Croydon 2 Egham Town 3

COMBINED COUNTIES LEAGUE PREMIER DIVISON
SATURDAY 12 NOVEMBER 2011
CROYDON 2 (1) EGHAM TOWN 3 (2)

Egham Town scorers: Dale Marvell (18), Tom Hedges (32), Luke Muldowney (46)

With Guildford City playing for the second Friday running, and this time winning with a 2-0 home win over erstwhile leaders Badshot Lea, Egham Town again knew what they had to do to climb to the top of the CCL Premier table. They did it, but it was a close run thing. Croydon have a decent squad and in their last five matches they had trounced Badshot Lea 5-1 and won 2-0 at Camberley Town. Giving the first goal away cheaply was, therefore, not the smartest thing to do. There seemed to be no danger; Ken During and keeper Paul Borg should have had a straightforward task of clearing a ball played for striker Claudio Da Almeida but somehow it all went a bit wrong and from a not particularly awkward angle the ball was steered into the visitors' goal. Once again Egham had conceded a goal that could have been avoided with a good, old-fashioned welly into touch. There is a time and a place for pretending you are Franz Beckenbauer (for older readers: German, just a bit good) and a time for realising that if you were that good you would not be playing for Egham Town FC in the Combined Counties League, even if you are in the (at the time of playing) second best side in said league. Within seconds of the kick off During blocked another shot by Da Almeida. Fortunately Egham were in arrears for only ten minutes. Matt Grave hammered in a shot that home keeper Francis Ameyaw parried straight to Dale Marvell, who saw his shot repelled with a fine save. Although they had been denied on that occasion Egham began to find their rhythm and started playing some good, attacking football. Dale Marvell was fouled just outside the Croydon box and made them pay for it with a whipped free kick that left home keeper Francis Ameyaw stranded. Egham dominated possession, with Tom Hedges finding room to attack the right back almost at will. In the 26th minute he ran at the defence and passed to Grave, whose shot was deflected for a corner. On 32 minutes Hedges went solo after getting the ball from Jake Galbraith, cut in to the box and fired a powerful shot that was too hot to handle, Ameyaw seeing the ball bounce out of his grasp, over his head and into the net.
The first period had ended with Egham on top so it was not much of a surprise that the second began in the same vein. It was Hedges' powerful running down the left that created the third Egham goal, which came less than sixty seconds after the restart. Once Grave had collected Hedges' pass he tried to find an opening for a shot but was closed down, so a short pass to Luke Muldowney was the only option. Muldowney curled a lovely shot into the right hand side of the net and Egham had a 3-1 lead that, had Hedges' next effort been the required number of inches lower to go in instead of hitting the bar, would presumably have led to a comfortable stroll at the Arena. Croydon, relieved at not facing a three goal deficit, had other ideas. Da Almeida almost caught During dwelling on the ball again, but the Egham man was sharper when the Croydon striker threatened again as the hour mark approached. Egham were close to the clinching fourth goal when Taylor-Ives' header off a Marvell corner forced another decent save from Ameyaw but the home side were playing with more determination. Tyrone Gultaire walloped a rising drive that Borg did well to see let alone turn over his bar but the next time the Trams' sub tried for goal he succeeded, smashing the ball in from the left on 72 minutes. That forced the hand of Egham boss John Hamsher who withdrew Marcus Moody, who had had his quietest game for ages, Dan Hartlebury coming in not in his usual right back berth but in midfield. Max Galbraith then came on for Marvell, again in midfield, to provide cover for the defence. The final substitution was less defensively minded, Brendan Matthew, the youth team top marksman, replacing Hedges and giving the home defence something to think about for the five or so minutes he was on. Gultaire had a late shot turned away by Borg, who looked at the end as relieved as the rest of the team that Croydon were not able to snatch the point that was, to be honest, their due.
MOM: Luke Muldowney – tireless midfield work, as ever, and in scoring our third also took us to 50 league goals in 17 games. We are the first to 50 in the Premier Division, but Windsor are now only one behind in the GF column.

Egham will almost certainly see their position at the top taken next weekend as they are involved in FA Vase duties against Wessex League side Cowes Sports in the Second Round on 19 November. Cowes Sports play in the second tier of the Wessex League (Step 6) and are currently mid table. If the score is level after 90 minutes and extra time then Egham will play, for the first time ever, on the Isle of Wight in the replay on 26 November.
The top of the table is beginning to look its most interesting for a while with several sides bunched closely together. Windsor are second, a point behind Egham Town, the reformed club having recovered from an indifferent start. Hanworth Villa (who won handsomely at Molesey), Camberley Town, Horley Town and South Park (despite a shock loss at Epsom & Ewell) are also in close proximity, and there have been some interesting scorelines for 12 November, the most eye catching perhaps being Windsor repeating the 7-1 demolition job Egham did at Cove.

EGHAM TOWN: Paul Borg, Aarron Taylor-Ives, Jake Galbraith, Ken During, Lee Pasmore, Luke Muldowney, Jamie Houghton, Marcus Moody, Dale Marvell, Matt Grave, Tom Hedges. Subs: Brendan Matthew, Louis Chandler-Joseph, Max Galbraith.

Results for CCL Premier Clubs: Friday 11 Nov 11 – Guildford City 2 Badshot Lea 0. Saturday 12 Nov 11 - Ash United 1 Banstead Athletic 1; Chessington & Hook United 1 Raynes Park Vale 4; Cove 1 Windsor 7; Croydon 2 EGHAM TOWN 3; Dorking 1 Camberley Town 5; Epsom & Ewell 3 South Park 1; Farnham Town 3 Colliers Wood United 3; Horley Town 1 Wembley 1; Mole Valley SCR 0 Sandhurst Town 1; Molesey 1 Hanworth Villa 6.