Thame United 2-0 St Neots Town ( att : 126 ) - 2021/22 Southern League Division One Central

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 5^th 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 13^th 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 94^th 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.

https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/files.pitchero.com/clubs/13461/yUmDxiUS4mTP9bRLNA6B_St%20Neots%20Town%2006%2011%2021.pdf

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 11^th 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 15^th 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 24^th minute, Thame’s Tompkins pulling back Marsh-Brown as he sped away, and the first corner of the match finally arrived in the 30^th 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 35^th 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 41^st 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 56^th 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.