SLOUGH TOWN 1 EGHAM TOWN 3

CALOR LEAGUE DIVISION ONE CENTRAL
TUESDAY 4 MARCH 2014
SLOUGH TOWN 1 (0) EGHAM TOWN 3 (0)
Egham Town scorers: Calvin Thomas (51), Marcus Moody 2 (58, 90+ 5)

Egham Town travelled to Beaconsfield SYCOB FC to play homeless Slough Town on the back of five consecutive victories, four in the League and one in the Surrey Senior Cup. Showing a defensive solidity that accounted for five straight clean sheets in that run they faced a Rebels side sitting in third place and carried where they had left off with their excellent win at Northwood.
The Sarnies had no intention of letting the home side settle into any form of early pattern, with Reis Stanislaus testing home keeper Jake Somerville in the second minute. In fact the first half saw several shots just wide (Joe Chandiram, twice) or dealt with by the keeper (Ryan O’Toole and Calvin Thomas). Slough, though, were always dangerous, given that in Eddie Smith they have one of the most potent marksmen in the division, but when he finally found room to have a shot in the 23rd minute Egham keeper Jamie Norris, whom the Sarnie supporters have now nicknamed “Nobby”, was able to stretch to turn the ball over the bar.
Barely a minute into the second half Egham suffered the loss of their top goalscorers, Ryan O’Toole (who, with Chandiram and defender Ryan Lake, used to be Rebel-lious) after he took a knock in the back. His replacement Andy Crossley is not at all a like-for-like player, but it was from his determination that Egham won the 51st minute corner kick that Slough failed to clear, with Thomas taking advantage with a screaming drive that pinged in off Somerville’s left post and in for a deserved lead. On 58 minutes it was 2-0, Egham breaking well and ending a slick move with a lovely pull back from Andrew for Marcus Moody (pictured, in his Kingstonian days) to batter the ball into the top left corner from the crown of the “D”. A minute later Egham could have buried Slough when Crossley, found by Stanislaus, delayed a chance for a shot with only Somerville to beat, got the ball under marginally better control and chipped it over the keeper and onto the crossbar. Slough came back, pushing to get something from a game that had looked likely to run away from them, and only some heroic battling by every single man in a red shirt stopped the home side, roared on by the vast majority of a 254 strong crowd, getting shots in on Norris. That made the goal Egham did concede all the more disappointing. With 73 minutes played a long hoof upfield found lanky sub Adam Cornell. He was given time and room to trap, turn and shoot, the ball flying into the dead centre of the goal, which, surely, must raise questions all round. Slough pushed on, the home crowd got more vociferous (and stupid, shouting “Off! Off! Off!) for every perceived Sarnie misdemeanour and flipped a collective lid when former Egham Town skipper and present day Rebel defensive kingpin Adam Foulser went down under a challenge and ended up being taken off the pitch. By this time the home management had used their three subs but it did not give Egham any succour as they still had to defend with everything they had until, five minutes into injury time, Moody received a Jake Galbraith throw in, made room for his shot and steered an excellent shot into the bottom right corner of Somerville’s net. The Rebel fans then covered themselves in glory as they chanted “Cheat” at referee Reuben Simon at the final whistle. The win lifted Egham up to tenth place. There is a big gap to fill between tenth and ninth, where Kettering Town sit, with 50 points to Egham’s 41, and with three games in hand. Egham go into the final third of this first season in the Calor League on a fine run of form which will be fully tested on the road again as they travel to Aylesbury United (who play at Leighton Town FC) and, on Tuesday, to Royston Town where a few weeks ago they were leading 2-1 before an injury to a home player saw the game abandoned with fifteen minutes to play.

1. Jamie Norris 2. Luke Muldowney 3. Jake Galbraith 4. Richard Byrne 5. Ryan Lake 6. Joe Chandiram 7. Josh Andrew 8. Marcus Moody 9. Reis Stanislaus 10. Ryan O'Toole 11. Calvin Thomas 12. Andy Crossley (10/46 minutes) 14. Mo Harkin 15. Jim Ward 16. Brendan Matthew 17. Arran Taylor-Ives.