Thame dominant against Kintbury Rangers (Contributed)

HELLENIC LEAGUE DIVISION 1 EAST – Tuesday 18th August, 2009 – KINTBURY RANGERS 1, THAME UNITED 2. MATCH REPORT:

United maintained their 100% record in the league on Tuesday evening with a comfortable win at previously unbeaten Kintbury Rangers. It would be no exaggeration to say that United should have been four up after the quarter of an hour and these missed chances ultimately led to a nervous final few minutes.

United dominated from the kick off and in the opening ten minutes Dave Hocking, Lawrence El-Kassir and Ben Connelly all went close as they laid siege to the Kintbury goal. Two good opportunities went begging in the tenth minute when Nik Rhodes firstly saw his header at the back post from a Connelly cross well saved by the home keeper, before leading scorer Mark Jones somehow contrived to place the ball over the bar from only four yards.

Kintbury rarely threatened the Thame goal, although keeper Orkney had to be alert in the 23rd minute, grabbing a mis-hit effort low to his right. The pressure eventually paid for United in the 41st minute. Nik Rhodes met a corner with a powerful header that the keeper could only parry in to the path of El-Kassir who calmly slotted the ball home from close range.

With United 1-0 ahead at the break, they came out in the second half determined to kill the game off. They nearly did this in the 55th minute when, in similar fashion to Jones earlier in the game, Rhodes managed to volley the ball over the bar from only three yards. United did get their second five minutes later, Adam Rhodes played a through ball to Luke Ricketts that the defender was unable to deal with, and Ricketts hit a powerful low drive in to the bottom right hand corner of the net from 20 yards, giving the keeper no change.

There followed a period of disjointed play, albeit Thomas Hoskin had the ball in the back of the net on 63 minutes only to be pulled back for off-side, and the home keeper did well to save from the same player 10 minutes later.

With United seemingly easing towards another win, Kintbury pulled a goal back with five minutes to go. Given space, the young Kintbury right back hit a powerful drive from 25 yards that seemed to bounce awkwardly in front of keeper Orkney and flew in to the bottom corner. United then defended deep in their own half for the remainder of the game and came under increasing pressure. However, Orkney was not tested again and United held on for another victory that sees them well placed in the top six in the league.

On Saturday (22nd August) United have a home fixture against promoted Woodley Town (3:00pm kick off at Wallingford), before another home fixture against unbeaten South Kilburn on Tuesday 25th August (7:45pm kick off at Wallingford).

Thame United: Orkney, Cowan, Newell (Wakelin), N.Rhodes, Hocking, El-Kassir, A.Rhodes, Connelly (Rogers), Jones (Stocker), Hoskin, Ricketts.
Subs not used: West, Way.