Egham Town 1 Farnham Town 1

COMBINED COUNTIES LEAGUE PREMIER DIVISION
EGHAM TOWN 1 (0) FARNHAM TOWN 1 (0)
Egham Town scorer: Marvell (70)

Egham Town's top scorer Dale Marvell capped a superb season for himself and his club with by sealing a unique double. Egham opened this campaign with a 2-2 draw against newly promoted Farnham Town, the Sarnies, who had led with a Marcus Moody opener, levelled in the second half through Marvell. It escaped everyone's notice until recently that that strike was Egham's 400th in the Combined Counties League Premier Division. Last week Egham took their League tally for the season to a club CCL landmark 101, meaning that just one more would make it 500. Who would get it? Well, with 20 minutes of the season remaining, it was looking as if no-one would.
After a week of horrendous weather that meant that this was just one of four games played in the top CCL division the pitch at the Runnymede Stadium was in remarkably fine fettle, which is tribute to Danny Bennett, the club's general factotum. Egham were generally in command from the off but came up against a resolute defence that blocked and harried throughout the whole match. The Sarnies worked for openings and chances but by the half hour had only tested Arjuna Adlam in the Farnham goal with Jamie Houghton shots in minutes 3 and 28. Marvell, twice and Mo Harkin had tried free kicks but all flew too high. In the final passage of play of the half Egham saw shots from Houghton, Brendan Matthew and Tom Hedges blocked in quick succession.
The pattern pretty much continued from the restart with Houghton forcing a decent save from Adluna before wasting a golden opportunity to clinch goal 500 with an unnecessarily forceful shot from close in, the ball inevitably flying over the bar after a decent five man move. Farnham's Will Neville headed a Marvell shot off the line as the home side continued to press, and eventually that pressure told, Hedges seeing one of a string of attacking runs ended illegally. This time Marvell spotted the ball and swung in a trademark rocket of a free kick into the top left corner. Given that Egham had had the upper hand throughout it was to be expected that, having got the breakthrough, they would go on to win comfortably but the side's Achilles heel has been their defence. Each and every player is more than capable but collectively there is an alarming tendency to switch off, which means that the club have the smallest goal difference in the top six. It happened again, just four minutes after going ahead, as a Farnham attack which seemed to have fizzled out was allowed to continue, and how ludicrous to let a man on his knees at the back post head home – James Pearson was the marksman. Given that Hanworth Villa's game was, to no-one's surprise, called off at Chessington & Hook, and that the Middlesex side already have a GD that is 20 better than Egham's, a win in the rearranged game against a side threatened with the drop will see them nick 3rd place. Of course such concerns would not have arisen had Egham been able to win, but Matt Grave, on for Matthew, shot wide and even the dismissal of Farnham's Cav Ferris for a second yellow after a foul on Houghton, did not see them gain all three points. Enrico Rossoni, who'd replaced Houghton, bruised from Ferris' tackle, could have crossed to Marvell in the middle instead of shooting into the side netting, and in the last attack of the season Grave shot on the turn but Adluna held comfortably.

It has been a fantastic season, even if the final placing is not the third place that has seemed to be the club's destiny in recent weeks. Two seasons ago Steve Baker took the club to 4th but last season the results just failed to come, meaning that he was replaced by John Hamsher. The new boss had a torrid start with another man's squad but this season he, Wayne Noad and Colin Bartholomew have not only forged a side good enough to finish at least in the top four but also, from scratch, masterminded a magnificent season for the first Under 18 squad Egham Town have had in many years. Brendan Matthew, as mentioned before, has been the prime example of how successful this policy has been, scoring regularly for the Youth team while providing magnificent performances, and eight goals, for the first team.
The Under 18s play in one of the divisions of the Surrey Youth League, and would this week almost certainly have secured the first championship to have been won by any Egham side since season 1974-75 (Athenian League Division Two – this scribe's first full season as a fan) were it not for rain affected pitches at Cobham and Molesey. This Thursday they face South Park, from another SYL division, in the final of the League Cup, at Gander Green Lane, the home of Sutton United. The final two league games have yet to be arranged, but one win in either the League Cup or the League would be enough to see the first silverware at the club since Egham Town won the Southern Combination Cup in the mid 70s.