Chertsey Town 1 Egham Town 4

CALOR ONE CENTRAL - WEDS 26.12.13 - CHERTSEY TOWN 1 EGHAM TOWN 4

With a solid and capable display Egham Town secured their first ever Southern League double in the first match to kick off on Boxing Day in Calor One Central. Playing against a side they beat 4-1 on August Bank Holiday Monday the Sarnies recovered from conceding an equaliser to see this match through without any trouble.
Changes were rung again, Luke Muldowney coming in at right back instead of Josh Andrew, Jim Ward taking over from Arran Taylor-Ives at centre back, Calvin Thomas in for Richard Byrne and Ashley Quashie replaced by the regular left back incumbent Jake Galbraith. There are of course several Egham Town players who have turned out for Chertsey Town, Gary Ross and Andy Crossley recruited this season by Lee Passmore. Marcus Moody, though, was unavailable and in the blue and white kit John Pomroy had a quiet game.
Prior to kick off the word was that Chertsey thought their pitch unplayable, which was certainly far from the case. Egham settled early with and after five minutes a Galbraith throw in was hooked goalwards by Ryan O’Toole, who saw his shot tipped over at full stretch by Gary Aulsberry. Two minutes later an even better stop, low and at full stretch to his right, by the home keeper denied Louis Chandler-Joseph, picking up a rebound after strong approach play by O’Toole. The goal Egham by now deserved came after linking play by O’Toole and Chandler-Joseph was finished well by Reis Stanislaus who steered the ball into the right side of the net. Muldowney snuffed out a threatened riposte by Pomroy and Danny Alderton was perhaps fortunate to get away with a handling offence down the other end before Chertsey struck with a fine equaliser, an angled drive at full pelt and from a difficult angle by Ricky Hogsden just eight minutes after going behind. Parity, though, lasted a mere six minutes as Crossley’s corner was headed back by Joe Chandiram to where Stanislaus was able to score with a fabulous overhead kick.
The points were all but secured three minutes after the restart when Stanislaus won the ball off Ryan Blake, progressed into the box and was alert enough to lift a pass to Crossley to power a header down and into the roof of Aulsberry’s goal. Sam Baffour forced Ross into action on 56 minutes but Egham were by now comfortable in possession and after 73 minutes extended their lead with a Chandiram drive that took a deflection off Matt Morris’ back before leaving Aulsberry flatfooted as the ball trundled over his line. Josh Andrew, Brendan Matthew and Mo Harkin replaced Stanislaus, Chandler-Joseph and Crossley. In the last notable action of the game Andrew cleared a dangerous looking shot by Tom Betts before the match, sensibly refereed by Mr Guy Paynter, came to an end.
The way other results went sees Egham rise to 12th place. There were some interesting notes by Chertsey Town Secretary Chris Gay. Five years ago this fixture saw us lose 0-4, lose Charlie Muldowney to a red card and lose our manager. John Pomroy scored three; two years later he was, according to the Chertsey faithful, “past it” when he joined us. He scored 25 goals for us in his one season at the Runnymede Stadium. Today the same faithful were singing his name. The last time this fixture was actually on Boxing Day was in 2006, a 1-1 draw. Their goal came from Luke Muldowney, our skipper today.

1. Gary Ross 2. Luke Muldowney (Skipper) 3. Jake Galbraith 4. Kyle Anthony 5. Jim Ward 6. Andy Crossley 7. Louis Chandler-Joseph 8. Joe Chandiram 9. Reis Stanislaus 10. Ryan O’Toole 11. Calvin Thomas. Subs: 12. Josh Andrew 14. Mo Harkin 15. Brendan Matthew 16. Arran Taylor-Ives 17. Jamie Norris. Subs: (all on78 mins) 6, 7 and 9 off 12, 14, 15 on.