By Jools Thomas

The game looked to be heading for a goalless draw but a series of tactical substitutions and a never say die attitude finally paid dividends for the Moles.

Lynton Goss was the major influence in a 1st half which brought plenty of chances and his pass to Jamie Rudd in the 2nd minute should have produced a goal. Brian Haule shot straight at the keeper four minutes later before the visitors had their first opportunity, a header which hit the side netting from Luke Neville. Egham’s Brendan Mathon had a further chance for his team and his race with FC keeper James Weatherill saw the young goalie kick the ball at the attacker with the ricochet cannoning harmlessly away for a goal kick.

At the mid-point of the first half Jamie Rudd struck a speculative shot which away keeper Jamie Norris held with relative ease. Lynton Goss operating on the right, was the next FC man to attempt to break the deadlock, hitting the ball into the side netting and he followed this up a couple of minutes later by heading over the bar from a deep Daniel Murphy free kick. Lynton had yet another chance which flashed past a post with Norris beaten before Murphy hit a low free kick from the edge of the box which did little to trouble Egham.

The FC defence looked in great shape with Kyle Anthony and man of the match Ben Stevens mopping up most of the danger. The pairing gave little time to Mathon, forcing the Egham striker to fire wide as the half entered its later stages but the best chance for either team occurred in injury time at the end of the first half. FC’s Aston Goss broke clear and hit a shot which bobbled under the keeper but lacked the power to dribble over the line, allowing defenders to clear.

Aston Goss and then Jamie Rudd had half chances for FC to take the lead early in the second half before Lamar Simpson played in a decent half cross with the busy Lynton Goss seeing his volley deflected over the bar from just a few yards out.

Chances in the second half had been far fewer than in the first and FC boss Steve Bateman shuffled his pack to introduce some new ideas. Gareth Price replaced Lynton Goss on 71 minutes and this was followed a few minutes’ later by Ryan O’Toole taking the place of Daniel Murphy. The final change of the game for FC saw Jamie Rudd substituted for Terry Dixon. The introduction of these attack minded players opened up more space and with Egham playing a high line, space began to appear. As FC pressed however there was also space behind the FC lines. Jon Hippolyte just lost out on a one versus one chase with James Weatherill.

Ryan O’Toole fed Gareth Price at the other end with the Egham keeper getting down low to block and as the game entered injury time Hippolyte had a golden chance to give the away team all the points but his low shot had all the power but not enough accuracy to find the target. After that scare, all FC fans would have been pleased to take the point but Ryan O’Toole had other ideas. His perfectly placed through ball was all the invitation Price needed to fire a low shot across the front of Norris and into the bottom corner of the net.