TRURO CITY 3 EGHAM TOWN 0

F.A.TROPHY FIRST ROUND QUALIFYING
SATURDAY 1 NOVEMBER 2014
TRURO CITY 3 (2) EGHAM TOWN 0 (0)
Scorers: Craig Duff 2 (6 (pen), 69), Ryan Brett (24)
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Egham Town’s singular history in this competition continued with this long-distance loss at Evo-Stik Premier Truro City on Saturday. The Sarnies have played eight ties in the Trophy, winning three at home and losing every one of their five away games. To be honest, this was the toughest assignment yet, a 550 mile round trip to a side sitting in 6th place a division higher.
The length of the journey was always going to rule out one or two players, left back Jake Galbraith one such, and skipper Ryan Lake was also unable to make the trip. George Gould, the custodial hero of the win at Uxbridge, paid for his excellent display with a leg injury so was unable to climb aboard the coach that left Runnymede Stadium at 08.30.

Lee Morley had a day to forget. En route to the game the coach stopped at a motorway service station and he lost his card in a cash machine. Six minutes into the game his was the hand that touched the ball in the Egham area, allowing Craig Duff to score from the spot. Morley was also booked. In the 32nd minute he had a goalbound header cleared off the line by Arran Pugh, with whom he later had the collision that forced his departure at half-time, taking a blow to the bridge of his nose.
Under very overcast skies that threatened but did not deliver a downpour (thankfully, as most of the seating at Treyew Road is reminiscent of that more usually seen at golf tournaments – roofless) the standard of football on offer was not great from either side. Equally thankfully the White Tigers were not ruthless. Truro, tough tackling and very well organised, were on the front foot for the majority of the game and, as Rhod Mitchell, their correspondent for the NLP sportingly acknowledged, “proved far too strong for their Surrey visitors, who had to thank their outstanding keeper Jamie Norris for keeping the final scoreline respectable.” He even gave the Man of the Match to the Egham keeper, which was a nice touch. Norris saved from Matt Wright, diving low to his right, shortly after Truro had taken the lead, then Morley saw his header beat home keeper Kyle Moore but not Pugh. Norris saved off a Hayles shot before Ryan Brett nodded in the second. Norris then performed miracles to deny Hayles again, and then, despite a tricky deflection off an Egham boot, prevented Ed Palmer’s drive giving the home side an even bigger half time lead.
Daniel Williamson replaced Morley at half time. As in the first half the home side had the lion’s (or tiger’s) share of possession. Egham tried to break free but with Truro’s back four able to contain strikers Dan Read and Reis Stanislaus chances of getting back into contention were slim. Josh Andrew was forced to clear off the line to prevent Palmer scoring after a corner had not been dealt with and Hayles was once more denied by the excellence of Norris before the third goal went in. Sarnies’ player-manager Luke Muldowney made a brave intervention to stop the marauding Rob Farkins after 62 minutes but seven minutes later Shane White slipped a square pass to Duff and the Truro No. 11 fired into the bottom left corner of the Egham net. Mo Harkin gave way to Brendan Matthew, who had the ball in the net with a sumptuous strike that found the far corner with three minutes left, but a raised flag denied the Sarnies and their small band of travelling support even a consolation goal. At the death a combination of Norris and Dwayne Antonio prevented Dan Green adding to the scoreline.

http://www.eghamtownfcltd.co.uk/s/match-centre-39549/0-2725861