FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION CHALLENGE TROPHY
SECOND ROUND QUALIFYING
SATURDAY 2 NOVEMBER 2013
CARSHALTON ATHLETIC 2 (0) EGHAM TOWN 1 (1)
EGHAM TOWN SCORER: JIM WARD (45 + 1)

Egham Town are out of the FA Trophy, but they left Carshalton Athletic’s War Memorial Ground bitterly disappointed not to have got at least a replay out of this highly entertaining match. Egham Town manager Lee Passmore’s opinion that his side should have won, was shared by the Robins’ hierarchy, who were grateful that the Sarnies had mustered only Jim Ward’s first half injury time goal after 45 minutes of running the home side ragged.
Egham keeper Gary Ross was called into action straight from the kick off when Matthew Reece cut in from the left and fired in a shot that needed to be carefully handled. However, from when Jamie Houghton saw a shot deflected for a corner kick, which led to another and a scramble in the box, Egham realised that the gap between Ryman Premier strugglers and a mid-table Calor One Central side need not be insurmountable. Ryan O’Toole shot wide, and Tommy Hedges, scorer of the midweek County Cup winner against South Park, had a shot steered away by a defender’s boot. Josh Andrew then hammered in a shot that crashed against the far post, Joe Chandiram was marginally off target with a fierce shot and home keeper Dean Snedker made a decent save from Hedges’ cross shot. When Carshalton did attack they found Kyle Anthony more than capable of dealing with Ben Kudjodji’s run towards Ross’ goal. Ten minutes before the break O’Toole did not do quite enough with a fabulous chance from an Andrews’ cross, heading straight at Snedker. Carshalton broke again, capitalising on what could be described as fannying about in midfield, and Ross had to made a good save Kudjodji and Ward flung himself in the way of Reece’s follow up. Finally the Sarnies got the goal they deserved, and it was simplicity itself as Chandiram’s corner kick found Ward unmarked to head in at the near post a minute into injury time.
Robins’ manager Ian Hazel made some changes which livened up the home side and on 61 minutes, once an O’Toole shot had been blocked, the ball was fed to Tommy Bradford, who has apparently had League scouts checking him out. It was not hard to see why with his close control and the way he opened up the defence for a well struck shot that flew past Ross. Egham were not to downcast and Snedker was glad his dodgy handling did not let him down when O’Toole tried another hammer shot from distance. Egham were still the dominant side and Passmore went for even more attacking options when replacing Houghton with Andy Crossley and giving Jacob Lambe a run in place of the outstanding but by now tiring Louis Chandler-Joseph. However, Bradford then sank Egham with another run before touching the ball on to Bobby Price, whose own shot matched Bradford’s earlier effort for pace and accuracy and gave the home side an undeserved lead. The game ended in controversy with a clear 89th minute trip on Chandiram in the box was interpreted by referee Graeme Ions as simulation with the inevitable yellow card. Carshalton, magnanimous enough to nominate Josh Andrew as the Star Player for the Non-League Paper report, were much relieved to have won; Egham know that they should at least be looking forward to another chance on Tuesday. Good performances this week in cup competitions must now be transferred to league competition, but it does not get any easier for Egham as they face another haul up the M1 on Saturday to Burton Latimer to take on the improving, and very well supported, Kettering Town. Egham have slipped to 14th but have games in hand over some of their table neighbours. After Kettering comes another cup game, away to Godalming Town, currently 14th in Calor One S & W, in the Red Insure Cup second round and then at home to Aylesbury United on 16 November.
EGHAM TOWN: Gary Ross, Josh Andrew, Jake Galbraith, Kyle Anthony, Jim Ward, Luke Muldowney, Joe Chandiram, James Houghton, Louis Chandler-Joseph, Ryan O’Toole, Tommy Hedges. Subs: Shane Graham, Jacob Lambe (Chandler-Joseph, 82), Andy Crossley (Houghton, 74), Chris Ellis, Joel Jacobs.