Egham Town further strengthened their claim for the CCL Premier North title with this hard fought win against Virginia Water. Having won both their games in hand, after Tuesday’s game against Edgware & Kingsbury, the Sarnies are now six points clear of rivals Amersham Town, with a goal difference 31 better.. The Buckinghamshire side play their last three games in April: at Hilltop (5th), then at home to Bedfont Sports and Edgware & Kingsbury (19th). Egham go to British Airways on Tuesday night. The final home game will be on Saturday 12 April, against play-off hopefuls North Greenford United and at Bedfont Sports (19th). What all this means is that a successful trip to Spelthorne Sports this week should all but see Egham as champions, but B.A., on the fringe of the relegation zone, could be tricky.
Waters, despatched 4-1 by the Sarnies at Arbour Park, their Slough Town home, had lost three on the spin before beating British Airways. They were, and still are, in 8th place, not quite close enough for an end of season extension, but determined yesterday to be as awkward as they could. Having already shown how quick they were at closing down, they took the lead in the 9th minute when Sam Brittain’s shot found its way past Tyler Tobin off a deflection or two. Around twenty minute later, fans of the visitors were baying for some punishment for Tobin as he closed down the speedy Jehovany Kinzonzi, claiming the keeper had handled the ball outside the box when he had used his stomach to divert the ball away before clearing.
Waters’ front players could certainly shift, which planted doubt in home minds, but so can Reece Mitchell. In the 43rd minute he raced into the box, where goalscorer Brittain upended him. Referee Jo Alborough awarded the penalty that took Harlem Hale’s tally to 27 for the season.
The equaliser at least reset the game. Egham have faced, and beaten, sides who go off like a train and then fade, and, given their recent results against sides at the wrong end of the table, surely Waters had not played this well in those games? They were certainly not quite as dangerous after the break, and Egham had the majority of possession. The breakthrough came in splendid style. This season Luke Heneghan and Zac Hawker have delivered stunningly accurate free kicks. This time, Hawker, who had had a couple of sighters earlier, made a dummy run and Billy Adcock opened his scoring account with a brilliant kick that found the top left corner of Pedro Peluso Barreto’s net. Ten minutes from time the points-sealing third originated from a Callum Webb corner kick. Up rose skipper Reece Yorke, who headed back across goal, hitting the post. Webb quickly pounced on the loose ball, passed to Ben Peden and the defender’s low, hard and accurate shot earnt him his personal best total of 12 in a campaign. That gave Egham their tenth “double” of the season. Waters were not done, though. After a flurry of substitutions for Jordan Berry’s men, Dominic Walmsley won a tackle with Kyle Watson, moved on another 20 yards and let fly, the ball whistling past Tobin and into the Jungle End goal’s top left corner.
Even though it meant little, the final goal seemed to be fitting end to a very good match, played in good spirit and well refereed. The 224 strong crowd included the parents of the Egham Swans, newly joined to the senior side, and mascots for the day. Also there were volunteers from White Lodge, Egham Town’s adopted charity, selling gifts to raise funds for their essential work.
Tyler Tobin, Callum Webb, Kyle Watson, Reece Yorke (C), Ben Peden, Zac Hawker, Billy Adcock, Tyrique Tekasala, Reece Mitchell, Connor Cullen, Hale. Substitutes: Samad Kazi, Ayoub Igozouln, Excellence Muhemba, Marley Anderson-Richards, Jordan Brown.
78 'Jordan Brown replaced Connor Cullen, 85' Excellence Muhemba replaced Harlem Hale, 87' Ayoub Igozouln replaced Reece Mitchell, 88' Marley Anderson-Richards replaced Zac Hawker, 90+2' Samad Kazi replaced Kyle Watson.