SURREY COUNTY FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION COUNTY CUP SECOND ROUND
BECKENHAM TOWN 1 (1) EGHAM TOWN 6 (4)
Egham Town made comfortable progress in the Surrey County Football Association Saturday Senior Cup at the home of Kent League side Beckenham Town last night, despite going behind.
Without Reis Stanislaus, the hat-trick hero of Saturday's League win over Camberley Town, Bradley Fraser and Louis Chandler-Joseph, and with Tommy Hedges late arriving so on the bench, the line-up needed rejigging. Arran Taylor-Ives was back, in an unfamiliar right back position, after a long period out with a groin strain, and Brendan Matthew partnered Jamie Read up front. Jacob Lambe took Luke Muldowney's midfield slot.
The two clubs had never met before, and we were warmly greeted by the officials of the mid-table Kent Hurlimann League Premier Division side. The pitch was superb, with a slope more noticeable down the far end. Beckenham were off like a rocket, which is a fair description of the 10 minute shot by Jake Bricknell that left Paul Borg stranded. It was perhaps no more than they deserved for a powerful start that saw Paul Borg have to turn a corner away at full stretch, or Beckenham would have been 2-0 up and the evening might have taken a totally different turn. However, to everyone's surprise, we were 4-1 up at half time. Luke Craig smashed in a first time 20 yarder off a block on Jamie Houghton's shot (20), Lambe scored a superb header off a Jake Galbraith cross (22), Matthew turned in Houghton's perfect square pass (31) and a Craig shot bounced off centre back Jamie Lyndon's rear to leave keeper Ashley Bourne flatfooted. Egham boss Lee Passmore was equally pleasantly surprised after what he said was “another slow start.” The home defence was a mess in the second half, Bourne having to make several interventions when not seeing long range shots from Houghton and Jake Galbraith fly over or just wide. A great opportunistic snaffling of a chance by Matthew on 51 and an expert solo run and finish by Houghton on 91 gave us a 6-1 win that is, I think, our best since a win by that scoreline in the very early 90s, when Mark Butler scored five of our haul.
Raynes Park Vale beat Badshot Lea 3-2 and Windsor smashed Ash 7-1 in the League.
EGHAM TOWN: Paul Borg, Arran Taylor-Ives, Jake Galbraith, Junior Wright, Alex Rodrigues, Steve Coultas, Jacob Lambe, Jamie Houghton, Brendan Matthew, Jamie Read, Luke Craig. Subs: Jim Ward (Wright, 62), Luke Muldowney (Coultas, HT), Tommy Hedges (Read, 62).