Egham T 0 Aylesbury 1

CALOR LEAGUE ONE CENTRAL DIVISION
SAT 28 12 13

One step forward, one step back. There is a fact that was mentioned by a Sarnie shortly after the final whistle – Egham’s home record on a Saturday in the League shows just one point, against Slough Town. Apart from two Trophy wins against Ashford Town (Mx.) and Cirencester Town that’s it, and it is hard to understand why. Some reasoning for this latest defeat can come from the 50.5 hour turnaround since the start of the game at Alwyns Lane for the 4-1 win at Chertsey Town, while Aylesbury’s match against Aylesbury Town was postponed on Boxing Day. The same goes for other sides in the same boat, though. This was another winnable match lost, this time with a flat performance once the goal had gone in, early in the second half. Aylesbury were 19th, and had one point from their last 24 on the road.
The first period contained some decent football from both teams, with Egham’s new goalkeeping signing Jamie Norris replacing Gary Ross and having a promising debut. Louis Chandler-Joseph forced James Weatherill into a decent save after just two minutes. Norris saved Sam Bateman’s free kick after eight minutes and Sonny French ten minutes later. Egham’s top scorer Ryan O’Toole tested Weatherill with a well struck shot that the keeper did well to parry and later saw a free kick taken enough of a deflection for the save to be straightforward.
From the restart Egham were not at ease, not helped by some over confident footwork by the new keeper, and about a minute later when possession was not maintained the visitors broke, and French crossed to Lamar Simpson to score with an angled shot. Calvin Thomas missed the target with a couple of shots while the Moles caused alarm in home ranks with several attacks on the break. Reis Stanislaus tried a solo run before his shot was safely gathered by Weatherill and Norris saved from French, Gareth Price missed an opening and Norris saved from French again. It took until the 87th minute until Weatherill was truly tested, with a shot from Andy Crossley.
A solution for the home Saturday malaise will have to be found – after the New Year’s Day derby against Ashford Town (Mx.) there are 8 such fixtures to follow. The loss and AFC Hayes 2-2 draw with Leighton Town sees Egham, who had risen five places on Boxing Day to 12th, slip down one.
1. Jamie Norris 2. Josh Andrew 3. Jake Galbraith 4. Arran Taylor_ives (capt..) 5. Jim Ward 6. Mo Harkin 7. Louis Chandler-Joseph 8. Joe Chandiram 9. Reis Stanislaus 10. Ryan O’Toole 11. Calvin Thomas. Subs: 12. Brendan Matthew (6/76) 13. Gary Ross (kpr) 14. Luke Muldowney 15. Andy Crossley (11/70).

Mark