Beckenham Town 2-3 Egham Town - You could’ve had a couple of Sunday League players out there today, put more heart and effort into certain things than some of my boys did. Harsh, very harsh but truthful, says Beckenham Town player-manager Danny Waldren

Beckenham Town 2 – 3 Egham Town
Location	Eden Park Avenue, Beckenham, Kent BR3 3JL
Kickoff	30/08/2025 15:00

BECKENHAM TOWN  2-3  EGHAM TOWN
The Emirates FA Cup First Qualifying Round
Saturday 30 August 2025
Stephen McCartney reports from Eden Park Avenue

BECKENHAM TOWN player-manager Danny Waldren has read his side the riot act after crashing to an embarrassing home defeat to fellow strugglers Egham Town in The FA Cup First Qualifying Round.


 

Beckenham Town fielded an experienced side with the likes of former professional footballers Sam Wood, 39, Jack Holland, 33, George Porter, 33, Mark Marshall, 39, and once again they are over-reliant on their talisman striker Louie Theophanous, 33, for getting their goals.

Theophanous had a first-half penalty saved by Egham Town goalkeeper Tyler Tobin, who made a brilliant double save to then deny Steven Townsend from the rebound, before Theophanous emphatically gave the hosts the lead just after the hour-mark at Eden Park Avenue.

Jordan Berry’s side levelled through impressive attacking midfielder Luke Heneghan, who came off the bench to score twice within the space of 173 seconds to turn the tie, before Egham striker Connor Cullen dinked in his fourth goal of the season.

Theophanous then clinically notched his fifth goal of the season deep into stoppage time – as Beckenham Town failed to input any details into Football Web Pages – most likely too embarrassed to tell the rest of the Isthmian League just how poor they were.

“Disappointing, disappointing for so many reasons, obviously The FA Cup for a start,” said Waldren, 36, during his near 21 minute post-match interview.

“I’ve had my journey in The FA Cup and it can be a very memorable one, one that you can carry with you for most of your life, if not all of it depending on how good a success it actually is.

“This is something that was obviously pointed out to my boys in the changing room beforehand in the build-up to the game and then the game itself happened and to say I’m bitterly disappointed is an overstatement, an overstatement.”

When asked what was missing from his players, most lacked heart, passion and desire, Waldren replied: “It’s a difficult one and consistency and consistency in terms of…

“I look at the team I had out on Monday against Croydon (Athletic), who are a very good side at our level, by the way.  Their movements , their rotations, everything that they do is very good and very hard to deal with.

“I went with a little bit more experience because there are one or two players in my team, younger players that just lack a little bit of understanding at this level, so against Croydon (Athletic) I went with experience and told the boys their jobs, their roles, their responsibilities and up until  the inevitable, me being sent-off (2-0 down in the 80^th minute) , everybody was fantastic and I couldn’t moan or complain.  That game turned on its head because I was sent off, as simple as that.

“I assessed who we were playing and what we was up against and we set out with our game plan as to the way that we needed to do it and there were only two changes in the team this week and it was more or less the same boys and you cannot put the performance and the shift in that you put in last week and then come to a game like today against Egham and no disrespect to Egham whatsoever – and good luck to them in the next round by the way – but they are nowhere near what Croydon (Athletic) are and that’s what disappoints me the most.

“You cannot put the performance that we put in on Monday and not put the same performance or effort in today and it was lacking.

“I’m new to this and I’m new to a lot of these boys in that changing room and I’m learning as I’m going along and I’m seeing one or two players in my team and the consistency within themselves.

“I’m looking at one or two others in terms of fitness, age and trying to find that balance to really go out and dominate a game of football like men and today we never had that.”

Egham Town arrived in Kent sitting second-from-bottom in the Isthmian League South Central Division, without a win in two league games and on ZERO points and having beaten Northwood (1-0), Corinthian (4-0 at home after a 2-2 draw at Gay Dawn Farm) in The FA Cup and have reached the Second Qualifying Round for the first time since 2018 with a deserved victory.

Beckenham Town have picked up £2,194 in prize money for their two-match run in the competition, having beaten newly-promoted side Hassocks 1-0 away from home in the Preliminary Round a couple of weeks ago.

Sixth-placed finishers under Derek Oldfield last season, Beckenham Town started brightly, often linking up well down the left through recalled left-back Freddie Nyhus and winger Townsend, as Egham Town right-back Tyrique Tekasala often opened the gate.

“You’ve got to be looking for that final ball and you’ve got to be looking for that quality and there’s been one or two times where we found ourselves getting in good areas and good crossing opportunities and the final ball is just not there,” admitted Waldren.

“The reaction, the looking at players running, working back and today unfortunately for whatever reason, it just wasn’t there.”
Beckenham Town goalkeeper James Batt, 19, confidently plucked three crosses out of the air inside the opening seven minutes, as Egham Town offered no threat from open play during the first half.

When asked what threats Berry’s men posed, Waldren replied: “In truth the only thereat that scared me was us and if we’re going to turn up and do the right things and if we were going to turn up and make the right decisions, the right passes at the right time.

“I sent my boys out with instructions and if these boys followed those instructions we would’ve given a better account of ourselves that we did today.”

When asked whether his players’ followed his instructions, Waldren replied: “Not really, not really. There were one or two instructions that were given and people making the wrong decisions straight away and these are things I’ve seen and these are things we highlighted and I’ve got to act upon quickly.”

Egham Town’s front men did, however, press well and winger Marley Anderson-Richards pressed Beckenham’s holding midfielder Wood, winning the ball before central midfielder Ibrahim Nagheen cracked an ambitious first-time right-footed drive sailing harmlessly high-and-wide from 35-yards (12:04).

Beckenham Town were to be denied the lead by a smart low save from visiting goalkeeper Tyler Tobin just 100 seconds later.

Awful right-winger Marshall played a Hollywood pass from inside the Beckenham half over to the left wing and Townsend cut inside Tekasala before his progress was ended by a block on the edge of the Egham penalty area.  The ball fell to Theophanous, whose left-footed low drilled shot was blocked by Tobin’s legs at his near-post.

“Louie’s Louie, Louie finds himself in those positions quite a lot. He takes those chances nine times out of 10 and on that occasion, he unfortunately never,” added Waldren.

Egham Town started to gain control of the game as the game approached the 20^th minute mark and Reece Mitchell’s counter-attacking run ended by a bookable challenge from Beckenham’s centre-half Mudiaga Wanogho.

Batt lined up a three-man wall for Billy Adcock’s right-footed free-kick from 35-yards, which bounced past the diving goalkeeper and past the left-hand post.

Reflecting on Egham’s set-piece threat, Waldren replied: “That’s been the story of our season so far, if I’m being honest, with the start that we’ve had. We’ve either conceded goals through our own silly, stupid mistakes or we’ve just conceded goals.

“Egham are a threat from set-pieces.  I looked at them in terms of open play, they didn’t have much to offer. It was the guy (Wayborn) with the long throw (eight) and it was the guy that takes corners (Adcock and Henegan) and things like that.  Their deliveries were good and that proved to be the difference for them today.”

When asked about the big loss of Wanogho, Waldren replied: Mudi’s a big loss.  Mudi is a fantastic defender for me and unfortunately, he seemed to have, not sure I’ll have to wait and see. I find out and get an assessment from the physio. He seems to have a really, really tight hamstring or he might’ve pulled his hamstring, we’ll have to find out.”

Beckenham Town squandered a glorious chance to grab the lead – against the run of play at the time – when referee Will Briers pointed to the penalty spot.

Nyhus cut the ball back from within the left-channel and the diminutive central midfielder Tom Hever played the ball into Porter, who rolled a ball from outside the box in behind Egham centre-half Luke Wayborn and Townsend latched onto the through ball and was brought down by the goalkeeper.

Theophanous stroked his right-footed penalty (26:24) towards goal but Tobin dived low to his right to make a big save and then denied Townsend as he and Theophanous tried to latch onto the rebound, the ball looping over the crossbar.

“Look, you score pens, you miss pens.  We can’t rely on penalties to win us games of football,” admitted Waldren.

“Obviously we take that at the time and we’re relying on Louie to score that to go in at the break at one-nil but if I’m being honest, overall play in that first half we started the game well, first 10 minutes, yes, probably deserved to maybe have a goal or two, with Louie’s chance and his shot and then we just faded out and we died.

“I don’t think we deserved to go in at the break winning, if I’m being completely honest, so penalties, like I said, penalties get scored, penalties get missed and Louie unfortunately missed that but then Louie does what Louie does and he goes and gets the goals.”

Tobin left the home side frustrated again as Beckenham Town produced another well-worked move in the 37^th minute.

Hever played the ball out to Nyhus on the left and he cut inside and played the ball into Theophanous on the edge of the penalty area and he laid the ball off for Porter, who placed his right-footed drive towards the bottom right-hand corner from 22-yards, which was comfortably saved by Tobin down on his knees.

Despite having played in League One, League Two, National League and National League South, Porter just didn’t impress the 141 fans inside Eden Park Avenue today, but Waldren offered the attacking midfielder put in an ‘ok performance’.

When asked what ‘Porter gave him today,’ Waldren said: “Listen, for me these chances don’t mean nothing if they don’t go in the back of the net do they and we have to find one or two players that can put the ball in the back of the net other than Louie.  We can’t be relying in Louie to be scoring goals all the time.

“Louie came into today’s game with a very, very tight hamstring and he had to do a fitness test before the game. Fortunately, for us he passed that fitness test and Louie went out there and scored two goals but there’s no point in scoring two goals if you’re not going to defend your goal properly, which we didn’t today.”

Waldren added: “George works hard for what he can do, he’s effective with the things that he can do. He’s good at being in the box and in the right areas but again it’s getting balls wide and getting good deliveries in the box to make him more of a threat.

“He made one or two good runs today from the position that he should be making these runs in and he’s won us the penalty and he made one or two other good runs and George done ok today.

“George done ok today and there’s no good just one or two players doing ok. You have to be on your game and that’s 11 players on the pitch, just not one or two.”

Adcock’s set-piece deliveries were, however, on the money for Egham Town and Batt lined up a two-man wall for his free-kick within the right-channel but Wayborn (who launched eight long throws into the Beckenham penalty area during the course of the game) came up from the back and failed to take the chance and looped his free near-post header over the crossbar as the first-half ended goal-less.

“Not good enough! Not good enough! From the performance that we put in on Monday to the performance with more or less the same team that we put in the first half against these boys, not good enough,” came Waldren’s half-time blast.

“Not enough energy, not the instruction that I asked. We need to move the ball quickly, we need to do things quickly. We need to get high, we need to get wide. We need to get the balls out to wingers. We started like it and then we seemed to fade and that’s something that I’ll be addressing.”

A League title winner with AFC Croydon Athletic, Bromley, Billericay Town, Beckenham Town and Cray Valley, this is only Waldren’s sixth game as a football manager and he got it tactically wrong during the second half.

It was however right to hook two players at the interval, right-back Henry Douglas was on a tightrope of being on a yellow card but right-winger Marshall was awful, apart from that one Hollywood pass, he offered nothing at all during the first-half and Waldren made the right decision to hook him.

However, switching from a back-four to three-at-back allowed Egham Town to regularly counter-attack as soon as the impressive Heneghan came on in the 55^th minute and played in a number 10 role behind central striker Cullen.

Losing Wanogho to a hamstring injury in the 61^st minute also didn’t help the home side, as Egham Town started to play on the front foot, as Beckenham Town were all at sea defensively.

“Because it wasn’t good enough, it’s as simple as that,” explained Waldren why he went to a back three.

“I wasn’t happy with our energy levels. I wasn’t happy looking around at certain people ambling and just looking like their struggling, not fit and something that needs to be addressed.  There’s no reason from our end in terms of people’s fitness. We had two tough games, the weekend gone because it was Bank Holiday and I needed to asses people and we’ve got quite a few older boys in our team and a lot of them were struggling for whatever reason and the decision was made on Thursday (night), they’re be a short recovery session with some stretching and those that haven’t been doing bits would be at the back and they’ll be doing bits, so the boys were looked after.

“There’s no real excuse as to why we looked so lethargic, why we looked so tired.  That comes down to players individually.

“I would’ve had games when I would’ve played where for whatever reason, something at home or anything may have got in the way of thinking but I knew when I crossed that white line it was time to go and I was ready to roll my sleeves up and give everything for my manager, for my team-mates, for the club and that is something that these boys need to look at themselves about.”

That quote – playing for the club, its fans and manager was one of the reasons why Waldren was a fans’ favourite wherever he went. 

The second-half was a painful watch for the home faithful – but they were celebrating when their side grabbed the lead with 17:00 on the clock.

Hever fed Theophanous who played a sweeping one-two counter-attacking raid with Townsend in the Egham Town half before drilling an emphatic, clinical right-footed drive towards goal from 16-yards.  The goalkeeper dropped to his knees as the ball crashed into the net, as Egham Town centre-back Reece York failed to stop the inevitable.

“Louie does what Louie does. It was a good bit of play between the two of them. He’s one-on-one and he’s scored and we’re 1-0 up and I’m sure you’ve got it down there in your notes that when you go 1-0 up, it’s really time to switch on,” said Waldren.

“I’m looking at my players and I’m thinking are they switched on and I’m telling them to switch on. Was it five minutes? Six minutes they’ve scored straight away, so that’s telling me we’re not doing certain things right when you score a goal and you take the lead.”

It should have been a match-winning second when the home side cleared Wayborn’s sixth long throw and Hever broke straight down the middle before releasing Theophanous, who cut into the box down the right before dragging his low angled drive across Tobin and flashing past the far post.

Waldren said: “A big moment and obviously if we go 2-0 there it’s a different story but you’re not going to score from every attack that you have.

“Yes, I’m not too worried or fussed about this. I’m more worried about how we’re defending a one-goal lead straight after we scored it.”

Adoock’s through ball released Heneghan, who cut inside Holland and his deflected shot from 18-yards took a deflection of Holland and Batt dived to his left and watched the ball deflect past the far post and behind for the away side’s fourth and final corner.

Man-of-the-match Heneghan swung the ball in from the right and the ball found Adcock unmarked at the far post and his shot was handled on the line by Townsend and the referee pointed to the spot for a second time and out came a yellow card.

Heneghan clinically placed his right-footed penalty into the bottom left-hand corner (sending Batt the wrong way, diving to his left) to restore parity, with 23 minutes and 57 seconds on the clock.

“Look, it’s one of those. We had a penalty in the first half. I don’t think Steve can really have done too much about it. It’s a bit of pinball in the six-yard box and the geezer’s just shot and Steve’s probably two or three yards away from him. There’s aint much he can do and the ref’s deemed to (handball on the line).

“They’ve appealed and obviously it’s easy for him to go ‘yes, penalty’ and it’s harsh but very possibly could’ve been a penalty. I didn’t really see it from the angle I was at.”

This is when it started to go downhill for Waldren’s men, as Egham Town doubled their lead with 26 minutes and 50 seconds on the clock, courtesy of a goalkeeping error from the diving Batt.

Substitute striker Jordi Ebanda and Adcock linked up before the ball was worked into Heneghan, who had time and space (as substitute right-sided centre-half Casey Dudley failed to close down) to stroke a low left-footed drive towards goal from 16-yards.

Batt dived low to his left and allowed the ball to nestle inside the bottom far corner, underneath his left arm and this gave the home side a mountain to climb.

“Again, it’s the build-up play and the way we’re not doing what we are supposed to be doing out of possession and staying with men, being brave, marking our players, going with runners,” said Waldren.

“We seem to get split open too easy so that guy found himself on the left-hand side of our box with all the time in the world to have a shot and that is just not good enough especially when you find yourself going 1-0 up and then conceding to then conceding again straight away.

“It’s something that I need to be looking at within my team and within my players’ and working out why these things are happening.”

Waldren threw bodies forward (Porter joined Theophanous in attack with Townsend just behind the pair in an attacking triangle) and Egham clearly targeted Wood's lack of pace (playing on the left of a three man central defence) and Cullen capitalised on a mistake from Wood before drilling a right-footed drive flashing just past the foot of the left-hand post from inside the D as the game entered the final 15 minutes.

Waldren said: “I’m looking at us more defensively and the way we’re allowing teams to get in those positions to score goals. I have an issue with before the start of the season because these boys, they played three-at-the-back for the majority of last year and I’ve been told and looking at the way the season unfolded for these boys last year, they had a very good team, so I’ve come in with a way of thinking and a way of doing things and I assess personnel.

“I have a look around and I see who’s best for what and we went with a 3-5-2 at the start of the season. Every time they seemed to play in a 3-5-2, we seemed to concede goals and it’s something I’m not really happy about and even though they’ve scored their penalty and because we kept a clean sheet at half-time we had four at the back.

“We changed it to a three for the reasons we needed to because people weren’t doing what they were doing and there’s one or two people at the back that are just not doing their job and something I really need to look at and something that I really need to assess.”

Egham Town were enjoying their best spell of play in the game and they went very close to increasing their lead (37:15) when Cullen played a low through ball in behind and Batt rushed off his line to narrow the angle and Ebanda swept his right-footed shot just past the foot of the far post from 18-yards.

Beckenham Town were putting in an awful defensive performance at this stage of the game – as Waldren switched Holland from centre-half as emergency striker - and Cullen counter-attacked and dragged his shot across Batt and flashing past the far post and it was no surprise when clinical Egham Town scored their third goal of the game with 44 minutes and 54 seconds on the clock.

Cullen easily won a foot-race against Wood outside the box, cut in towards the edge of the penalty area and sublimely dinked his right-footed shot across Batt to find the bottom far corner from 18-yards.

“We got to a point in the game when you’re chasing it a little bit and time’s running out and you’re taking a little bit more of a gamble, which we did,” explained Waldren, who has won one, drawn two and lost three of his six games in charge of the club.

“They will always find themselves having one or two opportunities on the counter-attack. That’s exactly what happened. We found ourselves short at the back because we were throwing bodies forward to try to get the equaliser.

“They’ve ended up going on and scoring again and then as heartbreaking that is, we then go and score straight after and then there’s a few minutes to make yourself think maybe it’s possible to get a draw but time just run out.

“Look, in those situations, Woody’s not a young puppy anymore and he’s found himself one-on-one with a guy who is quite pacey, quite tricky and fair play to the lad he’s finished it really well.”

Beckenham Town scored a flattering second goal, with 45:50 on the clock.

Ineffective substitute winger Morris Armani offered nothing in the second half until this moment , floating a long ball into the penalty area some 35-yards from goal.  No surprise as it was Theophanous who superbly brought the ball down and under his spell before clinically placing his left-footed drive across the keeper to find the bottom far corner.

Waldren admitted: “Louie does this. We are very blessed and we are very lucky to have a Louie in our team. Anybody would be blessed and lucky to have a Louie in the team for the goals he brings to the table.

“But we cannot rely on one player to just score goals, other people need to know where the net is, simple as that!

“Disappointing because as they know there was a massive, massive opportunity to get our name in the hat on Monday and for whatever reason, individually and collectively we weren’t at the races today and it doesn’t matter what opposition you’re going to come up against, if you’re not at the races and you’re not looking to work hard enough or do the simple basics or talk or communicate or organise, you will come unstuck and that’s exactly what happened with our boys today.”

Waldren, who officially retired at the end of May, a fans favourite at so many of his clubs for displaying great leadership skills, came off the bench in the 86^th minute and has played for 124 minutes in three games this season.

Beckenham Town needed 11 Waldren’s out on the pitch today and he blasted his side's lacklustre performance and explained why he has put his boots back on.

“I did retire but I would be naïve and stupid to not think this is non-league football and there will be situations maybe even Tuesday coming up, with quite a few people who got injured today and with the people we’ve kind of had struggling already that I may be needed to be used.

“I know there will be times where I need to be used as very often. I’d like to be able to do that but it’s very hard when you look around and see what people are bringing to the table, even at my age, knowing that I can bring more, so it was the right thing to do to register as a player.

“In truth, I don’t want to be playing because I retired, that has to be respected but at the same time, I want to be able to do a good job and if I’m looking around and seeing that certain players aren’t doing what I expect them to do and I feel I can do it better than I’ve got to do it - and feel I can do and bring in what I need to not be able to come on the pitch, if that makes sense.”

Beckenham Town slipped into the relegation zone today and are in the bottom four of the Isthmian League South East Division, having picked up two draws from their opening four league games.

They are within the relegation zone alongside Ashford United (two points from four games), Erith Town (one point from four) and pointless East Grinstead Town, whom have lost all of their opening five league outings.

Beckenham Town are scheduled to welcome Ryan Maxwell’s Sittingbourne to Eden Park Avenue on Tuesday night. 

The Brickies have picked up three league wins from their opening four games but also suffered a FA Cup exit today, losing 2-1 at home to AFC Croydon Athletic.

Danny Kedwell’s men are in second-place in this eighth-tier division, having picked up three wins from three and are a point behind Tommy Warrilow’s Faversham Town, who were held to a 2-2 home draw by league rivals Hastings United last night, where Hastings’ centre-half Charlie Paye scored at both ends in the space of 85 seconds at the end of the Salters Lane clash.

When asked about Sittingbourne’s visit, Waldren said: “Listen, it’s going to be a tough game. Sittingbourne are a very, very good, well-organised set-up team by Ryan and I expect them to come down here and give us a really, really tough game and it’s up to us to bounce back, simple as that.

“We need to bounce back and we need a much better reaction than what these boys put out here on this pitch today.”

When asked whether he can bring in fresh blood, Waldren replied: “There is a budget problem, of course.  This is non-league football and it’s not easy but their sort of excuses. It is difficult. It does make life hard work but there’s no excuse for performances like that, regardless of the budget.

“You could’ve had a couple of Sunday League players out there today put more heart and effort into certain things than some of my boys did. Harsh, very harsh but truthful.

“I’m very, very disappointed of the overall way today has gone.  Tuesday doesn’t come any easier sand I’ve had strong words with them in there in terms of doing what I need to do as a manager.  I will look, I will asses and I will do whatever I can, even though it’s not easy to maybe bring one or two in, If I can.

“I wanted to be loyal to these boys. I wanted to be able to give them a chance and give them the opportunity but now we find ourselves six games in with only one win and that’s not good enough, that’s not good enough.

“So I will do what I have to do to try and make this club a better football club.”

Beckenham Town: James Batt, Henry Douglas (Frank Maciocia 46), Freddie Nyhus (Danny Waldren 86), Sam Wood, Jack Holland, Mudiaga Wanogho (Casey Dudley 61), Steven Townsend, Tom Hever, Louie Theophanous, George Porter (Jesse Rowe 82), Mark Marshall (Morris Armani 46).
Sub: Elliott McKimm

Goals: Louie Theophanous 63, 90

Booked: Mudiaga Wanogho 23, Henry Douglas 29, Steven Townsend 68, Danny Waldren 90

Egham Town: Tyler Tobin, Tyrique Tekasala (Jordi Ebanda 66), Ben Peden, Billy Adcock, Reece York, Luke Wayborn, Reece Mitchell (Josh Williams 35), Soul Hale 74)), Ibrahim Nagheen, Connor Cullen, Excellence Muhemba (Luke Heneghan 55), Marley Anderson-Richards (Erza Ndukuba 55).
Subs: Enzo Pashaj, Connor Jeanes

Goals: Luke Heneghan 69 (penalty), 72, Connor Cullen 89

Booked: Connor Cullen 43, Ben Peden 54, Soul Hale 90

Attendance: 141
Referee: Mr Will Briers
Assistants: Mr Mark Spence & Mr Harry Demo