12/01/11…….Entertaining encounter at Meadow Park View

LEAGUE GAME – Tuesday, January 11 – HOME: Thame United 1, Reading Town 0. MATCH REPORT – Contributed

A crowd of 135 ventured out last evening, preferring to see Thame United v Reading Town at Thame?s ASM Stadium, rather than West Ham v Birmingham on TV. They were not disappointed! The game was played at pace, with the evenly matched teams contesting every ball, making it an entertaining encounter to watch. Thame won 1-0 and, as a result, move up one league place to 12th in the table.

Within three minutes of the start, Thame?s Alex Stuart headed the ball into the net but his effort was disallowed. Minutes later a strong shot from Stuart Barr forced a good save from the visiting keeper. Following the resultant corner Nik Rhodes was fouled just outside the penalty area. Stewart took the free kick, hitting a rocket which took a deflection off the wall to beat the keeper. The visitors fought back and mounted attack after attack, with United?s keeper Milan Barisic by far the busier of the two keepers. He was however in good form, making some first rate saves.

Second half possession was more even and United almost increased their lead shortly after the restart. Mitchell Meredith took a long free kick which both the keeper and Stuart jumped for, Stuart?s header hitting the post. Sadly, nobody was following up and the ball was cleared. There then followed some attractive end-to-end football with Rhodes and Saulsbury outstanding in defence, and Barisic determined to keep a clean sheet. With about 20 minutes remaining Aaron Rogers hit a strong volley from the edge of the box forcing an excellent save from the visiting keeper. The last few minutes saw the visitors laying siege to the Thame goal, causing manager Mark West to bring on defender, Pete Way for striker Rogers.

Thame United: Barisic, Barr, Newell (Meredith), Saulsbury, N Rhodes, Cowan, Connelly, Hayes, Stuart, Rogers (Way), Braun (Jones)

Thame are away to Wotton Bassett Town on Saturday, January 15 and Thame United Reserves play Bletchingdon in the quarter final of the Oxfordshire Intermediate Cup at the ASM Stadium, in Thame. Kick off is at 1.30pm.