Dorking 0 Egham Town 0

COMBINED COUNTIES LEAGUE PREMIER DIVISION
MONDAY 1 APRIL 13
DORKING 0 EGHAM TOWN 0

Egham don’t do draws this season, this being their first, and generally not goalless draws, at least not very often. Since joining the Combined Counties League in season 2006-7 they have recorded only four such results, and this was the first one away from the Runnymede Stadium. It came just prior to Guernsey winning 6-1 at Windsor, thus stating as clearly as they could that they haven’t given up on a chance of promotion. Against a side on a decent run for four wins out of their last five games, on a predictably bumpy pitch and with a chill wind swirling round Egham had the first defending to do with Paul Borg tipping a shot by Aaron Cole-Bolt over. His save and his punch clear from the ensuing corner triggered the Chicks’ Alex Penfold to come out with some witless comment about “smashing” the keeper. Nice. Fortunately the game did not descend into thuggery; some previous encounters have had that element to them. Egham had Jamie Read and Reis Stanislaus restored as the opening strike pair but even so the visitors found it hard to create openings. There were few chances at either end, to be honest, Alex Seraphim blocking the best that Stanislaus could conjure up seconds before a welcome break.
The pattern continued in part two, with the first decent chance for either side not coming until the 71st minute when a slip by Junior Wright in central defence let in Tommy Harper, whose rising drive needed and got a splendid response from Borg, leaping to turn the ball over the bar. Dorking worked hard to prevent the league leaders room and towards the end it was keeper Kieran Campbell who was chief denier. From a Tom Hedges pass Stanislaus saw one shot blocked and another off Luke Craig’s pass had Campbell diving low to his left to touch the ball away for a corner. He then tipped Hedges’ effort over and with ten minutes left after a series of shots by Hedges, Read and Stanislaus the latter had another go but found Campbell in his way again. Luke Craig blazed a presentable chance over bar from Hedges’ pass on 88 minutes.
Egham will be looking for improvement on Thursday when they go to Cobham FC to play Colliers Wood United before Farnham Town’s visit on Saturday. The third straight clean sheet, and fifth in the last six, at least show that despite juggling the squad, as boss Lee Pasmore has had to do with a crowded schedule, his team is defensively sound.

EGHAM TOWN: Paul Borg, Tim Pitt, Joel Jacobs, Junior Ward, Jim Wright, Luke Muldowney (captain), Luke Craig, Patrick Craig, Reis Stanislaus, Jamie Read, Tom Hedges. Subs: Brendan Matthew (Read, 79), Jacob Lambe (Pitt, 90), Louis Chandler-Joseph, Steve Coultas.