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NORTHWOOD 0 EGHAM TOWN 2

NORTHWOOD 0 EGHAM TOWN 2

Tempest Ward31 Mar 2019 - 13:06
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Dream debut from Thomas

BOSTIK SOUTHERN CENTRAL
SATURDAY 30 MARCH 2019
NORTHWOOD 0 (0)
EGHAM TOWN 2 (1)
Anthony Thomas (43), Brandon McCarthy (56)

Egham Town remembered how to win a football match and in so doing broke a run of sixteen straight away league defeats this season. It gives the Sarnies some hope at the fag end of a traumatic season, even with Molesey and South Park winning and Hertford Town picking up a point at Chipstead. With six games left Egham are now 12 points adrift of Hertford, whom they visit on 13 April and on whom they have a game in hand. It is a massive task for a side without a manager, the team being run by assistants Carl Palmer and Francisco Ramos with the former taking the lead.
Trips to Northwood are seldom ones to relish, there being a history of feisty encounters between the clubs. Egham went to Chestnut Avenue twice in the early part of last season, winning in the League Cup and League, and it was after a 2-2 draw at Runnymede Stadium that the Sarnies signed the Northwood manager Simon Lane. With that horrible run of losses on the road, and following a 0-3 defeat at home to fellow relegation candidates South Park a win at what is now the Acre Tweed Stadium would have drawn very long odds, particularly with the ninth placed Middlesex side having four wins on the spin behind them.
The transfer window closed at 5 pm on Thursday. Egham started with two new men, left back Kildane Tesfu from AFC Hayes and Anthony Thomas from Uxbridge. Also picked were Jack Hatcher, last seen at Marlow where he was a subbed sub after only 13 minutes on the pitch, and Tristan Toney, who, it was thought, had left when Dickson Gill departed. Both were excellent; in contrast to some recent games there was a sense of defensive cohesion. After an initially sticky start when the home side were, understandably, aiming to stretch their winning run to five Egham started finding some kind of grip on the game, new may Thomas getting his eye with quick-fire attempts at lifting the ball beyond home keeper Luke Sheldrick. Down the other end Ryan Sandford saved well from Ben Pattie in the 27th and 30th minutes. Thomas powered a header goalwards as the home side failed to clear a corner, and then, two minutes from the break, came the breakthrough the Sarnies had been hoping for as Thomas, running onto an excellent pass from Brandon McCarthy lifted the ball over Sheldrick for a really classy finish.
The question now was whether Egham could hold on, half time leads having been lost at odd times throughout the season. After 52 minutes McCarthy broke down the right to win a corner which Samir Bajja did not deliver cleanly. Obligingly the Northwood defence gave him another go, the ball came out to Thomas and he rifled a shot just past the left post from outside the box. Morgan Cooper, one of the new men signed this week, replaced the industrious and versatile Connor Channon. It may not have been key to what happened next, but Egham, to the delight of the travelling Sarnies, then went 2-0 up. McCarthy looked like a new man himself with a partner up front and set off on a run from deep before finding the bottom left corner with a measured shot from 25 yards out. Northwood’s response was surprisingly muted, resolute defending holding them at bay, and if they did get through they found Sandford in the way.
Some good stats: first clean sheet win since 21.4.18 (3-0 at home to Fleet Town); first clean sheet since the goalless game at home v Marlow (10.11.18); first away clean sheet since the last game of last season (0-0 at Aylesbury United 1.5.18); biggest away league win since we won 5-0 at Petersfield United (14.3.17); first 2-0 away win since we won at Histon (6.8.16) and first away win since we won at Thame United on 24.3.18, a year and six days before this one. It does not mean a damned thing if this is not the start of a late push for at least some respectability. Our lowest points total is 22. Three wins out of our remaining games would at least prevent this being our worst season. For the remaining games Egham face Bedfont Sports at home (6.4), Bracknell Town (home, 9.4), Hertford Town (away, 13.4), Ashford Town (Mx.) (home, 20.4), FC Romania (27.4) and finish (37.4) with a home game against Chipstead.
EGHAM TOWN: Ryan Sandford, Jack Hatcher, Kildane Tesfu, Tristan Toney, Luke Randall, Samir Bajja, Brandon McCarthy, Ashley Carew (Captain), Anthony Thomas, Connor Channon, Joseph Adoo-Peters. Substitutes: Adam Mohamed, Alex Miranda Amorim (Thomas, 82), Morgan Cooper (Channon, 56), Joe Morrison, Greg Wright (Bajja, 70).

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