Chalfont St Peter 1 Egham Town 2

CALOR ONE CENTRAL
SATURDAY 12 APRIL 2014
CHALFONT ST PETER 1 EGHAM TOWN 2
SCORERS: BRENDAN MATTHEW, RICHARD BYRNE

When Egham Town played Chalfont St Peter on 3 September the Buckinghamshire expressed relief at leaving the Runnymede Stadium with only a 0-2 defeat, so dominant had the home side been. That was the level of performance produced at AFC Hayes last Thursday, but not quite matched in the CSP return. With leading marksman Ryan O’Toole injured his place was taken by Brendan Matthew, who scored with his first touch at Hayes, and made it two in two with a gift of a goal in the 22nd minute, profiting from a handling mistake by keeper Michael Park-Simpson, who fumbled a Josh Andrew cross from the right wing. Presented with an open goal the young striker could not miss. Egham had begun brightly, the home defence looking jittery from the off; Adam Pepara sliced a kick out for a corner after only four seconds. It was the Saints, though, who had the first decent opportunity to open the scoring, two minutes before Matthew’s goal, Danilson Vicente forcing Jamie Norris to dive to his right to save. Then Egham midfielder Joe Chandiram saw a 22 yard free kick tipped over by the keeper, who seconds later helped to give Egham the lead. A glaring miss by Saints’ Anthony Lennon, sending a free header over from a corner kick, emphasised the need for at least one more goal, and it finally came in the fourth minute injury time. Chandiram swung in a corner, Matthew headed on, the ball was not cleared and Richard Byrne was on hand to smash a right foot shot into the roof of the net.
The noise from the home dressing room provided clear evidence of the home manager’s disgruntlement with his charges’ performance thus far, but it did not exactly fire up his team as he would have hoped. The start of the second period was pretty even, and Louis Chandler-Joseph was able to deal comfortably with the one moment of danger before the hour was up. He and keeper Norris combined later to deny Remmel Clarke. Chalfont pulled a goal back after 67 minutes when the whole Egham defence was caught napping by a quickly taken free kick, Terrell Lewis guiding the ball into the bottom left corner of Norris’ net. It was horribly sloppy but it did not lead to a resurgence by the home side. Instead Josh Andrew and Matthew worked together for the latter to drag a decent save from Park-Simpson, and Ashley Quashie came close to his first goal in Egham colours with a cross shot. Then Reis Stanislaus was thwarted by the home keeper, who by now had made up for his first half clanger. Egham saw the game out and now face a daunting end to the season, a six match stint that will affect both ends of the table.
On Tuesday Barton Rovers (5th) will be visiting, with the home club crossing fingers and anything else except wires after the recent floodlighting travails. Egham were, to use the vernacular, pony at Sharpenhoe Road and will want to make amends for a 1-3 loss that was largely self-inflicted. Kettering Town arrive on Thursday, and currently sit in 6th place, three points behind Barton Rovers and one place outside the play-offs. They beat Egham 1-0 in a dreadful game in November. On Saturday Egham are at home to an Uxbridge side they beat 5-0 away; the two sides are level on 55 points, with Egham having a vastly superior goal difference.
Bank Holiday Monday pits relegation-threatened Ashford Town (Mx.) (22nd) against the Sarnies at the Robert Parker Stadium. Egham won the first match 4-0. 4th placed Daventry Town (who beat Egham 2-0 early in the season) come (again) on Wednesday 23rd and finally Egham face Leighton Town (19th, 0-0) who, as it stands, are not exactly guaranteed to avoid the drop. Egham sit in 10th place, and cannot finish lower than 14th.
EGHAM TOWN: 1. Jamie Norris 2. Louis Chandler-Joseph 3. Jake Galbraith 4. Luke Muldowney (Capt.) 5. Richard Byrne 6. Marcus Moody 7. Andrew Joseph 8. Joe Chandiram 9. Reis Stanislaus 10. Brendan Matthew 11. Calvin Thomas. Subs: 12. Ashley Quashie (8/ 52 mins) 14. Mo Harkin 15. Jim Ward 16. Jack McKinlay 17. Ryan O’Toole.