Egham Town have won their last four league games, and the easiest of the lot was against fellow top six side North Greenford United. Windsor were awkward, and Egham needed a late penalty for the win, St Panteleimon took the lead and in this local derby against Spelthorne Sports the visitors were only downed by skipper Reece Yorke’s header with 15 minutes left.
Fellow Sarnies with even the dodgiest recent recall will remember this, a day or two before the Windsor game:
Happy to have signed for @EghamTown. i know i have made the right decision. Having a good season so far and looking to end it strong, season 21/22 i am not done with you! That tweet was from Prince Mbengui, announcing his return to Egham after playing in season 2019-2020. That “right decision” was clearly not the right decision. He played today for Tooting & Mitcham United, strugglers in Isthmian South Central. They lost 0-1 at Marlow. Two games, then gone. He missed the Saints game with a “back problem”. Easy sign, easy go.
Sandro Costa was not available for the visit of Sports, against whom he scored in Egham’s 1-2 loss in August. Luke Maguire came in for his first start in a while, and fired a 20 yard shot just wide eight minutes into a game that the Sarnies dominated. This win mirrored, even with the timing of the only goal, that success against Windsor. This one, though, included Brendan Matthew missing a penalty after scoring from the spot in each of the last three games. Ryan Phillips had curled in a corner, Yorke had risen for a header and a stray hand was seen by referee Bogdan Caraghin. Matthew underhit his penalty, allowing Henry Poole to drop on the ball. Egham could have taken the lead before then, Trevan Robinson taking the ball of a dithering Rayan Djouadj but firing his shot past the left post. Matthew fired a 20 yarder wide as the pressure stayed on the visiting defence.
Here is a question the Sarnies would like answered – are Spelthorne Sports’s players inherently physically unstable? The doubt arises because of the propensity for them to fall over at the slightest touch. There had already been a couple of instances before the egregious cheating of the number 3, Conor Lee, who dropped like a stone with Robinson in attendance, thus getting the Egham winger a caution. This was clearly part of their game plan, given the beaming smiles they gave the Egham fans who called them out for it, and Lee’s admission that “it’s working, isn’t it?” It didn’t stop in the second half; it got worse. They had come to spoil the game and try for a point, and they nearly got it.
Robinson had two shots that narrowly missed in the first ten minutes of the second period, then Kelvin Karanja dropped like he’d been poleaxed, he and Phillips sinbinned after a short delay. Radu Stefanoiaca had replaced Robinson, and it was from a foul on him that Egham found the breakthrough. Phillips had come back on, with Karanja, and took the free kick, finding Sarnies’ skipper Yorke, whose unmarked header beat a flatfooted Poole. Matthew picked up a caution after Lee again found gravity the winner with an Egham player next to him, the Sports player then producing the first of only two moments of attacking threat with his 20 yard free kick forcing Michael Edegbe to turn the ball over his bar. The corner was partially cleared and the ball recycled before Matt Hogg dived in the Egham box, and was not cautioned for simulation. The game ended with the second threat to the Egham goal, Karanja (another gravitationally challenged member of the visiting troupe) hitting Edegbe’s bar. Lee was almost right; the play acting and time wasting they employed throughout the match almost worked. Of course, the real reason Egham won was because Steve The Hat, having been hat less, then donned the hat, and then we scored.
Egham remain in 4th place. Southall (3rd) won 3-0 at Abbey Rangers (2nd), and have three games in hand over Rangers and the Sarnies, as well as a vastly superior goal difference. One more win will see Hanworth Villa crowned as champions unless they fall apart and lose the 25 goal margin they have over Southall in their remaining five games.
Egham are at home to Burnham on Saturday. That sees off March. On 2 April Jordan Berry takes his charges back to Stag Meadow, Windsor, to face Virginia Water, then three days later Southall visit Runnymede Stadium. The remaining games are: 9 April, Wokingham & Emmbrook (home), 16 April Tadley Calleva (home), 23 April Reading City (away) and 30 April away to Ascot United.
EGHAM TOWN: Michael Edegbe, Samad Kazi, Ryan Phillips, Jordan Goode-Keeley, Reece Yorke (Captain), Haluna Masembe, Trevan Robinson, Adam Humphries, Brendan Matthew, Brandon Trujillo, Luke Maguire. Substitutes: Luke Brophy (Trujillo, 80), Radu Stefanoiaca (Robinson, 67), Ezekiel Williams, Dan Brown (Humphries, 67), Ashley Harrack (Maguire, 90+2).