Not so long ago Egham Town were in 5th place in CCL Premier North. After this latest defeat, the fourth in a row, the club are now 12th. A combination of players’ unavailability, suspension, injury and other clubs playing catch-up with their fixtures have all played a part in this tumble down the division, but at Harefield on Saturday it could have been stopped. Against a very poor home side, managed by former player and assistant manager Wayne Carter, Egham never really gave themselves much of a chance as they failed to take advantage of opportunities and gave away two sloppy goals.
David Lopes returned after injury and had the first decent chance of the match when he ran onto a long ball down the middle but lifted the ball over the bar. Armani Morris’ chasing down of a half chance ended with Jon-Jo Bates shooting wide, and home keeper Tom Clark made a good save from Armando Pires Costa from Lopes’ pass. The home side went ahead after a foul by Junior Ferreira de Paiva, the resultant free kick (not taken from the right spot) was whipped in for Lenny Farhall to thump home a header past Sarnies’ stand-in keeper Luke Daley. Lewis Gallifent, the usual Egham custodian, was apparently not available.
Egham had shots towards the end of the first half, and in the second, but could not beat Clark. An annoying tendency of Egham sides throughout history is a tendency to want to walk the ball into the net – speculative shots that may deflect for corners or, perhaps, a goal, seem to be an unfavourable option. Eventually, and inevitably, the Hares scored again. A corner kick was headed on, Daley did not get enough on the ball to push it clear and Farhall was unmarked for a free header. For those Egham fans who made the trip the disappointment was in their team’s failure to replicate the fighting spirit they showed on Monday against promotion candidates Rayners Lane, when they restored some pride after going in 0-3 down and only lost narrowly, by 2-3.
Egham have four games left, starting with Chalfont St Peter away on Saturday 13 April. On Thursday 18 April they have another go at playing Reading City away, have no game on 20 April, are at home to Wokingham & Emmbrook on 23 April and finish with a Friday night game staged at Beaconsfield FC to play Hilltop.
EGHAM TOWN: Luke Daley, George Tucker, Rodney Dos Santos, Dan Brown, Adam Humphrey (Captain), Jon-Jo Bates, Armando Pires Costa, Ben Jordan, Junior Ferreira de Paiva, David Lopes, Armani Morris. Substitutes: Deante Gibson (Morris, 66), Callum O’Keeffe (Lopes, 80), Alex Cathline, Tremayne Moseley, Alex Paine.