Croydon 1 Egham Town 2

THE bitter chill of relegation is creeping up on Croydon after they slumped to a seventh defeat in eight games last Saturday.

In most of those games the Trams have deserved to be beaten but on this occasion they were a little hard done by.

A biting gusty wind contributed to the visitors opening the scoring on six minutes, the ball being blown over the Croydon defence and falling kindly for Charlie McCarthy who slotted past debutant goalkeeper Craig Bradshaw, on loan from Kingstonian.

Egham maintained the pressure with a series of searching inswinging corners and Bradshaw pulled off a terrific save from a backheader by Jamie Keefe.

The Trams' task was made harder on 17 minutes when Junior Gyimah was sent off for an apparent headbutt, on the linesman's advice.

Croydon dug in and managed to equalise seven minutes before the break when Thomas got behind the defence and was pulled down by Tom Martin who was dismissed for the foul. Bronek Dabrowa dispatched the penalty.

Michael Johnson tested Martin with a free-kick from the edge of the box and Croydon were much improved in the second half, creating most of the chances.

But it was Egham who took all three points when Adam Foulser pulled the ball back from the goal-line for McCarthy to net his second of the game.

Croydon: Bradshaw, Loyza, Johnson (Phelps), Sophonie, Hemmings, Padgett, Grant, Dabrowa (Clayton), Gyimah, Smith, Thomas. Unused subs: Penfold, Gladwin, Goddard.