Sandwiches

Egham Town  1  Chalfont St Peter  1

Isthmian League – First Division South Central

The mission continues, to work my way through the Step 1-4 stadia of England, but with a scientific methodology behind it.

I was trying to explain it to Ian Townsend, the Isthmian League webmaster / social media guy in the bar before the game after we’d made contact with each other via Twitter. Ian asked me why Egham, I said because it’s 141 miles from home, and therefore the nearest ground I’ve not visited. Simple logic you see, but it might start getting a bit tricky in 84 grounds time when Guernsey is on the radar!

But for now, Google Maps is sending me very much in the vicinity of West and South West London, with Bedfont Sports, Hanwell Town and Staines Town all on the agenda over the next few weeks.

First of all though, I need to say a big thank you to Ian, he featured me and my blog in his report for the game. A great bloke who does so much work to raise the leagues profile, and, unlike many other official channels, he’s more than happy to promote others work if it’s positive about the league and it’s clubs.

So, Egham Town Football Club, what’s the story?

Nicknamed the Sarnies (get it?), they were a Surrey Senior and Spartan League side from the late Sixties through to the early Seventies, where after they moved into the Athenian League and then the Isthmian League in 1977.

Other than a one season spell in 2004-05, they remained part of the Isthmian family until 2006 when they chose to take voluntary demotion to the Combined Counties League. Seven seasons followed before the Championship was won in 2012-13, but this time due to restructuring of the pyramid, they found themselves in the Southern League.

Promotion through the Play-Off’s was missed out on twice when St Ives Town and Farnborough were the victors, but then at the start of the current campaign they moved back home again to the Isthmian League. This season has been a struggle to be honest, sat bottom of the table, they look to be in a battle with South Park and Molesey to stay up.

Egham is an easy place to get to, nestled right alongside the M25, adjacent to Staines, while the ground is just off of Pooley Green Road. I know Pooley Green Road from my university days, you see when I was at Keele I was friends with a girl called Nadine Morris, and she lived on the road. As often happens, we exchanged Christmas cards for a couple of years after leaving university, but then lost touch.

The Runnymede Stadium is straight from the late Seventies, a glorious football ground with six areas of cover. The main stand and dressing rooms sit on one side, while behind both goals are areas of covered terracing. Opposite the main stand, the length of the pitch is taken up by three structures that all provide covered accommodation. The clubhouse sits outside the ground in the large car park, and with Fosters at £2.70, what’s not to like?

An amusing exchange took place in the clubhouse before the game. The lady serving me asked the score from the West Ham v Arsenal game, I told her that West Ham had won, all excited she said.

“My husband is a massive West Ham fan, he’ll be so happy, in fact now they’ve won I’ll be getting one tonight….”

I was somewhat speechless, and her colleague behind the bar was equally lost for words. Anyway, an explanation quickly followed.

“A kebab, he always buys me a kebab on a Saturday when West Ham win….”

That explains that then!

So what about the game?

Chalfont, who sat in mid-table, had a lot of possession but lacked a cutting edge in the first half. However they did manage to take the lead just before the interval when Rhys Rabess appeared to be pushed in the box as he chased down a ball that in all fairness was probably going to run out of play.

A penalty was awarded after consultation with the linesman and up stepped Adam Morris to score from the spot. To be fair, up until that point the Saints had not mustered anything in terms of a threat in attack, so they could count themselves somewhat fortunate.

The Sarnies went in search of an equaliser in the second period, but had to wait until the closing stages when Brandon McCarthy raced in on goal and accurately placed the ball past the advancing goalkeeper from the edge of the penalty area.

There was still time for Egham to find the net in injury time, McCarthy again, but the linesman’s flag thwarted his celebrations.

So that was Egham, a really smashing club, friendly folk and the sort of ground that you don’t see too many of these days. I do hope they stay up, under new management team of Dickson Gill and Mick Sullivan (the third incumbents this season already), performances, I was told, have improved, they just need the results to start to materialise.

I'm more of a cheese and ham man myself though.......