Waltham Abbey returned to the top of the Bostik South Central League table, as Ibrahim Kehinde’s second half strike secured the Abbott’s a 1-0 away win over Egham Town.

Abbey’s seven game winning run was brought to an end by Chipstead last week but that proved to be just a temporary slip-up, as they ground out a hard fought win against relegation threatened Egham on the road.

That win meant the Abbott’s returned to the top of the table after just one week away, with former leaders Bracknell Town in FA Trophy action instead.

Stimson was left with only 14 fit senior players for Saturday’s game due to a raft of injuries, meaning Charlie Thomas and Joseph Lane were drafted into the squad from the reserves.

However, those injuries meant that new signing Andreas Loizou was handed his debut in defence, having moved to the Capershotts stadium from Haringey Borough.

Despite that disruption, Abbey started on the front foot and a smart save from Egham’s Andrew McCorkell prevented Ellis Brown from opening the scoring, after he raced through one-on-one having been released by Arthur Janata’s goal-kick.

Stimson decided to make a double change at the break with Rimmel Daniels and Timothy Ogunrinde replacing Loizou as well as Daniel Aristidou.

But the Abbott’s had Janata to thank when the on-loan Leyton Orient goalkeeper pulled off an excellent save to prevent Egham’s Ashley Lodge from finding the back of the net.

Stimson then decided to introduce Kehinde just after the hour mark and that decision paid off within three minutes, when he turned home Brown’s cross to secure Abbey all three points.

Abbott’s boss Stimson told the club’s website: “The game wasn't the prettiest and we had to dig in for periods of the game as Egham worked hard to stop us playing. Once again, Ibrahim comes of the bench to make an impact and we were able to see out the remainder of the game for all 3 points."