Chessington & Hook vs Egham Town

Having won three league games on the bounce for the second time this year this was an opportunity to go one better. Knowing as we do now the scores from the other games the fact that we lost and denied ourselves second place in the league makes it all the more frustrating.

I’m sure the message goes out to start fast and to concentrate but the failings to understand the importance of this hurt us three times in this match alone.

After just two minutes a misplaced pass by Cheadle handed possession to Egham, and from the resulting move they forced the first corner of the game. A well worked routine saw a scrambled attempt from our own defence to deal with it and the referee had no hesitation in awarding a penalty as the goal bound shot struck Darren Smith’s hand. This was duly converted. With the initiative of our opponents we struggled to get a foothold in the game and it wasn’t until twenty-five minutes in, that we put our first real meaningful passage of play together.

Just after the half hour however we were level. A short corner from Shane Graham picked out Andy Weir whose low cross come shot was steered home by Malik Buari.
For ten minutes we were unstoppable as the game swung dramatically in our favour. With half time approaching the team appeared to become over anxious to take the lead having no regard for their defensive responsibilities. It was no surprise therefore when we found ourselves defending two on two, failing to cope, and letting in another goal on the stroke of half time.

The second period saw us re group and to steadily get a grip on the game for the second time. It did appear to be just a matter of time before we equalised and this arrived courteously of a brilliant free kick by Andy Weir following a foul on Reece Jackson. With twenty minutes remaining the hope was that we could push on to claim another three points and the introduction of Scott Todd for the last fifteen showed the intent. But as stoppage time approached and with a free kick awarded to us, the team failed to take notice of the manager’s instructions that he was able to relay during treatment on Andy Weir. Clear directive was given to make sure we weren’t over ambitious or at least sufficiently organised at the back should the free kick be cleared.

A harsh lesson learned as from Eghams central defensive clearance, the ball in three touches and less than twenty seconds was in the back of our net to deny us even a point which incidentally would have been enough to secure joint second in the table.