Goals: Pomroy 27

MATCH REPORT

With so much possession and attacking play in their game, the Chertsey Town contingent might have come away from this league encounter wondering how three solid worked for points were not feeling comfortable under their belt. Wondering, except that the answer was more than slightly more than obvious. All players suffer from a loss of performance and form but when that player is a goalkeeper, the consequences can be catastrophic.

That was the case on Saturday with Josh Lennie suffering from a 75 minute nightmare whilst his opposite number wallowed in a 90 minute dream. Asen Agov was by far the busier of the two sentinels but he dealt efficiently with almost all that came his way whilst Lennie's afternoon cooled in unison with the setting sun and looming frosty late afternoon. He may have been given better cover when conceding the first Sandhurst goal on 15 minutes but nevertheless looked tardy in meeting a diagonal ball that Pete Mulvaney connected with, then slotted home for a most unlikely home lead.

The second saw a ball looped high in the air by Gary Stokes almost 40 yards out and return to planet earth almost vertically, but inch perfect, behind Lennie's flailing arms. The third was even more bizarre when a harmless looking ball was fumbled twice before being knocked against Luke Muldowney for it to skid into his own net. It was ironic that he should have got the last touch in that particular goal because, the same player had unleashed just about the best strike of the season 50 minutes earlier at the same structure but was thwarted by the agile Agov.

The early stages of the game generated a tremendous start for Chertsey who completely outplayed the host side. As well as the Muldowney strike, Steve Gibson volleyed a shot just 12 inches wide, then, a rattled Sandhurst defender seriously over did a back pass 15 yards out that beat his own goalkeeper. But luck was on his side as the ball thudded against the post but went straight to the grateful Agov.

It seemed inconceivable that anything other than a runaway Chertsey victory was likely, so when the first goal was conceded in the 15th minute on a break away, no great concern was felt. Indeed, a deserved equaliser, coming on 27 minutes made it seem that the situation had been righted and there was little to stop the Chertsey juggernaut resuming its journey. The goal came from a ball knocked in sideways to John Pomroy who then teased a path into the centre to steer it into the net from 12 yards off the despairing fingertips of Agov.

A Muldowney header was tipped over the bar as Chertsey continued to press forward, but the expected lead did not materialise and it seemed that it would be evens in the scoring stakes by half time when, with two minutes remaining the successfully lobbed projectile put Sandhurst back into the lead.

Chertsey came out roaring at the Sandhurst goal with even more ferocity immediately after the break, than they managed in the first half and the home goal was put under severe pressure. Three likely chances were fired in at close range but twice Agov made high class saves and once a defending colleague cleared off the line. But the ten minute onslaught was sharply stunted when the ball made one of its rare excursions up field, but culminating in a not so rare visit into the back of the Chertsey net, to establish a two goal gap.

Gareth Graham forced another finger tip save over the cross bar as Chertsey tried to rectify the imbalance but with Sandhurst playing better with new found confidence and not having to take chances and Chertsey's earlier effervescence fizzling away, the chances of a late turnaround flattened out to nothing.

Despite the negative outcome of this encounter for Chertsey, the squad is manifestly playing much better than that seen a few weeks back but suicide defensive errors desperately need to be eliminated if a return to higher altitudes in the league table are to be attained. The result was even more frustrating given that points were dropped all round in the top echelons and real progress could have been achieved with the right result.