Egham Town FC
Runnymede Stadium
Wards Place
Egham
Surrey
TW20 8XD
Ground: 73
Date: Saturday 23rd February 2019
Egham Town 0-2 Molesey
Isthmian League Division 1 South Central
Attendance: 61 (official)
Egham Town FC - History
The current incarnation of the club was founded in 1963 and joined the Parthenon League for their first full season (the 1964/65 season), before joining the Surrey Senior League for the following season. After two seasons in this league, the club transferred to the Spartan League, winning the title in the 1971/72 season. This was not enough for promotion, but a 3rd-place finish two seasons later was, and the club moved up to Division 2 of the Athenian League.
The club won Division 2 in their first season to earn promotion to Division 1 and in their first season at that level (the 1975/76 season), the club finished as runners-up. After a 9th-place finish the following season, the club joined Division 2 of the Isthmian League for the 1977/78 season, finishing strongly in 5th in their first season. After this, they had several bottom-half finishes before being placed in Division 2 South for the 1984/85 season due to restructuring.
The club mostly finished 10th or lower in Division 2 South, but in the 1990/91 season they finished 3rd. The following season, Division 2 returned to a single league and, after initially finishing 6th after this, the club started to drop lower down the table. Eventually, they finished second-from-bottom in the 1997/98 season and were relegated to Division 3.
The club remained in Division 3 for four seasons before restructuring at the start of the 2002/03 season saw the club placed in Division 1 South. The club remained in this league for two seasons before being transferred to the Southern League's Western Division for the 2004/05 season, finishing rock-bottom to return to Division 2 of the Isthmian League. Despite a 5th-place finish in Division 2, the club dropped down to the Premier Division of the Combined Counties League for the 2006/07 season.
The club had a series of inconsistent finishes in the Combined Counties League Premier Division for the next six seasons (finishing as low as 13th but as high as 4th), before winning the title in the 2012/13 season to earn promotion to Division 1 Central of the Southern League. The club finished 3rd in this league in the 2015/16 season to qualify for the play-offs, but they lost to St. Ives Town on penalties in the semi-finals. The following season, a 5th-place finish saw the club enter the play-offs again, but this time they lost to Farnborough in the semi-finals. After restructuring, the club were then transferred to Division 1 South Central of the Isthmian League for the 2018/19 season.
In the FA Cup, the club have progressed as far as the 4th Qualifying Round twice, most recently in the 2016/17 season: they beat Bracknell Town, Arundel, VCD Athletic and Faversham Town before losing to St Albans City. In the FA Trophy, the club have appeared in the 1st Round once, when they entered at that stage in the 2002/03 season and lost to Oxford City. As for the FA Vase, the club's best run saw them reach the 4th Round in the 1984/85 season, beating Arundel, Slade Green, Burnham and Leyton Wingate before losing to Sudbury Town.
My Visit
As I talked about in my previous couple of blog entries, my original plan for yesterday had been to head into London to visit Clapton and take advantage of their free admission offer. However, earlier this week I had to reassess the financial viability of that, as well as whether I was truly interested in the match itself. My conclusion was that I couldn't really justify it financially and that I wasn't really interested, so I started looking at other options.
However, as I had already planned all my groundhops through to the end of March (other than this one and the 9th, the latter of which I'm still undecided on), any decision I made would have to be within that context. To clarify, I was looking at a Step 7 game between Kintbury Rangers and Shrewton United, but with plans to watch Step 7 games next Saturday and on the 16th, I was a little wary of doing three of them in four weeks. I also wasn't overly keen on doing one of my eight remaining sub-£5 train options, as I want to save six of them for next season if possible.
So, with all of that on my mind, it took me a while to make my final decision. By Thursday evening, I had decided that I was going to head to Kintbury Rangers, only to then check their Twitter again and see that the match had been moved to Friday night, scuppering that plan. It was then between this, Chessington & Hook United and Frimley Green going into Friday morning. I ruled out Chessington fairly quickly due to being unable to find definitive pricing information online, and after thinking about it on my food shop I ruled Frimley Green out due to it being one of those eight sub-£5 options.
As such, I concluded that this would be my destination, despite my misgivings about it being a basement battle and the quality I could expect as a result. I then ordered my train ticket early on Saturday morning (having been woken up earlier than I would have liked by people coming in to the house to fix the conservatory ceiling, with the conservatory being just outside my bedroom) and headed out at around 12:20pm.
My train then left Guildford at 12:45pm and, after changing at Wokingham, I arrived at Egham station at around 1:55pm. From there, it was roughly a 20-minute walk to the ground, and upon arrival I paid £9 for admission. I then did my usual circuit of photos (despite the glare of the sun being a hindrance at times) before taking a seat in the main stand to wait for kick-off.
Going into this match, I knew perfectly well that Egham and Molesey were the league's bottom two, but I admittedly didn't realise how much they were both struggling. As such, I was expecting a very scrappy game, while holding out hope that this would be a classic despite the two teams' struggles (like when I visited Ascot United last season for their basement battle with Fairford Town).
Here's my report on a match that wasn't as poor as I expected, but was certainly very scrappy throughout:
This Step 4 basement battle got off to a decent enough start with an early goal for Molesey: after 4 minutes, they played a low corner into the box that the Egham defence inexplicably failed to clear, and eventually the ball bounced across the box to Marley Hamilton for an easy tap-in at the far post. After this quick start, the game soon slowed down and became a scrappy battle, with neither team really having enough quality to do anything. However, Molesey were looking the better of the two sides (at the very least they looked far more up for the fight than Egham did) and were probing forwards with greater effectiveness than the home side.
Even so, it wasn't until the 23rd minute that they were able to carve out another clear-cut chance when Ashley Lodge tried a shot from just outside the box, only for the ball to just whistle over the bar. Egham created their first good chance five minutes later, with a close range shot that Molesey keeper Alex Kozakis saved well, with Samir Bajja attempting to follow up on the rebound but completely scuffing his shot. The Egham manager's frustration with his team's half-hearted performance had been clearly audible all half, so it wasn't too surprising when he tried to change things up with a substitution after just 33 minutes, with Ibrahim Kahinde making way for Joseph Adoo-Peters. Despite this change, the pattern of play didn't change much before half-time, with a few more chances coming Molesey's way as they attempted to extend their lead and little falling in Egham's favour. 0-1 at half-time.
The second half continued where the first half left off, but until the hour mark almost nothing of note happened, as both teams continued to struggle to carve out any chances or even make the ball stick. Egham were looking better than in the first half (and looked a lot more up for it too), but without any goals it meant little, especially when Molesey doubled their lead in the 62nd minute: Hamilton was played behind the Egham defence and rode a rough challenge before placing a low shot past Egham keeper Joshua Bradwell. Egham reacted to this with a double substitution and almost pulled one back moments later: a direct free kick from the edge of the box bounced off the crossbar and back into play before Molesey eventually cleared.
After this, the momentum really shifted in Egham's favour as they tried to force themselves back into the game; they still had difficulties carving out many chances (which was partially caused by Brandon McCarthy getting flagged offside on several of their best attacks), but they were pressing much higher and restricting Molesey to the occasional counter-attack. In the 89th minute, Egham thought they had deservedly pulled one back through McCarthy, but he was quickly flagged offside again: a free kick was played low into the box and McCarthy was there to tap in at the far post, but he had strayed offside in the process. After this scare, Molesey opted to run the clock down and took the ball to the corner flag, stifling the game and earning the win.
On the whole, this game was more or less precisely what I expected: competitive, but very scrappy and desperately low on quality at times, especially in the final third. Both teams fought hard, but it's easy to see why both clubs find themselves in the relegation zone. Still, this was far from the worst game I've watched this season (or even this month, for that matter).
All things considered, this was a decent enough groundhop, mostly because of the excellent ground but also because the football was an improvement on last week, even if it still wasn't a classic. As with last season, this means that February again wasn't a very good month for me in terms of matches and goals, but thanks to how the month started it was at least better this year than last.
There was little
worth noting about the journey back, with me ultimately getting back
into the house at around 7pm. However, the day ended in frustrating
fashion after this as I accidentally broke my SD Card (or, more
specifically, the little clip that allows it to be unlocked). Luckily, I
was able to get these photos off of it, but I couldn't do anything else
with it so I had to order a new one. Hopefully that will arrive before
next Saturday, otherwise I'll only have my phone to work with.
Up next, if the weather continues to be as nice as it has been the last few days, will be a visit to Worcester Park for their Surrey Elite Intermediate League Challenge Cup Quarter Final tie against Staines Lammas. I've heard lots of good things about the ground and the food that the club offer, so I'm looking forward to it.
The Ground
Runnymede Stadium is an excellent old-school ground that just oozes with character. Unlike the vast majority at this level, it has cover on all four sides. On the near side is the main stand, which contains roughly 250 seats with mostly decent views (though there are support pillars that I assume get in the way if you were to sit higher up). Next to this is the tea bar and toilets.
Behind the far goal is another area of cover, which has a couple of steps of terracing and some seating in the form of a few chairs scattered about. Next to this is some strange small wooden structure, the purpose of which is unclear. Behind the near goal is some more covered terracing, but in this case the cover extends almost the full length behind the goal (the only reason it doesn't is because of the main turnstiles in the corner closest to the main stand).
The far side has three areas of covered standing virtually connected together, providing cover almost along the full length of the pitch on that side. Other than this, the rest of the ground is open hard standing, though some of this also has a step of terracing. The ground's overall capacity is 5,500, with a record attendance of 1,400 for an FA Cup game against Wycombe Wanderers in the 1972/73 season.
I've seen pictures elsewhere showing that the ground used to be painted in yellow and green rather than the current red and white colour scheme and, while I'm obviously heavily biased here as a Norwich City fan, it definitely looked much nicer like that. Still, the red and white colour scheme does work well and makes the place feel much more homely.
Photos
Up next, if the weather continues to be as nice as it has been the last few days, will be a visit to Worcester Park for their Surrey Elite Intermediate League Challenge Cup Quarter Final tie against Staines Lammas. I've heard lots of good things about the ground and the food that the club offer, so I'm looking forward to it.
The Ground
Runnymede Stadium is an excellent old-school ground that just oozes with character. Unlike the vast majority at this level, it has cover on all four sides. On the near side is the main stand, which contains roughly 250 seats with mostly decent views (though there are support pillars that I assume get in the way if you were to sit higher up). Next to this is the tea bar and toilets.
Behind the far goal is another area of cover, which has a couple of steps of terracing and some seating in the form of a few chairs scattered about. Next to this is some strange small wooden structure, the purpose of which is unclear. Behind the near goal is some more covered terracing, but in this case the cover extends almost the full length behind the goal (the only reason it doesn't is because of the main turnstiles in the corner closest to the main stand).
The far side has three areas of covered standing virtually connected together, providing cover almost along the full length of the pitch on that side. Other than this, the rest of the ground is open hard standing, though some of this also has a step of terracing. The ground's overall capacity is 5,500, with a record attendance of 1,400 for an FA Cup game against Wycombe Wanderers in the 1972/73 season.
I've seen pictures elsewhere showing that the ground used to be painted in yellow and green rather than the current red and white colour scheme and, while I'm obviously heavily biased here as a Norwich City fan, it definitely looked much nicer like that. Still, the red and white colour scheme does work well and makes the place feel much more homely.
Photos
