Egham Town moved up to 11th in the table after a disciplined, determined and doughty performance against a skilful and pacy Badshot Lea side. The Sarnies had only won once at home in the league before this, and Lea had only lost once on the road, and for the first 20 minutes it looked as if that form would continue. The visitors, allowed to play in an all-orange kit that almost-but-not-quite clashed with Egham’s mainly red strip, dominated early proceedings. Meshach Williams, who was with Egham briefly a couple of years ago, was using his pace and skill to test his former club’s defensive capabilities without ever quite finding a way through a solid wall of red. It was not until Town’s leading scorer Anthony Thomas curled a wonderful, but untouched, cross in the 19th minute that the back four could take any kind of breather. Another quarter of an hour later Kiemon Robinson pinged in a great low cross that Thomas was half a boot length away from converting. Between those moments Lea had picked up two cautions for challenges that, to say the least, were a tad over-zealous. After the latter half chance the visitors made it a hat-trick. Egham kept plugging away, Thomas latching onto a loose ball on the edge to fire in a shot that Kallum Lunn could not hold.
After the break the Sarnies were the dominant side, and Lunn had to stretch to push Luke Maguire’s powerful shot over his bar. Brendon Lewington did not get hold of his chance off a Williams cross, then it was Egham again on the attack as Maguire powered down the middle before seeing Lunn at full stretch to push his shot away. Egham took the lead in the 73rd minute. Robinson had been putting in some decent corners from both wings without any reward but then made one bend out and back in again, deceiving everyone with its pace and trajectory. It was his first goal since his wonder-strike at home to Sheerwater, the Sarnies’ previous home league success. Maguire whipped in a cross for Thomas in the 79th minute, but the subsequent header was not strong enough to give the leading marksman his 20th goal of the campaign. The Baggies pushed forward in search of a goal but the home side as a team worked their socks off to hold on to a valuable and confidence boosting win against a side who started off in 9th place and stayed there, ahead of Egham on goal difference. The home side are still paying the price in that regard for the 0-3 defeat against Ascot United and the 1-6 that saw Carl Palmer replaced by Tony Choules, so recording their first clean sheet since the 2-0 victory at Guildford City certainly comes in useful. Ascot won 7-0 tonight in the FA Vase against Abbey Rangers, who make the short trip to Runnymede Stadium on Saturday.
EGHAM TOWN: Luke Daley, Ben Peden, Andrew Whorms, Rory Da Costa (Captain), Jake Sobolak, Adam Humphries, Jay O’Connell, Luke Maguire, Anthony Thomas, Prince Mbengui, Kiemon Robinson. Substitutes: Lekan Ejinwunmi, Omar Hassan, Costa Rodrigues, Tristan Toney, Craige Tomkins.