January 28, 2023
Today’s match at the ASM Stadium was an Oxfordshire derby and although only 20 miles separate the two towns there isn’t a great historical rivalry between the two sides, who have only started playing each other regularly in the past 4 seasons.
In the 1990’s Thame were at steps 3 or 4 in the Isthmian League whilst Didcot plied their trade in the lower level Hellenic League. At the time Didcot went on to win the FA Vase and progressed up the pyramid to step 3 Southern League Premier Division, Thame were sliding down to step 6 and the Hellenic Second Division.
Even when Thame worked their way back to step 4 they were placed in Southern League Division One East whilst Didcot were in Division One West. Another re-organisation of the pyramid finally saw both sides in the same league for 2018/19. Eight league matches have since been held between the two sides, with 4 wins to Didcot, two victories for Thame and two draws. Didcot were victorious in 4 of the first 5 encounters, but Thame are unbeaten in the last three, including a 2-2 draw when they met at The Loop Meadow in November.
These diaries witnessed Didcot’s 3-1 win over Harlow in November.
https://fatbearssportingdiaries.blogspot.com/2022/11/didcot-town-3-1-harlow-town-att-217.html
Although those three points were chalked off when Harlow pulled out of the league, Didcot have remained in fourth place with 3 wins, two draws and two losses in their subsequent fixtures. One of the defeats was fairly predictable, as they went down 0-2 at leaders Berkhamsted, but the other was a surprise 0-1 reverse at bottom side Barton Rovers. Points were also dropped in the return meeting with Rovers, with Didcot being held 0-0 at home by the back-markers. A crowd of 380 attended their New Year 2-2 draw with Highworth, whilst wins were recorded over Hertford Town ( H 2-1 ), Kidlington ( A 2-1 ) and Biggleswade Town ( A 2-1 ).
19 year old Connor Barrett came off the bench on his return from injury to score against Harlow, and now has 7 goals in 9 appearances this season. Midfielder Jensen Wright was Didcot’s top scorer on 8 goals.
Since these diaries reported on Thame’s 0-1 home lost to Walthamstow, the recent cold weather has meant they have played only once since, when they romped to a 7-2 win over FC Romania with Jefferson Louis grabbing a hat-trick, despite falling 0-2 behind after 15 minutes. They started today in 15th place.
The weather at the 3pm kick-off time was dry with grey skies but a chilly 5 degrees.
Didcot were in a change kit of green shirts, black shirts and green socks, whilst Thame gave a debut to Jordy Ngathe after re-signing for the club in mid-week from Ardley United. Ngathe featured in the pre-season friendly between Thame and Ardley covered by these diaries.
https://fatbearssportingdiaries.blogspot.com/2022/07/thame-united-1-0-ardley-united-att-40.html
The opening stages of the match were pretty even, with Jenson Wright sending a 25 yard curler that was easily saved by Thame keeper Craig Hill, and from his drop-kick out, Jefferson Louis headed on but Didcot keeper Bedwell came off his line to gather before Pearce could strike. Didcot won the first corner off the match after Thame centre-back Finlay Murray’s attempted header back to his keeper was too wide, and Ngathe went on a mazy run down the touchline past two Didcot players before a crunching sliding tackle conceded a throw-in.
The first goal of the game arrived in the 10th minute. Thame lost possession just over the half-way line and Didcot played the ball immediately forward. It should have been a straight forward collection by Hill but surprisingly he decided to retreat back to his 6 yard line, Didcot’s Seth Humphries won the foot race with Murray, and slipped the ball into the keeper’s bottom left hand corner.
Didcot then enjoyed a good period as Thame struggled to string three passes together. Wright played a lovely pass behind the Thame backline for Barder to run onto, but his effort fizzed across the face of the goal and narrowly wide. The pace and movement of Didcot’s front three was causing all sorts of problems for the Thame defence.
Thame full-back Lewis Thorne was the recipient of the game’s first yellow card, badly mis-timing his tackle on Wright. It looked bad and resulted in the predicable melee and surrounding of the referee.
In the 24th minute Didcot’s Barrett played a probing ball from the left towards the penalty spot and the in-running Barder stuck out a leg but could only steer the bouncing ball a yard over the bar.
The floodlights came on shortly after and that seemed to wake Thame up, as they created their first real chance in the 28th minute. Hackett beat two defenders close to the by-line and crossed low to the near post where West’s goalward attempt was blocked at close range for a corner.
From a second corner, Didcot managed to partially clear, but Hackett floated the ball back towards the far post where West’s downward header was well claimed low down by Bedwell.
It was now Thame’s turn for a good spell and they equalised in the 32nd minute from another corner. Pearce’s delivery was aimed at the 6 yard line where centre-back Luke Carnell’s hooked the ball into the net before Putland and McNeill could react. There were some half-hearted appeals from the visitors for a foul, but in truth it was slack defending. Carnell didn’t seem to celebrate scoring against one of his former clubs.
Thame were now dominating the match. Thorne got to the goal-line but his cross was just a fraction high for Pearce, who could only send his header gently to the top corner for an easy catch. West then robbed a dithering Jenson inside the Didcot penalty area but his pull-back from the by-line went straight to Bedwell, before a flowing moved ended with Ngathe volleying just wide from 20 yards after Hackett’s cross had been headed away from goal.
Thame’s Pearce was shown a yellow card for an incident that I didn’t see, and Jack Gardner quickly followed him into the referee’s note-book. Yet again the referee played an advantage after a foul and when Barrett’s 40 yard effort was kept out by the scrambling Thame keeper, the referee went back to book the Thame offender. It was the third good piece of advantage play by the ref, and on every occasion the players complained to the referee for not awarding the free-kick after good positions were wasted ( twice by Didcot, once by Thame ). It seemed some players don’t see their team-mates having the ball in attacking positions as an advantage !
With added time being played, Barrett sent a 20 yard left-footed volley just wide of the Thame goal but there was still time for the game’s first controversial incident. Ngathe chipped the ball over the two Didcot centre-backs for Hackett to run onto. Bedwell came off his line, the two players collided and the referee awarded a penalty. I was virtually in line with the incident and I couldn’t tell if Bedwell got a touch on the ball before bringing down Hackett or whether the touch was afterwards. It wasn’t a decision I would have liked to make, and it wouldn’t have been a surprise if the referee had awarded a foul to Didcot instead, or even a corner for Thame.
Understandably the Didcot players, bench and supporters were furious, with the young linesman coming in for particular stick for not getting involved or helping the referee. When order was restored, David Pearce sent Bedwell the wrong way from the spot, to give Thame a 2-1 lead at the break.
After finishing the first half strongly, Thame continued in a similar vein at the start of the second period. Louis completely missed his kick when left unmarked from an inswing free-kick. Louis then saw his header from a Pearce corner deflect off the head of a Didcot defender, and from the resulting corner, Murray headed narrowly wide.
Didcot’s only response was for Wright to shoot from 30 yards which Hill only secured at the second attempt, and they shot themselves in the foot by careless conceding a third goal. From a free-kick mid-way inside the Thame half, Barrett bizarrely played the ball across the field straight to Pearce and the Thame forward ran 50 yard to the edge of the Didcot box before passing to Louis. The veteran journeyman held the ball up and then laid off for Hackett to step past Barrett and fire into the opposite corner for a fine finish. 3-1 to Thame with 54 minutes played.
With the result slipping away from them Didcot strived to get back into the match. A good pass through the middle found Humphries, but as he entered the Thame penalty area he was closed down by Murray and Carnell, and the ball bounced off one of the defenders and clear. Humphries went to ground, but was probably the only person in the ground appealing for a penalty.
Louis then looked to have out-muscled Taylor Bedwell to head clear for goal, but the referee deemed it to have been a foul and whistled for a free-kick to Didcot.
In the 65th minute Humphries did look to have strong case for a penalty after being brought down whilst bursting past a defender. It looked just inside the area to me, but the referee thought differently and awarded a free-kick just outside the area. Barder drilled the kick low to the bottom corner but was denied by a diving finger-tipped save by Hill.
As Diddy racked up the pressure, Putland saw a shot blocked, Bedwell headed over and then there were appeals for a handball inside the area which were ignored by the man-in-black.
After Ngathe shot wide from a good position from a Thame counter-attack, Jenson Wright then appeared to launch a one-man crusade to pull a goal back, cutting inside from the left only to shoot into Hill’s mid-rift, then a 20 yard attempt was tipped over the bar followed by another 25 yarder that went wide.
Humphries then looked a couple of yards offside but the linesmen hadn’t kept up with play so the flag stayed down, but his shot from a tight angle was blazed off for a throw-in.
Thame appealed for a penalty with 6 minutes left to play as West went to the floor after a slight nudge but he went down far too easily and referee allowed play to continue.
That was the last significant piece of action as Thame comfortably closed out the game to take the three points. Despite the colour of their shirts, Didcot will probably feel they didn’t get the rub of the green with some of the decisions, but they remained in 4th place in the table. Thame moved up one place to 14th, but more importantly increased the points gap from the relegation zone, and appear to be sailing into the calmer waters of mid-table obscurity !
Thame United : Hill – Thorne, Murray, Carnell, Mepham – Hackett ( Mcewan ), Gardner, West, Ngathe ( Tutton ) – Pearce, Louis
Didcot Town : L. Bedwell – Palmer, T.J. Bedwell, Putland, McNeill – Barder, Giles, Wright – Barrett ( Hedges ), Humphries, Glover ( J.Smith )
Online Programme : https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/files.pitchero.com/clubs/13461/5sUNR7QjQvW2HSkmFzwV_Didcot%20Town%2028%2001%2023.pdf
