Do Guernsey rise from their beds, Lazarus-like, and win enough games to take it, at least, to the wire, knowing come Sunday afternoon what they have to do? Egham will be hoping that they don’t have to rely on Twitter watch next Saturday – the Islanders, as mentioned, play relegation threatened but clearly revitalised Hartley Wintney, with kick off at 13:00.