November 6, 2021
Traditionally Thame United have faced opponents from the
Oxfordshire/South West/Thames Valley regions, but with the on-going restructuring
of the non-league pyramid boundaries, they now face opposition from similar
distances in more northerly or north-easterly directions.
St Neots is a market town in Cambridgeshire with a population of around 36,000
and today their football team faced a 56 mile journey to Thame via Bedford,
Milton Keynes and Aylesbury. Seats on their coach for travelling supporters
were £15.
Historically, St Neots have played predominately in the United Counties
League, before winning promotion to the Southern League in 2011. After
promotion in their first season in the Southern League, they were relegated
from the Premier Central in 2018/19. They were lying third from bottom with a
6-3-19 record when the 2019/20 season was abandoned, which probably saved them
from relegation, and they were hammered 0-6 on their first ever visit to Thame
that season, although their home fixture was cancelled due to the start of the
Covid pandemic.
Matters improved in 2020/21 when they were in third position with a 3-4-1
record when the season was terminated, and that good form has continued into
this season, going into today’s fixture in 5th place with a 7-3-2
record, having scored 29 league goals and conceding 16.
Victories were recorded against Kidlington ( H 4-0 ), Kempston Rovers (
A 3-0 ), Welwyn Garden City ( A 4-1 ), Barton Rovers ( H 6-2 ), Biggleswade ( A
2-1 ), Wantage ( H 2-1 ), Aylesbury Utd ( A 2-1 ), whilst draws were played out
with Hertford ( H 1-1 ) and Harlow ( A 1-1 )
League defeats have been suffered against FC Romania ( H 1-2 ), North
Leigh ( A 0-2 ), Ware ( H 3-4 ), whilst FA Cup and FA Trophy runs were both
ended at the first attempt at Bedford ( 0-3 & 0-1 respectively )
Joseph Rider was the leading goal scorer for St Neots with 12 league
goals whilst Nehemiah Richard-Noel, on work experience from Cambridge United, had
scored 7 times.
Thame went into today’s match in a disappointing 13th place
in Division One Central, with a 3-3-5 record having scored 16 goals but
conceded 20 times. Wins had been registered against FC Romania ( H 5-0 ),
Wantage ( A 3-1 ) and Kidlington ( A 1-0
) with draws against Welwyn Garden City ( A 1-1 ), North Leigh ( H 2-2 ) and Didcot ( H 1-1 )
Defeats occurred against Biggleswade ( H 1-3 ), Ware ( A 0-4 ),
Aylesbury Utd ( H 1-3 ), Bedford ( A 0-3 ) and Berkhamsted ( H 1-2 )
Perhaps a truer reflection of Thame’s ability had been their
performances in cup competitions, with a victory in the FA Cup against Thatcham
( H 2-0 ) before being pegged back in the 94th minute at higher
level Margate for a 2-2 draw, before going down 2-4 at home in the replay.
Thame also had a decent run in the FA Trophy, eliminating Winchester ( H
3-2 ) and Lymington ( H 3-0 ) before being eliminated 2-4 by Wimborne, who play one league higher in
the Southern League.
Ryan Blake had scored 11 goals in all competitions, followed by
midfielder Greg Hackett with 7. Lynton Goss had 6 goals, four of which were in
the league to make him Thame’s highest scorer in the league.
Much of the pre-match hype on Thame’s Twitter account involved the
signing of forward/attacking midfielder David Pearce, who has spent most of his
career at Chesham United, although he had a season at Oxford City in 2016/17,
scoring two crucial goals in The Hoops FA Cup run and providing the cross for
Matt Pattinson to score the only goal in their giant-killing at Colchester
United.
Although dropping down a division to join Thame and undoubtedly adding
to their goal scoring potential, perhaps a higher priority for Thame might have
been to sign an experienced defender or defensive midfielder to shore up their
goals against column, having conceded 32 goals in their 17 league and cup
games, albeit with 30 goals scored ?
In any case it looks like Thame will be the place to go to if you want
to see goals, and with St Neots’ league games also averaging over 4 goals a
game, on paper, it looked like a goal-fest was on the cards today.
The temperature at kick-off was around 12 degrees, with grey clouds
overhead but with a chilly wind and a hint of spitting rain. A couple of Red
Kites were patrolling the skies, but they vanished shortly after the game
started.
Admission charges were £8, with £5 for concessions and £3 for Under 16s.
A free on-line matchday programme was available from the Thame United website,
and a free team-list was handed out upon entry to the ground.
St Neots played in Sky and Navy Blue quarters with blue shorts, similar
to Wycombe Wanderers and there was a decent turn-out from their supporters,
with around 20 or so gathered behind the goal they were attacking, with another
15 to 20 dotted around the ground.
The pattern of the game was established right from the beginning, with
St Neots playing patient possession football on the floor with Thame content to
defend in depth, and looking to play early balls forward for Goss and Blake,
their two pacy forwards, to run on to.
Thame had scarcely touched the ball in the first 5 minutes but a poor
back pass gave Blake the opportunity to run into the St Neots penalty area, but
he was forced wide and his shot was blocked by a defender. Two minutes later
Goss broke down the left and played in the supporting Tompkins, who
unfortunately decided to dive to the floor. The referee wasn’t fooled and
waived play on.
The referee was involved again in the 11th minute when Thame
midfielder Tutton received a kick in the head from full-back Marfo when
attempting a header whilst the St Neots player was trying to control the ball.
It was an obvious free-kick, although the St Neots fan near to me called out “You
must be joking ref !”
St Neots finally had their first shot in anger in the 15th
minute but Marsh-Brown’s long range shot went harmlessly wide. A minute later,
Rider blocked an attempted clearance and it looked as if the rebound would fall
to Richard-Noel, but he was denied by a timely tackle from Thame centre-back
Gledhill. This was repeated around 10 minutes later when another good tackle
from Gledhill prevented Richard-Noel getting a shot in. The St Neots striker
was starting to look dangerous, but his header at the back post went just wide,
and in any case, the linesman’s flag was raised for offside.
The first yellow card was shown in the 24th minute, Thame’s
Tompkins pulling back Marsh-Brown as he sped away, and the first corner of the
match finally arrived in the 30th minute, when Cowling, another on loan
Cambridge United player, had a shot was deflected for a corner. Thame’s first
corner came a minute later.
A moment of mild controversy occurred in the 35th minute when
Cowling tripped Goss. However, the Thame forward got to his feet and continued
to run into the St Neots area in a dangerous position. Unfortunately, the
referee decided not to play advantage, blew for the free-kick, and issued a yellow
card to Cowling. The free-kick was wasted as a foul on the keeper was awarded.
The half-ended with a couple of corners for Thame, one of which was
confidently caught by keeper Whitehall, whilst the keeper’s punch for the
second one was far from convincing.
For St Neots, the tall Rider looked to be a talented player, with a good
touch and making some promising runs, but he went off in the 41st
minute, presumably having picked up an injury, with the superbly named Elliott
Sartorius coming on. Centre-back Mamadou Jobe, another player on-loan from
Cambridge United, was reminiscent of Rio Ferdinand with his calm reading of the
game, and the channel through which all moves out of defence operated through.
It was 0-0 at half-time and it was already getting dark. The bar was
doing a roaring trade, with a number of people spending the afternoon watching
Soccer Saturday with a pint rather than watching the local team. The ale on tap
was 4XT, brewed a couple of miles up the road in Brill.
Thame took the lead two minutes into the second half when a corner from
David Pearce sailed over the flapping keeper and into the top corner at the
back post to give Pearce a goal on his Thame debut. Until this moment he had
been fairly anonymous.
St Neots left back Ben Heal was soon replaced, and his replacement Jake
Battersby looked to playing as a left wing-back with St Neots moving to three
at the back.
St Neots best chance came in the 56th minute when good
combination play between Marfo and Marsh-Brown saw a decent cross delivered to
Richard-Noel lurking at the near post, but his header went high and wide.
Richard-Noel made another promising run a minute later but saw his pull back
from the by-line blocked.
Thame then had a period of good spell of pressure. First, Blake cut-in
from the left and sent a powerful shot heading towards the top corner only for keeper
Whitehall to pull off a superb diving save to tip the ball over the bar for a
corner. Pearce again took the corner, which hit the top of the crossbar with
keeper Whitehall all at sea.
A first-time pass from West saw Goss beat Johnson for pace, but
fortunately for St Neots, Whitehall was alert and raced out of his area to
clear at the expense of a throw-in.
With the temperatures dropping and the wind rising, Thame keeper Hill’s goal-kick
sailed over the St Neots back-line and it looked like it would fall for Goss
but a good tackle prevented the chance.
With 13 minutes remaining Thame doubled their lead. A fantastic run by Blake
saw him beat his marker on the left to get to the by-line, and his pull-back teed
up Pearce to hammer home left-footed from around 10 yards for a second goal on
his debut.
With a 2-0 lead the rest of the game fizzled out and Thame held onto the
lead with few alarums for the three points and a welcome clean sheet. At the
final whistle sheets of drizzle started to sweep across the field.
Although not the expected goal-fest, it was a deserved victory based on resolute defending and pace on the break, which the visitors struggled to cope with. For all of their attractive football. St Neots created very few chances and were a well beaten side at the final whistle.
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