One of the most depressing sights in football, at any level, is the opposition leaping around and “giving it all that” as they celebrate nicking a point from a game they were seemingly destined to lose. That happened last night, as 17th placed Risborough Rangers drew with CCLPN top dogs Egham Town. After seven straight wins a confident Sarnies’ squad should have had more to show for their efforts than a ninth minute goal by Karl Oliyide. The strike, a wonderful cross shot after great approach play by Jordan Brown and Zac Hawker, ought to have been the platform for another three point haul. Soon after taking the lead the home side’s centre forward Louis Fountain’s unpunished elbow into Ben Peden’s head needed a full seven minutes of attention. The Egham defender was patched up, and carried on. That was the second time the game had been held up, Jeremiah Luwero needing three minutes of attention by Rangers’ physio. Oliyide and Brown continued to stretch the home back line, and the lead should have been doubled two minutes into injury time. Samad Kazi and Brown linked to set Tyrique Tekasala through on goal, but the lively midfielder used the wrong part of his right foot and dragged the ball wide of an open invitation to score his first for Egham. It was important. As the 54th minute of the first period Luke Heneghan was sin-binned for something he said, which meant the Sarnies restarting with only ten men. It took twelve minutes for him to be playing again – the referee is the sole guardian of time. By that time Oliyide had been found for a one-on-one with keeper David Saunders, but missed his chance to increase the lead. That was important. A foul on Kyle Walker was followed by Harker’s free kick landing on the top of the net. Fountain got away with another rash challenge as he poleaxed Watson, referee Emanuel Adeeko adding another reason for not getting a Christmas card from Egham Town to an as yet unfinished list. A case in point came when Harlem Hale, back from injury and the replacement for Oliyide, was sent crashing down in the box, but play was waved on. That was very important. To be fair, Rangers were by now getting some kind of grip on the game. Four draws and one win in their last five games meant they were not short of confidence; before the denied spot-kick incident sub George Caille hitting Tyler Tobin’s bar with an audacious shot from distance. Hale then tested Saunders with an angled drive, Saunders tipping the ball over the bar. A minute into injury time Brown received Hale’s pass but was blocked by a well-timed challenge. Four minutes into injury time Sauders went up front for a corner, which came to nothing, but Rangers won another flag kick, a shot was saved by Tobin and then Fountain, who was lucky still to be on the pitch, scored the leveller. Watson was not impressed, said so to the assistant referee and was sent off. His anger was understandable, not only after the foul by Fountain but also not awarding a clear cut penalty.
After the match the Egham fans were sanguine about the result, a combination of rueing missed chances and criticism of the officiating. Egham are still top, and North Greenford United will have to win by a twelve goal margin at home to Berks County on Saturday to overtake them. Egham have no game on Saturday. On Tuesday Amersham Town drew 2-2 with Ardley United, a scoreline repeated tonight (Weds) as Burnham entertained Virginia Water.

Egham Town: Tyler Tobin (C), Alex Nolan, Kyle Watson,
Samad Kazi, Ben Peden, Marley Anderson-Richards, Zac Hawker, Tyrique Tekasala, Luke Heneghan, Jordan Brown, Karl Oliyide. Substitutes: Kyle Brooks, Ayoub Igozouln, Harlem Hale, Joshua Williams, Ronan Hutchins.
57’ Harlem Hale replaced Karl Oliyide
63’ Ronan Hutchins replaced Luke Heneghan