Egham Town 4 Marlow 1

CALOR ONE CENTRAL – SATURDAY 5 APRIL 2014
EGHAM TOWN 4 (1) MARLOW (1)
Egham Town scorers: Arran Taylor-Ives (6), Ryan O’Toole (64), Reis Stanislaus (68), Josh Andrew (70)

In that it took until the second half for the real Egham Town to show up, this match was as near as damn it a mirror image of this season’s earlier Calor One Central league meeting. In that previous encounter Egham played terribly in the first half and were lucky to go in only 1-2 down before winning 4-2. This time round Egham played terribly and went in at 1-1 before, oddly, scoring pretty much the same goal three times in six second half minutes.
Marlow, on Thursday, had been beaten 3-1 by relegation strugglers North Greenford United, who are involved in a “two out of three against the drop” battle with our neighbours Chertsey Town and Ashford Town (Mx.). That was the Middlesex side’s first three point haul in 18 games, which kind of allowed one to think that Marlow were not that good, which they weren’t, but Egham let them think they could get back into the game after the Sarnies had taken a six minute lead. The goal came from the head of Arran Taylor-Ives, doubling his season’s tally with a well directed header from a Joe Chandiram corner kick. Marlow were the beneficiaries of some outstandingly lenient refereeing by Mr Tim Donnellan when keeper Simon Grant wandered out of his area, got caught out and flattened Calvin Thomas. While Grant was not the last man his intervention certainly merited a caution. Egham were falling back into their old habit of overdoing it, but the perfect pass doesn’t come that often and it was not really surprising that Marlow made them pay for it. What the home side did not do was tackle as a quick break ended with Jahson Downes taking a pass from Devontae Romeo before shooting home an angled drive. There was little in the way of a response, only Louis Chandler-Joseph doing anything to test Grant with a curling shot that the keeper held comfortably. The frustration felt by the Egham fans was mirrored on the bench with coach Neerav Patel angrily demanding more effort from Josh Andrew, Egham’s right midfielder. Marlow could have taken the lead, were it not for some alert defending in first half injury time by Taylor-Ives who had to concede a corner as Downes threatened.
Centre back Ryan Lake, who had taken a bad knock in the first period, was replaced at half time by top scorer Ryan O’Toole, hopefully recovered from injury himself. He certainly looked fit and keen to add to his goal tally, and only some assured defending by Nathan Bovell prevented O’Toole from making the most of a flick on by Reis Stanislaus. The game turned in the 64th minute. Marlow’s Chris Ovenden failed to convert a deep free kick, Egham broke, Taylor-Ives found Andrew, who in turn played the ball to O’Toole. One-on-one with Grant, O’Toole finished with a plum, sorry, aplomb. Four minutes later Calvin Thomas, out on the Egham left, looked up, saw both Stanislaus and O’Toole free, and the former went one-on-one with Grant, who had no chance. Two minutes on from that Andrew played a one-two in the centre circle with Mo Harkin, went one-on-one with Grant and executed his finish with the same calm assurance as the two strikers. Harkin was replaced with Andy Crossley, who opened his scoring account for Egham in the first match against Marlow. Egham came close to making it 5-1 as Stanislaus ran the ball along the byline, cut back in and squeezed a shot against Grant’s left post. He later ended the match being booked for getting in the way of a clattering challenge from Nathan Ashton, the Marlow left back.
Egham’s game against Daventry Town on Thursday, which lasted just over a minute before the lights failed, has been rescheduled to the only feasible day left in the season, namely Thursday 24 April. This week sees the Sarnies at home to Kettering Town on Tuesday, at AFC Hayes on Thursday and at Chalfont St Peter on Saturday.

TEAM: Jamie Norris, Luke Muldowney, Jake Galbraith, Arran Taylor-Ives, Ryan Lake, Mo Harkin, Josh Andrew, Joe Chandiram, Reis Stanislaus, Calvin Thomas, Louis Chandler-Joseph. Subs: Ryan O’Toole (Lake, HT), Brendan Matthew (Andrew, 78), Andy Crossley (Harkin, 73), Marcus Moody, Ashley Quashie.