Egham T 1 St. Ives T 2

CALOR ONE CENTRAL - SAT 30.11.13 - EGHAM TOWN 1 ST IVES TOWN 2 HT 1-0 SCORER - REIS STANISLAUS (31)

By Mark Ferguson

So there I was, sat in the back of the stand, typing out something like 120 words for the Non-League Paper match report, when Lee Passmore came out of the home dressing room. He looked towards me and said “Same old story, eh Fergy?” “When are we going to start taking our chances?”, I asked. “When are we going to stop conceding shit goals?”, he wondered in return. Both points were valid. Once more, playing against a decidedly average side, Egham managed to make a pig’s ear of it. Now nine league games have been lost and you don’t get to feature in the play-offs with nine defeats before December. The first two, against Royston Town and Beaconsfield SYCOB, can be written off as new-boy nerves, and the losses against Daventry Town and Dunstable Town as against very good sides. It’s the last five that ask questions. Against Barton Rovers we were just awful against a terrible side who could not believe their luck. Kettering told pretty much the same story. Aylesbury United saw us equalise then throw it away with some appalling defending. On Tuesday, against a decent Northwood side, we at least gave ourselves a chance with a 2-0 lead, let them in with a goal just before the break, had a chance to go 3-2 up and missed it and then collapsed. Today’s game saw us take a lead in the 31st minute, concede a horrible leveller, and fail to cope with a free kick. There was then a late flurry, and my point came into play.
On Tuesday Egham entertain the Rugby Town side who beat the Northwood side who beat Egham by the same 4-2 scoreline. 4-8 anyone? In came Portuguese player Luis Medina, taking his bow on loan from Farnborough Town, and, on the bench, Ashley Quashie, from Hampton & Richmond Borough. Medina showed some nice touches, good speed and signs of some understanding with forwards Reis Stanislaus and Ryan O’Toole. It was Stanislaus who broke the deadlock after 30 minutes in which Egham were much the better side, a Mo Harkin corner finding O’Toole, who got a shot in, and Stanislaus stretched for the final touch to get the ball past Barney McLaughlin in the Saints’ goal.
Facing a side with just 19 goals in 15 games all the Sarnies needed to do was keep at bay visitors who had not mustered a shot on target in the first 45 minutes. In fact the Sarnies should have gone 2-0 three minutes into the second period. McLaughlin was casual with a pass up the field, Stanislaus latched onto it and raced to the byline and managed to pull the ball back for Medina, whose shot was blocked on the line. The equaliser came about in almost farcical fashion. Referee Daniel Berry, having earlier booked home skipper Arran Taylor-Ives, waved a second yellow and the subsequent red, identifying him as the Egham player having a contretemps with a Saints player. Thing is, it was Jim Ward who was the culprit, and it was mainly the persuasiveness of the assistant referee that stopped the home skipper taking a walk. Egham then lost concentration. The subsequent free kick was fired in, keeper Gary Ross miscued his punch when he could have caught the ball and Karl Gibbs could not miss. After 73 minutes Saints took the lead, Will Fordham smashing an angled free kick into the far side of the net, but why was there no-one guarding that post? Marcus Moody did his best to lead a fightback as he chased down the ball in the St. Ives area but like every Egham affiliated person in the ground could only watch with horror as Stanislaus blazed the ball over an open goal from inside the six yard box. Perhaps to share the blame O’Toole did just the same three minutes later from Stanislaus’ pass. With five minutes left O’Toole ended a fine run with a thumping shot that McLaughlin parried, a chance swiftly followed by Quashie’s astute pass for Harkin, whose diving header was beaten away by the keeper. When Harkin set up O’Toole for a shot driven wide with a minute of regulation time left the Egham faithful resigned themselves to the loss of another three points that has the Runnymede Stadium side still in 17th place in Calor One Central.
After 17 games Egham have won five, all comfortably, and all against sides currently in the bottom half of the table. Egham are good enough to be doing a whole lot better than being flat track bullies against the sides around them, but at least it helps the goal difference; the Sarnies are the lowest placed side with a positive goal difference. We should not, though, be constantly looking firstly for the Ashford Town (Mx.) and Chertsey Town results, on the basis that if we finish above them we won’t go down. (As it happens both did lose, and both are stuck on just six points. Both, though, have new management, which tends to lead to an improvement in results.) Tuesday, though, has Egham facing another stiff test – Rugby Town are second. As for those missed open goals, Ryan and Reis, the highly paid former Juventus player Emanuele Giaccherini, now of Sunder land, missed an open goal from one yard today.
EGHAM TOWN: Gary Ross, Josh Andrew, Jake Galbraith, Arran Taylor-Ives, Jim Ward, Mo Harkin, Jacob Lambe, Marcus Moody, Reis Stanislaus, Ryan O’Toole, Luis Medina. Subs: Joe Chandiram, Brendan Matthew, Andy Crossley, Ashley Quashie (Medina, 70).