Egham Town 2 Sandhurst Town 1

COMBINED COUNTIES LEAGUE PREMIER DIVISION
TUESDAY 1 NOVEMBER 2011
EGHAM TOWN 2 (1) SANDHURST TOWN 1 (0)
Egham Town scorers: Marcus Moody (18), Dale Marvell (50)

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In the end it was a bit of a close run thing but Egham maintained their unbeaten run with a good, if less than spectacular, win over a spirited Sandhurst Town side. The win, which lessens the gap on leaders Guildford City to two points (at least until Friday night when City nip up the A3 to play Colliers Wood United at the Wibbandune), looked initially to be a sure bet as the Sarnies had the Fizzers on the back foot for the majority of a very entertaining first half. Continuing from Saturday Egham played a high tempo style that pushed the visitors back for long periods. However, Sandhurst are better than Cove (who lost 1-4 tonight at home to Badshot Lea), and kept clear sights of goal to a minimum, the first clear chance coming from Tom Hedges who ended a solo run across the edge of the Sandhurst box with a fierce shot that keeper Chris Grace tipped over the bar. Steve Eyango Bwanga tried something similar from the left wing for Sandhurst but the shot was comfortably saved by Paul Borg. After 18 minutes Egham capitalised on a bad error by Ross Hogston, who played the ball square to Matt Grave, who in turn had the presence of mind to slip a pass to skipper Marcus Moody for a most emphatic finish. A second goal looked more likely than an equaliser as Egham were in control, but were denied a corner kick from Jamie Houghton's ferocious stinger of a shot that Grace saved expertly, only to be denied any kudos for so doing as the officials awarded a goal kick. Dale Marvell had the same kind of luck as his solo run and shot, deflected by centre back Jasper Owen, flew out not for a corner but another goal kick. Sandhurst only mustered a shot by Junior Akonor in the last minute of the half, Borg making a routine save.
Sandhurst seemed to like knocking Marcus Moody over and unfortunately that resulted in the Egham skipper having to be replaced for the second half, his berth on the left being taken by Marvell, whose own front slot was filled by Enrico Rossoni. The former Eversley striker had scored in his first two games against Greenwich Borough and Cove but rarely had the sort of chance he had exploited in those games. However, he was instrumental in creating the second Egham goal. Referee C Readett booked Hogston for lip and Luke Muldowney, skipper in Moody's absence, played the ball forward to Rossoni. His shot on the turn was fumbled by Grace, and Marvell was on hand to take full advantage. Unlike the first half it was not all Egham now, Sandhurst finding some gaps but being usually turned away by a disciplined performance from the back four and, if they were breached, by Borg in goal. Unfortunately, shortly after changes that saw Houghton replaced by Tom Brunton and Grave by Matthew, there was a slip somewhere that allowed Fizzer sub Jamie Newby to turn in the box and drill home a goal in the 80th minute, and from then on, for another 16 minutes with injury time, there was a certain amount of nervousness in Egham's play. Rossoni fired a volley wide off a Marvell corner and was wide with an attempted lob, but eventually the team did enough to 30 points in 15 games.
It is getting tight at the top now, with Windsor winning 4-1 at Wembley tonight, keeping them just one point behind us. The other result from this evening's games saw Hanworth Villa not letting their FA Cup exit upset them as they won 5-3 at The Ranch against Ash United.

EGHAM TOWN: Paul Borg, Dan Hartlebury, Jake Galbraith, Ken During, Aarron Taylor-Ives, Luke Muldowney, Jamie Houghton, Marcus Moody (capt.), Dale Marvell, Matt Grave, Tom Hedges. Subs: Brendan Matthew (Grave, 78), Tom Brunton (Houghton, 72), Enrico Rossoni (Moody, HT), Louis Chandler-Joseph.