eghamvbrom060404

Eggcellent Vines cracks open Egham
Egham Town 1-4 Bromley
Ryman League Division One South
Tuesday 6 April 2004
Stephen McCartney reports from the Runnymeade Stadium

TWENTY year old striker Paul Vines’ first half hat-trick revived Bromley’s push for a place in an end of season play off, following a comfortable victory at third from bottom Egham Town on Tuesday.

The former Cray Wanderers striker admitted afterwards he was pleased with his performance, which has now seen him find the back of the net on nine occasions.

Vines, nicknamed Charlie by his mates as his father is also called Paul, said: “I am delighted really, a good win, which we needed.  We’ve got five games left and I think we can win them all.  That’s what we have got to do, just go forward and keep winning.  People were saying we’ve got nothing to play for, but if we keep going and win all our games, we’ll just see what happens.”

He added: “We deserved to win, we played some great football on a very poor pitch.  I am pleased, not only for myself, but for the boys as well.  Hopefully we can go and have another win against Ashford Town (Middlesex) at Hayes Lane on Saturday.”

Without Michael Harney (knee), Paul Kember (hamstring), Dean Forbes (work) and Jason McKoy (work), Bromley captain John Myatt returned to midfield to make his 200^th appearance for Bromley and defender Danny Arkwright, a transfer deadline signing from Dulwich Hamlet, made a composed debut in defence.

Meanwhile, youth team skipper, the much-sought after Chris Hill replaced Gary Drewett for the final three minutes and put in a performance that will have him knocking on manager Stuart McIntyre’s door for a place in the first team squad for the remainder of this and next season.

It took Bromley only six minutes, however, to find the back of the net, and the visitors played some great football at times on a quagmire of a playing surface.

Gary Drewett, yet to find the back of the net this season, crossed from the right and Vines headed home to give McIntyre’s men a deserved lead.

Seven minutes later, Vines had another opportunity to double his and Bromley’s account but he shot over the crossbar from eight yards following Colin Luckett’s whipped in cross from the left.

Another chance came the youngster’s way, this time he headed wide following a cross from the left channel from Landry Zahana-Oni.

John Wilfort’s intended pass to his fellow defender Steve Potterill was cut out by Jeff Goulding and the tall striker, who netted twice in Egham’s 2-1 win at Hayes Lane in December, raced towards goal.  However, his shot was well blocked by Danny Harwood and the rebound fell to Youness Nabil, whose low drive was blocked by Potterill inside the penalty area.

Backed by some tremendous vocal support from their supporters, Egham should have equalised.  Steve Baker’s cross from the right wasn’t collected in a muddy penalty area by Harwood and the ball fell to Goulding who blasted a good opportunity over the crossbar.

Rampant Vines fired over the crossbar after a delightful attacking move down the left from Adolph Amoako and Zahana-Oni before Harwood made a fine save after 25 minutes.

Goulding played a pass from the halfway line down the right channel for Ross Pickett to exploit the space.  His low centre carved a shooting chance for Matt Patterson but his shot from inside the penalty area was well held by Harwood, who dived to his right to deny the home side.

At the other end, Bromley’s leading goalscorer, Amoako with twenty-two goals this season, fired a low drive from the right hand side of the penalty area go agonisingly wide of the far post after Myatt won possession with a strong but fair tackle some thirty yards from goal.

Bromley doubled their lead after 35 minutes when Zahana-Oni’s skill down the left wing saw his see of Marriot Lusengo’s challenge before he slid the ball ahead of him to Myatt who was in support.  The experienced midfielder reached the by-line before delivering a pin-point cross to the far post for Vines to head down and into the net beating Paul McCarthy for the second time.

Four minutes later, Bromley’s travelling contingent were celebrating again, as Vines notched up his first hat-trick for the Hayes Lane club.

Amoako cut the ball back to Vines and the striker fired a low shot inside the far corner of the net to give Bromley a whirlwind 3-0 lead.

Egham made a substitution during the half time break with their manager Derek Payne coming off the bench.  The substitution had the desired effect, however, as Egham poached a goal back inside 113 seconds following the re-start.

Egham skipper Paul Reed’s low centre found Pickett whose close control got him inside the penalty area.  Harwood anticipated a shot to his right and went to ground early and this enabled the striker to pick his spot and slot the ball home to Harwood’s left.

Despite a good spell from the home side, they never really hurt Harwood or his defence and Arkwright who slotted in the back four made an impressive debut, and looked dangerous at the other end as Bromley attacked corners.

On the hour mark, Potterill played the ball down the right channel for Amoako and after being clipped inside the penalty area by Jamie Muldowney, where the young striker could have gone to ground and won his team a spot-kick, he stayed on his feet and brought a fine block by McCarthy at his near post.

Five minutes later, Myatt’s through ball was latched onto Vines, as he and Zahana-Oni had beaten the offside trap.  Vines set up the Frenchman whose kick bounced once on the sodden turf but McCarthy tipped the shot over the crossbar.

McCarthty was tested again when he got down well from Wilfort’s header following Luckett’s corner kick.

The victory was sealed with nine minutes remaining.  A good passing move from Bromley saw Drewett pass to substitute Wade Falana to his right.  The experienced striker steadied himself, had enough time to compose himself before drilling a low shot across the goalkeeper and into the bottom far corner of the net.

After replacing Drewett with only three minutes on the clock, youth team skipper Hill received the ball down the right from Ahmet Suleymanoglu, who had joined the club last week from Horsham.  The eighteen-year-old central midfielder, poked the ball past his marker before centering for Falana but McCarthy made a fine save.

Hill showed McIntyre his talents in winning midfield battles a minute from the end, winning the ball off Nabil, the Egham left winger’s late challenge from behind on the youngster earned him a second yellow card and the home side played the closing seconds with ten men.

Ashford Town (Middlesex) are the visitors to Bromley's Clive Christian Stadium base in Hayes Lane on Saturday before the Ravens make the short trip to Dulwich Hamlet on Bank Holiday Monday.  League leaders Windsor & Eton, who have former Bromley goalkeeper Chuck Martini and striker Tony Reid in their ranks, come to Hayes Lane next Saturday.

Bromley's last home game, against bottom of the table, Epsom & Ewell is on Saturday 24th April before they finish the season with a trip to Marlow on Saturday 1st May.

Egham Town: Paul McCarthy, Michael Regan, Paul Reed (Capt), Feshis Odigwe, Jamie Muldowney, Marriot Lusengo (Derek Payne 46), Jeff Goulding (Adam El Hadad 79), Steve Baker, Ross Pickett, Matt Patterson, Youness Nabil (sent off 89).  Subs: Chimka Nanjor, Aaron Nicholls, Hamid Harrak

Bromley: Danny Harwood, Steve Potterill, Colin Luckett, John Wilfort, Danny Arkwright, Danny Smith, Gary Drewett (Chris Hill 87), John Myatt (Capt), Paul Vines (Ahmet Suleymanoglu 67), Adolph Amoako (Wade Falana 76), Landry Zahana-Oni.  Subs: Bobby George, Mark Watson

Referee:  Mr J Wheller -   Assistants: Mr D Phillips & Mr M Rowler