Horley Town 1 Egham Town 2

COMBINED COUNTIES LEAGUE PREMIER DIVISION
TUESDAY 11 OCTOBER 2011
HORLEY TOWN 1 (1) EGHAM TOWN 2 (1)
Egham Town scorers: Matthew Grave (37) Aarron Taylor-Ives (57)

WWW.PITCHERO.COM/CLUBS/EGHAMTOWNFC
markeghamtownfc@aol.com

Oh God, here we go again! Two minutes into a game at Horley Town's New Defence stadium, 2nd v 4th, and a throw-in was allowed to bounce its way across goal to the unmarked, and probably quite surprised Mithum Nayte for a simple header into the goal – it looked as if our less than excellent record in this fixture was about to continue. Then Egham scrapped and battled their way back into the game, and with no little flair and a good deal of sweat grabbed their second away win of this league campaign.
What helped initially was that Horley were not allowed to be able to get a firm grip on the game, despite attempts by the home centre forward Nathan Jupp to take over refereeing duties. After 29 minutes a low cross by Marcus Moody, who worked really hard to lead his troops, beat everyone in the box. Egham had had to take the field with a rejigged line-up, with Ken During and Tom Hedges unavailable. In fact During would have struggled to play anyway, as he is injured. Brendan Matthew came back into the front line, and played a vital part in Egham equalising, heading on Jamie Houghton's pass into the inside right channel for Matt Grave. The striker's initial touch looked suspect but there was nothing wrong with the beautifully struck cross shot that beat Dan Chatfield in the Horley goal in the 37th minute. It should have been two before half time when Dale Marvell's ferocious shot was parried by Chatfield into Houghton's path, but from close range he belted the ball over the bar. In the build up to the goal there was a tangle between Nathan Jupp and Taylor-Ives with the Horley man seemingly intent on administering an impromptu head massage on the Egham defender. The referee, Peter Conn, had been pretty ineffectual thus far, and did nothing here. Later on he was more decisive.
Egham continued in the second half to maintain a high tempo game and keep Horley at bay with determined defending. Twelve minutes in a foul on Grave on the right hand edge of the box. Marvell took the free kick, a fierce, whipped drive that Taylor-Ives headed in from close range for his second goal in four days. Horley had nothing in the way of a reply until Nathan Jupp was denied by a fabulous save by Paul Borg midway through the half. When Egham were lucky to be awarded a corner the home side struggled to clear, Luke Muldowney hit a goal bound shot that deflected wide, and shortly afterwards Nathan Jupp finally had his name taken after a midfield clash with Taylor-Ives, both men needing some time to recover. Egham were playing well now, with Moody a threat on the Egham right and Grave on the left. Matthew had gone by this time – he had played and scored for the Youth team on Monday – to be replaced by Tom Brunton, another exciting and remarkably mature Youth player who has never looked overawed or out of place in the first team. Max Galbraith came on for Marvell, John Hamsher stiffening his midfield and leaving Grave as a lone striker. With four minutes left the other home Jupp, centre back Anthony, ploughed through the back of Moody, and got the straight red he deserved from Mr Conn. Two minutes after that Grave took a corner that Brunton flicked on for Max Galbraith's volley that took a deflection on its way out of play. For all that Egham were now bossing play there was still the possibility of Horley levelling but Nathan Jupp's late effort was cleared by Jake Galbraith. The last notable act of the match was the introduction of yet another Youth player, Louis Chandler-Joseph, who demonstrated in his five minute cameo strength in the tackle and some blistering pace. Finally the whistle went on a commendable performance, full of vim and vigour, that now sets the benchmark for what is required by this team if they are to maintain a top four place. Next up is a home game against Dorking, who are having their best season in ages.

EGHAM TOWN: Paul Borg, Dan Hartlebury, Jake Galbraith, Lee Pasmore, Aarron Taylor-Ives, Luke Muldowney, Jamie Houghton, Marcus Moody (capt.), Dale Marvell, Matt Grave, Brendan Matthew. Subs: Tom Brunton (Matthew, 68), Max Galbraith (Marvell, 83), Louis Chandler-Joseph (Grave, 88).