18.03.19
For the best interest of the Club, Dickson and ourselves have gone separate ways.
21.03.19 [Club comment on the Egham Town website.]
Carl Palmer and Francisco Ramos are Assistant Managers working under instruction of the new Manager who will take over properly in the near future. [Club comment on the Egham Town website.]

As an exercise in brinkmanship this surely takes the biscuit. Egham Town failed utterly to rise to the challenge of a “new boss bounce”, which is hardly surprising given that Chairman Pat Bennett remained resolutely tight-lipped regarding the identity of the new manager.

Registration Period - After 5.00pm on the fourth Thursday in March each Playing Season new registrations, new loans, and transfer of registrations will be declined or will be approved subject to such limitations and restrictions as the Board may determine and, if so determined, the Player shall only be eligible to play in the matches for which permission is granted by the Board. [From the Bostik League website.]

Without a win since 24 November, pointless in every away league match, ten points adrift of 19th placed Molesey (who have done the double over the Sarnies), Egham have only seven games left to avoid the drop. Somewhat more than five years ago Chairman Pat Bennett promised the supporters that the club would be playing Conference (Step 2) football in five years. In season 1997-8 he promised me that he would everything he could to prevent relegation into Ryman Three. We dropped. Just three seasons ago Egham were Southern One Central champions for 11 minutes as we led at Royston Town through Bajram Pashaj’s wonder goal. Egham lost in the play-offs, and did so again two years ago. Since then Chris Moore, Simon Lane, Ashley Smith and Dickson Gill have come and gone. Unless, as I write this on a Sunday morning for which the sunny weather is in utter contrast to my mood, the as yet unnamed new boss has top-drawer motivational skills and/or is signing a raft of new players in the very short time left to 5 pm on Thursday then the club is doomed to be going back to the level from which Lee Passmore did so well to extract us in 2013. Then he is going to have to build, from the start, a winning momentum that will see us pick up a very large portion of the 21 points we have available, all the while praying that other sides down the wrong end drop points all over the place. Various combinations of the now 104 players (forward Bukele Mukudi signed from Banstead Athletic) who have had their names on Egham team sheets have now conceded 3 goals or more 19 times this season (16 in the league) and not scored 18 times (17 in the league). We have a goal difference of -60; by contrast Molesey’s is -36. That is as good as being another point ahead. It also begs the question of who we have had up front. Kezie Ibe is still our top scorer on 9, the last of which was on 30 October. Brandon McCarthy works hard but only has half a dozen to his name. The signing of Farnborough striker Perry Coles failed to ignite; he had one shot on target in three matches. We seem to have signed an inordinate amount of midfielders; we now know for sure the value of Mr Brendan Matthew, who scored again yesterday as Beaconsfield Town beat Gosport Borough. Yesterday Alexandre Miranda Amorim, who made a point saving debut from the bench against Uxbridge remained seated.
It was clear several weeks ago that under Gill we were going nowhere except down; 3 points from 42, 7 scored and 34 conceded did not back up his “If I didn’t think I could [save the club] I wouldn’t be here” bravado when interviewed by the local press a couple of weeks into his third stint at Egham. He signed 44 players for 15 games, the other being a County Cup tie against Woking, who won 5-0 before losing to Banstead Athletic, whose Merland Rise HQ is one of several venues with which the Sarnies will have to become reacquainted for 2019-2020. The big fear now is that what happened to Walton & Hersham this season (five points adrift at the bottom of CCL Premier) could happen here.
The game – we started well enough and McCarthy once again shone in the early stages with his pace, but it didn’t last. Six minutes in we could all have gone home. It certainly looked as if the Egham back four had things other than defending on their minds when they allowed Charlie Pitcher time and room to hammer a low, angled shot into Ryan Sandford’s bottom right corner. Joseph Adoo-Peters headed over a more than presentable chance off Dean McDonald’s corner two minutes later, but with a record of only twice getting something out of a game in which had fallen behind (Chalfont St Peter and Uxbridge) it was not that likely that we would equalise. Still, Adoo-Peters could have done more with a chance similar to his first. Joe Morrison did very well to prevent Great Evans doing more damage after a ridiculous short free kick by the home side in the centre circle showed, not for the first time, that not all the players were on the same wavelength.
After the break McCarthy had one decent chance, three minutes in, but drove his shot straight at keeper Michael Eacott. Just before the hour Kiemon Robinson, booked in the first half for a foul on Ryan Richford, was cautioned again, and therefore dismissed, for a challenge on Pitcher. I will be honest here; I missed it. Perhaps I was thinking about which new grounds we will be seeing next season. More likely I was just numbed by the inevitability of another defeat. It is possible that the loss of a left back was a contributory factor in us losing two more goals, Daniel Uchechi did some twinkle-toes stuff on the edge of the Egham box and then sent the ball into Sandford’s bottom left corner, as did Sam Remfry, following up after Hayden Skerry had ended a run with a shot that was going way off target.
The first game after the shutting of the transfer window will be on Saturday, at Northwood, whose ground is abutted at one end by a graveyard. Do your own similes. Then we are at home to the Bedfont Sports side at whose ground Gill first appeared as Smith was wrapping his hand in. After that we entertain Bracknell Town, who are second and who stuffed seven past us at Larges Lane. Then we go to Hertford Town, who have also changed their management and signed the bosses of Essex Leaguers St Margaretsbury. They drew 2-2 with Marlow. Egham finish their travels with another visit to Theobalds Lane, Cheshunt to face tenants FC Romania and finish the season with a home game against Chipstead. After that, who knows? To make it worse, we can’t even take the mick out of already relegated Staines Town, who were 0-4 after 12 minutes at Merthyr Town, 0-8 at half time and 0-9 at the final whistle.
EGHAM TOWN: Ryan Sandford, Andrew Blake, Kieman Robinson, Joseph Adoo-Peters, Joseph Morrison, Samir Bajja, Dean McDonald, Ashley Carew (Captain), Bukele Mukudi, Dean Lodge, Brandon McCarthy. Substitutes: Connor Chapman (McCarthy, 77), Daniel Campion (McDonald, 68), Alexandre Miranda Amorim, Adam Mohamed (Mukudi, 80), Luke Randall. Mark F

REMAINING GAMES FOR OTHER SIDES DOWN THE WRONG END
MOLESEY
Sat 30th Mar H Waltham Abbey
Sat 6th Apr A Tooting & Mitcham United
Tue 9th Apr H Marlow
Sat 13th Apr A Westfield
Tue 16th Apr H Chalfont St Peter
Sat 20th Apr H Hayes & Yeading United
Mon 22nd Apr A Chipstead
Sat 27th Apr H Northwood
SOUTH PARK
Sat 30th Mar A Ashford Town (Middx)
Sat 6th Apr H Westfield
Sat 13th Apr H Cheshunt
Sat 20th Apr A Marlow
Mon 22nd Apr H Tooting & Mitcham United
Sat 27th Apr A Waltham Abbey
HERTFORD TOWN
Sat 30th Mar A Chipstead
Sat 6th Apr H FC Romania
Sat 13th Apr H Egham Town
Sat 20th Apr A Hanwell Town
Mon 22nd Apr H Cheshunt
Sat 27th Apr A Bedfont Sports
FC ROMANIA
Sat 30th Mar H Hayes & Yeading United
Sat 6th Apr A Hertford Town
Sat 13th Apr H Marlow
Sat 20th Apr A Uxbridge
Mon 22nd Apr H Egham Town
Sat 27th Apr A Tooting & Mitcham United