24/03/11………Thame victorious in ‘fiery clash’ (Contributed)

GIVEN that for much of last season the race for the Division One East title was between Thame and Wokingham and Emmbrook, it was perhaps not surprising that the rivalry continued in to this first Premier Division clash between the sides.

Whilst Thame ran out 2-1 winners, the score line belies their dominance of a fiery match.

Playing down the slope in the first half, United immediately had their opponents on the back foot and took the lead within the first ten minutes. Striker James Faulkner ran on to a through ball and from a tight angle hit an unstoppable drive low in to the bottom corner of the goal. With Wokingham finding it difficult to get out of their own half, and placing too much reliance on long balls down the centre of the field, Thame pressed for a second and after good wing play from Man of the Match Ben Connelly, Faulkner was presented with two good chances to extend the lead, seeing a shot and a header just miss the target.

As it was, Thame could not extend their lead for the remainder of the first half and were anticipating a difficult second half as their opponents had the advantage of playing down the slope. However, whilst Wokingham began to see more of the ball, the final pass lacked penetration and frustration started to set in, with a number of dangerous tackles going unpunished by the officials. With quarter of an hour gone Thame won a corner that Stuart Barr delivered from the right and on to the head of Mitchell Meredith whose powerful effort was seemingly goal bound until it struck Alex Stewart on the goal line and went over for a goal kick. However, Thame only had to wait another five minutes before extending their lead. Another Barr corner from the right was cleared to the edge of the box where skipper James Saulsbury hit a sweet volley in to the corner of the net.

It was no more than Thame deserved and five minutes later, Faulkner had the ball in the back of the net again as he finished confidently from the edge of the box. Unfortunately for the travelling contingent from Thame, Faulkner was ruled off-side although even the partisan home crowd accepted the decision was somewhat dubious. Things went from bad to worse for Faulkner as shortly afterwards, and having run the Wokingham skipper, Shaun Wanklyn ragged all evening, he was sent from the field of play for a second yellow card ? reacting to a wreckless ?chop? from Wanklyn that the official somehow managed to miss.

Even down to ten men, United were comfortable in defence, and it tells a story when Thame keeper Milan Barisic was not called in to action until the 85th minute, doing well to block a shot from the edge of the six yard box. Wokingham did score a late consolation goal with 30 seconds left when Tom Hopper met a corner from the right but by then Thame had more than done enough to take the three points and move up to ninth in the league.

Thame United: Barisic, Newell, Pykett, Rhodes, Saulsbury, Meredith, Hayes, Connelly, Stewart, Faulkner, Barr.

Jake Collings