Egham Town 4 Badshot Lea 2

COMBINED COUNTIES LEAGUE PREMIER DIVISION
EGHAM TOWN 4 (1) BADSHOT LEA 2 (0)
Egham Town scorers: Aarron Taylor-Ives 2 (33, 76), Enrico Rossoni (49), Matt Grave (72)

Three home wins on the spin will see Egham Town face the trip next Saturday to reigning champions, and this season's champions-elect, Guildford City in very good heart. Against a Badshot Lea side who have slipped down the CCL Premier table after initial promise of a title challenge, which included a 3-1 win over Egham, the Sarnies played their guests off the park for most of this game, the only blots on the escutcheon being the sloppy concession of two Josh Pearson goals in the second half.
The match was just seconds gone when Egham keeper Paul Borg had to make a save, catching a Darren Blake 20 yard volley, but in a first half that saw almost total home domination that was about all he had to contend with. Egham pushed forward, working neat triangles and with clever running off the ball, attempting to pull the Badshot Lea defence about, but finding massed ranks of yellow shirts in the way. On 25 minutes it seemed that they had their breakthrough when Jamie Houghton threaded a wonderful pass into the path of Matt Grave, whose cross shot beat Chris Foster in the Lea goal. Unfortunately his celebrations were cut short by an upraised flag. A minute later Enrico Rossoni shot wide with Foster out of his goal and defenders all over the place. Not long afterwards a Dale Marvell corner kick was met by Houghton, whose shot bobbled goalwards, beat Foster and was only just about cleared off the line by Liam Roberts, for a corner. Marvell pinged in another flag kick, and Aarron Taylor-Ives headed in powerfully from close range. After 38 minutes Marvell belted in a magnificent 25 yard shot, bent around Foster, but was horrified to see the flag raised again; the assistant said he had been offside earlier in the move.
Egham had been playing well enough to merit more than a one goal lead and got what they deserved shortly after the restart. Rossoni had shot wide two minutes in, then another two after scored a goal identical to the one Marvell had had disallowed, but this time without the raised flag, and doubling Egham's advantage. Tom Hedges, scorer of two goals on Tuesday against Croydon, saw a solo run and shot nearly make it 3-0. Badshot Lea had run Guildford close in a midweek League Cup tie, and showed their fighting spirit with the first of Pearson's goals in the 54th minute, Egham not defending properly from a corner. Just past the hour Ken During replaced Dan Hartlebury, who had been tackled pretty heavily by James Mariner in the first period. The score moved to 3-1 with a supremely confident strike from Matt Grave, who picked up a loose ball some 30 yards out and, with team mates screaming for a pass, lashed the ball home from outside the Badshot Lea box. Egham had control again, and kept a firm grip before stretching their lead with another magnificent header by Taylor-Ives from a free kick clipped in by provider-in-chief Marvell. Taylor-Ives, who apparently has a little side interest with Houghton on who will score more, is now in the lead by 7-6, with this first ever double for the Sarnies. The late concession of a well driven shot by Pearson to make it 4-2 was annoying for John Hamsher, who bemoaned sloppiness. He was happy to see that the quest for second place, Guildford being so far ahead (14 points) as to be almost uncatchable, remains on track. Egham sit four points behind Windsor. Three of those came in the 1-4 loss Egham had at Stag Meadow. The return, on Easter Bank Holiday Monday, will be interesting. Guildford City, Windsor, Camberley Town, Hanworth Villa, Horley Town and Molesey are the other sides comprising the top seven, and all won. Egham will hope to be able to include in their line-up some new faces at the Spectrum, including former Kingstonian man Maurice Harkin, who played superbly on Tuesday and scored on his debut.
The results today are: Ash United 0 Camberley Town 3; Chessington & Hook United 1 Guildford City 4; Cove 1 Wembley 1; Banstead Athletic 1 Windsor 3; Horley Town 2 Colliers Wood United 0; Mole Valley SCR 2 Epsom & Ewell 4; Molesey 1 Farnham Town 0; Raynes Park Vale 1 Hanworth Villa 5; Sandhurst Town 1 Croydon 1; South Park 1 Dorking 3.
EGHAM TOWN: Paul Borg, Dan Hartlebury, Jake Galbraith, Lee Pasmore, Aarron Taylor-Ives (captain), Luke Muldowney, Jamie Houghton, Enrico Rossoni, Dale Marvell, Matt Grave, Tom Hedges. Subs: Tom Brunton, Louis Chandler-Joseph (Hedges, 87), Brendan Matthew (Marvell, 87), During (Hartlebury, 61).
Egham finish the month with three games on the road: Guildford City, as mentioned, then Raynes Park Vale (24 March) and Ash United (31 March).