SOUTHERN LEAGUE DIVISION ONE CENTRAL

Thame United       2            St Neots Town        0               

As the match finished Saturday firework displays began to light up the darkening sky in stark contrast to St Neots performance which had been akin to a damp squib. The visitors dominated play – especially in the first 45 minutes – yet never produced a single threatening shot at the home goal until the 89th minute when Neo Richard-Noel failed to seriously test the home goalkeeper. With midfield pair Brendan Shabani and skipper Lee Watkins back in midfield, replacing Marc Abbott and Jake Battersby, and leading scorer Joe Rider in for Elliott Sartorius, St Neots were almost back to full strength, but they just failed to deliver against a host side that had only stubborn defence in their armoury in the first hour of the match. St Neots boasted lots of early possession. Despite playing some attractive approach football the important end product was sadly missing from a side that boasted an average of almost two and a half goals per league match prior to this visit to Oxfordshire.

Winning the toss St Neots elected to play with wind advantage but seemingly had no idea how to use it to their credit. Too many forward balls went harmlessly through to the home keeper, but to their credit St Neots persisted with their patient approach with rare forward  sorties by the home side only coming when careless passing surrendered the ball. When St Neots did threaten the home side were not afraid to concede free kicks to halt their visitors progress and early in the match Jack Tompkins became the first of four home players to be booked. Kwai Marsh Brown was St Neots’ most dangerous player and he shot just wide and had a second effort deflected for a corner as the first half wore on.   St Neots were fortunate when Mamadou Jobe carelessly gave the ball away four minutes before the break, but Charlie Johnson came to his rescue with a well times tackle to dispossess Jack Tutton.  Just on the stroke of half time Joe Rider limped off with a hamstring problem – Elliott Sartorius substituting.

In the first notable action of the second half Thame took the lead against the run of play when direct from a corner Dave Pearce curled the ball beyond the reach of George Whitehall and into the far corner of the net to put his side ahead.  Neo Richard-Noel then headed over the bar and at the other end, Whitehall made some amends for his earlier error when he twisted to turn a Ryan Blake shot over for a corner.    However Thame had grown in confidence and twelve minutes from time Dave Pearce was perfectly placed to turn a Blake cross beyond the reach of the visiting goalkeeper for the home sides’ second goal.   With their confidence low St Neots never looked like getting back into the match in the time remaining and helped b y some blatant time wasting that earned their goalkeeper a booking, Thame held out with few problems to take all three points and move up to thirteenth in the table.

Today’s Saints Supporters’ Man of the Match was awarded to Kwai Marsh-Brown

 

 

 

St Neots:  Whitehall, Marfo, Heal, Shabani, Johnson (C), Jobe, Cowling, Watkins, Richard-Noel, Rider, Marsh-Brown

Subs:  Sartorius (for Rider 43 mins), Battersby (for Heal 56 mins), Abbott (for Watkins 79 mins), Steel and Gomes.

Cards:  Heal (Y – 34 mins)

Goals:   none

 

Thame:  Hill, Thorne, Mepham, Gledhill, Lynn, Tompkins, Pearce, Goss, Tutton, West, Blake

Subs:  Peake-Pijnen (for Blake 46 mins), Gray (for Pearce 89 mins), Mapley and Scott

Cards:  Tompkins (Y – 19 mins), Blake (Y – 57 mins), Tutton (Y – 66 mins), Hill (Y – 90+3 mins)

Goals:  Pearce 2 (48 mins & 78 mins)

Referee:  Thomas Holden (Reading)

Attendance:   126

John Walker