EGHAM TOWN 3 GUERNSEY 1

COMBINED COUNTIES PREMIER LEAGUE
TUESDAY 26 FEBRUARY 2013
EGHAM TOWN 3 (2) GUERNSEY 1 (1)

Egham Town scorers: Jamie Read (2), Luke Craig (33), Brendan Matthew (90)

EGHAM TOWN took a measured step closer to achieving something tangible this season with a hard won, committed and thoroughly entertaining win over a Guernsey side whose backlog of fixtures means they are still in with a shout for the title.
The two previous meetings with the Channel Islanders had yielded the same heartbreak, 2-5 reverses. Last season a 2-1 lead in the League Cup was too quickly thrown away and extra time saw the visitors race clear. They did the same sort of thing at Footes Lane in August, then manager John Hamsher again seeing his charges come up short despite an early 2-0 lead. In the reverse CCL Premier fixture tonight it was Lee Pasmore’s turn to take them on, aided by Jack McKinlay and Neerav Patel. They were given a dream start, a goal up in two minutes when Joel Jacobs’ free kick found the surprisingly unguarded Jamie Read take his season total to 20 with a free header past keeper Paul De Garis. It was clear that the best way to stop Guernsey scoring is to stop ace marksman, playing a good two or three levels below where he should be, quiet, and to do the same to Dominic Heaume, his striking partner. Five minutes after the first goal the reasons for such a policy became crystal clear when sloppiness in midfield presented a chance for him to advance down the inside right channel and make his clinical finish beyond Paul Borg look ridiculously easy. A minute later a massive error by a finicky referee, Andy Connor, inflamed home tempers, De Garis clearly bringing Reis Stanislaus in the box. Mr Connor got it wrong twice, at least. It was a penalty, he waved play on. As he waved play on, surely he should have been booking Stanislaus for a dive? That could have done for Egham, if they had allowed themselves to wallow in self pity, but they used their anger in a positive way and kept with the game plan. De Garis v Stanislaus part two was less clear cut. “This time I didn’t touch him” said the Guernsey keeper to me as he picked up the ball for a goal kick. (Forgive this aside; I’ll get back to the action shortly. Matt Le Tissier, a.k.a. God in Sotonian quarters, came into the Egham boardroom for a warming cuppa, and said that if he had his Saturday afternoon TV head on he’d have had a right go at the ref for De Garis v Stanislaus part one. Even the assessor said it was a penalty. Later Carl Wallbridge, a Guernsey sub warming up in the second half, said there had even been a quick discussion on who was going to go in goal – they were that convinced that De Garis’ challenge was illegal and that he should have walked. There, done now.) Egham were finding by this time that Guernsey’s back line was, at best, porous, and with the speed and trickery of Kemo Maphela, Stanislaus, Read and Tom Hedges they barely coped. On 11 minutes Egham could have taken the lead again as Stanislaus led the defence a merry dance along the byline and squeezed a shot beyond the keeper but off the inside of the far post.
The frenetic opening quarter of an hour was followed by another of less frantic action but on 33 minutes Egham took a grip on the game with a goal by the increasingly influential Luke Craig. Guernsey failed to clear one corner, and from Joel Jacobs’ subsequent flag kick the ball was cleared to Craig, who made room before drilling a cute low shot into De Garis’s bottom left corner. Guernsey were muted, and mustered only a shot by Allen, held comfortably by Borg.
Part three of De Garis v Stanislaus came along ten minutes after the restart and got the same short shrift as its predecessors, perhaps rightly this time. Egham were playing the better football, which was not hard in comparison to the one dimensional “lump it up to Allen” style of the Islanders. In the two previous games the margin and manner of the defeats owed as much to the frailty of Egham as to the skill and pace of the Guernsey team, who took ruthless advantage of the space afforded them by timorous defending and, especially in the second half of the away league game, incoherence in midfield. That was made history as Egham fought like terriers for every loose ball and tackle. Indeed the front pair of Allen and Heaume got not one sniff of goal after the break. Chances could have come from elsewhere in a clearly talented side but Egham were on top of pretty much everything at this stage. I say “pretty much” because what they were not doing, until the death, was putting De Garis under enough pressure. Chances for Read, Stanislaus, Craig and, as Stanislaus’ replacement, Brendan Matthew were as hastily shut down or lost as on the rest of the park. Egham tightened midfield with Patrick Craig replacing Maphela with ten to go, the new man testing the keeper with his second touch (the first was for control), a 20 yarder that caused some mild custodial panic. Surges forward saw retreating defenders getting body parts smacked by shots or passes until finally the deserved third came from the skilful boot of Matthew, taking Luke Craig’s angled pass in his stride before stroking home a shot under De Garis and away from the lunges of two covering defenders. Guernsey, with only a second match day loss at Camberley Town before a 16 game unbeaten run, have a mountain to climb and an FA Vase to win. Egham, with their own League Cup interest still vibrant, face on Saturday Raynes Park Vale at home. This win against Guernsey will be as nought if not followed up with equally tenacious and victorious outings.
The loss by Epsom & Ewell by 1-3 at home to Windsor means the Sarnies have a two point gap to make up over the Es, with four games in hand.
EGHAM TOWN: Paul Borg, Alex Rodrigues, Joel Jacobs, Arran Taylor-Ives (captain), Jim Ward, Luke Muldowney, Luke Craig, Tom Hedges, Reis Stanislaus, Jamie Read, Kemo Maphela. Subs: Brendan Matthew (Stanislaus, 70), Patrick Craig (Maphela, 79 ), Jamie Houghton, Tim Pitt, Louis Chandler-Joseph.