The Woods lack of goalscoring prowess returned again as they went down by the narrowest of margins for the third time this season and with only six goals scored in eight matches, the need for improvement in that area is clear for all to see.

After the training injury to luckless goalkeeper Harry Voss, Northwood resorted to their fourth different goalkeeper in their last four matches and fifth in eight games as in came Brannon Daly for his debut on dual-registration with Staines Town. 17-year-old Jean-Paul Antwi replaced the injured Pat Adamson at left-back while there was a return from injury for Harry Newman, who was preferred to Mahlondo Martin.

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The visitors made six changes to their starting line-up with only their defence looking similar, though that was strengthened by the return of skipper Reece Yorke taking the number of ex-Northwood players in the opening line-up to six.

Just like on the Tuesday night, it started raining just about on the starting whistle and an early chance fell to Meshach Williams who got on the end of a Newman cross but fired well over the bar. But this time it was Egham who netted an opening goal after just six minutes. Awarded a dubious free-kick just outside the box, Ryan Phillips got his effort on target and when Daly only pushed the ball back into the danger-zone the ball was scrambled over to in-form Ryan Debattista who sliced a shot that went in off the far post.

Egham continued to dominate the early stages and some rash tackles gave them several free-kicks from which to attack the goal. They looked to have doubled their lead when Mitchell Wiseman headed in a corner but it was ruled out for a push and then Alex Nolan did well with an attacking run down the right which saw him fire across goal and only just wide of the far post. Soon after, Debattista had a good strike pushed wide by Daly.

After 24 minutes the Woods were awarded a free-kick of their own and Williams arrowed a good shot across the goalkeeper but Patrick Ohman was equal to it and pushed the ball wide of the post. The visitors were still on top, though. After 33 minutes a long ball from Louis Stead put Brendan Matthew through on goal. Daly hesitated but eventually raced from his goal and both reached the ball at around the same time and the slight touch from the Woods ‘keeper proved just enough to prevent a second goal.

Debattista wasn’t far away again five minutes later when Phillips put in a good cross and he flicked a header which flew across goal and wide of the far post. Though the game remained scrappy, Egham continued to hold sway after the break with Daly just keeping out a Debattista effort after getting the better of Lewis Hobbs and then Debattista had a shot blocked by Hobbs before Yorke hammered the rebound against Wiseman.

Wiseman enjoyed a long run out of defence before shooting over the top before the Woods finally began to rally a little. Newman and Evans Kouassi put over a couple of crosses but Williams’ header drifted comfortably to Ohman in goal. Then Jack McDonnell made a good attacking run before playing the ball wide to Newman. His cross was pushed out by Ohman but there was no-one there to snap up the loose ball and Lewis Cole conceded a corner. From that, Williams dummied and Hewitt came in to stab a shot goalwards that was cleared off the line by Phillips and deny the Woods an equaliser.

Kyjuon Marsh-Brown replaced Stead for the Sarnies and did well to create a good chance for himself but then he shot well wide and in the last ten minutes the Woods, still sensing a chance to nick a draw, did what they could to push forward again as Egham tried to manage the game. A good run from Newman saw him knock in a dangerous cross and an attempted defensive clearance hit substitute Mahlondo Martin and could have gone anywhere but rebounded for a goal-kick.

It was Williams who had the last effort on goal with a good strike. Ohman again could only push it away and for a moment it seemed it might fall to the lurking Hewitt but it spun away and he couldn’t turn it back goalwards.