March 30, 2024
Fatbear finally made his first visit to Thame United for this season. Two previous attempts had been thwarted by bad weather leading to the matches being postponed, leaving just the Christmas fixture at Kidlington being the only Thame United match reported on so far this season.
https://fatbearssportingdiaries.blogspot.com/2023/12/kidlington-fc-2-1-thame-united-att-133.html
As that review documented, Thame had lost their management team and virtually all of their players in the summer, leading to new manager Ben Williams having to build a new squad for this season. Naturally, there had been a turnover of players during the campaign as Thame struggled to turn out a competitive team, and 44 players had appeared for the Red Kites this season prior to today.
After that loss at Kidlington, Thame were in the bottom two of the Southern League Division One Central, and despite some encouraging results since they were now bottom of the division, two points behind 17th placed Kempston Rovers. Today’s visitors Ware, were fourth in the table.
Thame embarked on a run of four wins out of five following the match against Kidlington, beating Aylesbury United ( H 3-1 ), Welwyn Garden City ( A 4-3 ), Kempston Rovers ( H 1-0 ) and Stotfold ( A 2-0 ). They then lost 5 matches on trot until winning last Saturday 2-0 at Biggleswade FC, but lost 2-3 in mid-week to a late goal at second placed Bedford Town. Their overall record was 8-3-18 and 5-2-8 at home.
Perhaps their most notable recent result though was a 2-1 victory over National League Oxford City in the semi-final of the Oxfordshire Senior Cup, with the Oxford City side including 10 players who had played in their first team this season.
Thame had recently been strengthened by the return of 45 year old striker Jefferson Louis for his fourth spell at the club, and whilst no-one was too sure of how many clubs he has played for, opinions vary between 44 to 47, he definitely has more clubs than Jack Nicklaus, Nick Faldo and Tiger Woods combined ! Louis played today as a centre-back though.….
19 year old Harry Alexander was Thame’s joint top scorer in the league with 6 goals, alongside midfielder Eitel Goueth. Thame’s average home attendance this season was 115.
Ware Background
Ware is a town in Hertfordshire with a population of just under 20,000 and its football team are a non-league trivia quiz question, as not having a suffix eg Town, United, Rangers etc, they have the joint shortest name of all English football clubs. Bury is another with just four letters !
Ware had been perennial bridesmaids in recent seasons in their efforts to escape from step 4. In 2019/20 Ware were 6 points ahead of second placed Hanwell Town in the Isthmian South Central Division after 30 games, but the season was terminated due to Covid so they were not promoted.
In 2020/21 they were third after 7 games in a Covid interrupted season, and were then level transferred to the Southern League Division One Central.
In 2021/21 Ware finished 4th, but after overcoming AFC Dunstable on penalties after an away 0-0 draw, they lost 2-4 at home to North Leigh, where Jefferson Louis scored a crucial goal for North Leigh in the 95th minute, before they added another two minutes later. A crowd of 1,564 attended the match
In Ware 2022/23 finished 5th but after beating Biggleswade FC 4-1 away, they lost 0-1 at Didcot in front of an incredible crowd of 1,938.
Ware This Season
Ware started today in 4th place with a 15-4-11 record but despite impressive home form, their away record was an ordinary 5-2-8.
Their results in their last 6 away matches had been poor. Last time out they had won 3-1 at North Leigh, a side who had fallen apart after nearly all their team had recently left and are not expected to win another game this season.
Prior to that though they had lost 0-1 at 18th placed Kidlington, 1-2 at 16th placed Barton Rovers and 2-4 at 17th placed Kempston Rovers. In-between they had drawn at Stotfold and Hadley, both of whom were also in the bottom half of the table.
However, at home they had beaten high flying Bedford Town ( 4-2 ) and Cirencester ( 1-0 ) in recent weeks.
Liam Dulson was Ware’s top scorer with 23 goals but had recently moved to Bedford Town. In his place, Jon Clements was the current top scorer with 14, but no-one else had scored more than 5 times.
Ware’s average home attendance was 233.
Matchday Information
The journey from Ware to Thame is between 60 to 70 miles depending on the route chosen, but should normally take around 80 minutes.
Weather at 15.00 kick-off was dry and sunny, and the temperature was 14 degrees.
Attendance was £8 for adults, £5 for concessions and £3 for Under 16s. The programme was online but free, and a cup of tea cost £1.50.
Thame made one change from the side that lost in midweek at Bedford, with 18 year old Oxford City loanee Jayden Carbon coming in for Fountain. Ware made two changes from their last match, with midfielder Jack Dreyer, son of former Luton and Oxford United defender John Dreyer and who was reportedly watching today, and striker Kieran Bishop replacing Ironton and Clements.
Ware were wearing blue and white stripes shirts, blue shorts and socks. Thame were in red and black stripes, with black shorts and red socks
Match Report
It was ghostly quiet before the match kicked-off, with no music or tannoy announcements. The sounds of players on the pitches outside of the stadium could be clearly heard.
There wasn’t much for the crowd to cheer in the opening twenty minutes, as there was precious little action to report. Neither side were able to string three passes together and it reminded me of the parody of 1970’s local hospital radio football broadcasts eg “we’ve got it, they’ve got it, we’ve got it, they’ve got it……”. The bobbly pitch probably didn’t help the quality of the play and the Ware bench were led to furiously berate their players on one occasion.
At this stage it was easy to see why Thame were bottom of the table, but much harder to see how Ware were in fourth place.
Thame were looking the more likely side to create something. A low ball from Alexander went across the face of the goal but away from Carbon, and Carbon played a chest lay-off for Harriott to go on a mazy run but Goueth was offside when the ball was passed to him.
There was a break in play in the 18th minute and the referee showed a yellow card to Ware centre-back Ekow Coker. Presumably it was for something he said to the official as the Ware bench shouted to him to “Shut Up”.
Another Thame move ended with an off-side flag after Lack played a clever ball over his marker and Carbon was too strong for Ware right-back Georgiou, but although Alexander was put clear, he was offside.
Ware were shown another yellow card for something I missed, as left-back Sota incurred the referee’s displeasure and the fury of the Ware bench mounted.
The referee was allowing some robust challenges to go un-punished and Ware’s Grosvenor appeared to pull back Goueth, but the man in black wasn’t interested in blowing his whistle.
The first notable piece of skill was shown in the 22nd minute as Ware right-winger Theo Ofori skipped past Lucey, but Murray made a great sliding tackle to dispossess Ofori as his sped into the Thame penalty area.
Thame put the ball into the back of the net in the 25th minutes but again were denied by an off-side flag. Carbon and Harriott had combined to play in Ethan Lack but the goal was chalked off.
Carbon then showed good skill to make space but his through ball was over-hit and keeper Burbidge was able to gather ahead of Alexander.
The first hint of danger from Ware came from a long throw from Hahn, which flicked off the head of a home defender before being hoofed away at the back post.
The opening goal of the match arrived in the 31st minute. A long ball put Bishop clear and from my seat in line with play he looked two yards off-side. Unfortunately for Thame, the linesman was nowhere near up with play, so Bishop was allowed to continue, and although Thame keeper Davis was able to dive at the striker’s feet to push the ball away, Bishop retrieved the ball and played back to the 6 yard line, where Dearman struck past the defender on the line to give Ware the lead. 0-1 after 31 minutes.
Thame seemed stunned by falling behind and nearly conceded against almost immediately. The Thame defence stood and watched as the ball bounced inside their area and Hahn was able to hook back to Warman, whose close range effort produced a top finger-tip save from Davis.
However, Ware soon added a second goal with a quality piece of football. Ofori ran from close to half-way and threaded a tremendous ball between the Thame back-line for Dreyer to run onto and slide past the Thame keeper. 0-2 with 36 minutes played.
Ware were increasingly starting to look the better side and forced consecutive corners, the second of which needed to be punched away from under his bar by Davis. Louis then needed to make a good tackle to prevent Ofori from running clear, and moments later proved too strong in the challenge for Ofori, who after picking himself up off the floor whinged at both the referee and the linesman, only to be given a stern talking too and was told “That was never a foul in a million years” by the ref.
Ware held on to their 2-0 lead at half-time after what had been an awful 30 minutes of football, but the visitors had improved in the final 15 minutes.
Ware started the second half brightly. Thame appealed in vain for an off-side as Ofori chased a long ball, but Davis came out of his area to concede a throw-in.
Thame midfielder Harriott was the next player to enter the referee’s note book, fouling Hahn but the curling free-kick into the area was well cleared.
Thame appealed for a penalty a minute later when Goueth went down in the Ware penalty area, but again the referee wasn’t impressed.
The visitors nearly scored again in the 53rd minute. The Thame defence could only partially clear a long throw and Dreyer’s volley on the jump from 10 yards took a deflection to go wide for a corner. The set-piece was headed away to Bishop on the edge of the penalty area but his goal-bound shot hit Louis.
A Thame free-kick found Murray but his header was cleared, and on the counter attack Ofori was too good for Lucey, but there was no Ware attacker in support to convert the low cross into the Thame area.
Ofori was not to be denied though and added Ware’s third goal with a superb individual finish. Receiving the ball mid-way inside the Thame half wide on the right, he cut-back inside onto his left foot and from just outside the area shot into the top corner of the net for a fabulous finish. 0-3 after 59 minutes.
Whether Ware subconscious relaxed with the game won, or the respective substitutions of each side changed the nature of the game, but Thame started to get back into the game. MacNamara won a strong header near the half-way line which enabled Knight to run clear down the right wing. The ball was played inside to Alexander, who finished from 12 yards. 1-3 with 70 minutes gone.
Alexander made a break a minute later, but the Ware defence was able force him to offload to Lack, who was isolated and dispossessed.
Dearman then beat Lucey on the right, but after Dreyer’s lay-off, the Ware attack was crowded out. Moncur and Siggers then combined to put Dearman in space but his left footed shot from 14 yards was straight at Davis who saved at his near post.
Goueth’s free-kick for Thame was headed high into the air by Murray, and keeper Burbidge had to punch off for a corner before Louis could head for goal. The corner went to the far post and hit a defender. The ball fell kindly to Lack 10 yards out, but the Thame player lacked composure and lashed his shot out of the ground. A glorious chance had gone begging.
In the 80th minute, keeper Burbidge took a long drop-kick which was poorly headed away by Lucey. Dearman struck first time from around 25 yards, but Davis made a scrambling save to push the ball around the post for a corner.
Two minutes later, a Thame through ball put Knight clear with just the keeper to beat, and although the ball appeared to come off a Ware defender’s foot, the linesman’s flag was raised for off-side.
Alexander then won a free-kick just outside the Ware area after being foul trying to go for an acrobatic left footed volley, but the same player stepped up to take the free-kick, only to blast it into the defensive wall.
With added on time being played Ennin got past McNamara on the left by-line, but his low ball was put off for a corner by Murray. Ware won three consecutive corners as Davis was forced to twice punch over the bar.
The match finished with a minor moment of controversy. Ware’s Ennin put the ball out of play to allow treatment to the injured Louis, but when play eventually restarted, Thame did not return possession to Ware, and tried to attack down the left wing. Fortunately, nothing came of the move, and the game ended shortly after, with Ware taking a deserved three points.
Ware had been very poor for thirty minutes, but were able to turn it around, perhaps assisted by the first goal fortunately for them not being ruled out for offside. Ofosi, Dreyer, Warman and Dearman all impressed the longer the game went on, and Coker put in a solid shift at the back.
With this victory Ware remained in 4th place, and looking good for yet another play-off attempt. Thame stayed bottom, and their chances of staying up look bleak. Next-up they have a huge relegation battle against neighbours Aylesbury United on East Monday.
Link To Online Programme : https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/files.pitchero.com/clubs/13461/AiXUWRM7Rw6p986HmHXH_Match%20Day%20Programme%20Ware.pdf
Thame United : Davis – Maxwell ( McNamara ), Murray, Louis, Lucey – Lack, Riddick, Harriott ( Lucas ), Alexander – Carbon ( Knight ), Goueth
Ware FC : Burbidge – Georgiou ( Siggers ), Hahn, Coker, Grosvenor, Sota – Ofori ( Ennin ), Hahn ( Moncur ), Warman, Dreyer, Dearman – Bishop
