11/10/10….Thame United beaten on penalties

GIVEN their mounting number of fixtures to be played in the League, United will not have been too disappointed to have been beaten on penalties (7-6) by Flackwell Heath in the league Challenge Cup on Saturday, following a nil, nil score.

Manager Mark West took the opportunity presented by the game to rotate the squad, with James Way, Paul Searl and Mitchell Meredith all starting, and Sam Cowan making a welcome return. The first half was largely uneventful with the game contained in the middle of the park with few goal scoring opportunities, albeit the centre back pairing of Nik Rhodes and Meredith were kept occupied by Riccardo Cannon, the talented Flackwell Heath striker.

Whilst the second half started in similar vein, the game gradually became more open as both sides pushed forward for the elusive first goal. Indeed, it was United who created the first clear goal scoring opportunity when Aaron Rogers, playing against his former club, found space inside the box following a goal mouth scramble and saw his shot beat the home keeper before being cleared off the line. Flackwell responded with a series of dangerous crosses in to the Thame box with Searl pushing a goal bound header around the post before Alex MacDonald on the wide right crossed for Alex Stewart whose powerful header was heading for the top corner before being pushed over by the home keeper. Moments later Rogers was put clean through and, just as he was about to make contact with the ball, was pulled back by the retreating central defender. Whilst this forced the striker to place the ball just wide of the post, United looked to the referee in anticipation of a foul, only to see the official wave play on.

This was the last real chance of the 90 minutes and the game went in to extra time with both teams again looking for the inspirational moment that would turn the match. This was not forthcoming, despite an excellent Searl save from a corner, and a header from MacDonald that went just wide of the post. With the score still tied, the match went down to penalties and with some interesting officiating, that saw the experienced Flackwell Heath player, James Pritchard, sent from the field of player, it was Flackwell who finally edged through 7-6 after nearly two hours of play.

United are again without a league games this coming Saturday (16th October) as they face Woodcote and Stoke Row at home (AFC Wallingford) in the Oxfordshire Senior Cup, a competition where they will be looking to make significant progress.

Thame United: Searl, Newell, Cowan, Meredith, N. Rhodes (Fisher), Braun, A.Rhodes, MacDonald (Lovell), Rogers, Stewart, Way