Thame United Bow Out Of FA Vase (Contributed)

THAME United bowed out of the FA Vase at the second qualifying round stage on Saturday, with a 2-1 defeat against Melksham Town from the Premier Division of the Western League.
Thame started brightly and opened the scoring in the tenth minute with Nathan Jack scoring his first goal since returning to the Club from Kidlington. In typical fashion, Jack beat two men before firmly placing the ball beyond the Melksham keeper from the edge of the box. The lead was, however, short lived when five minutes later, the Melksham striker found space from a throw in and beat keeper Paul Searl. Five minutes later Thame found themselves 2-1 down when a through ball beat the Thame defence and in a one-on-one with Searl, the Melksham striker coolly dispatched what turned out to be the winning goal.

The second half was all Thame as they searched for an equaliser with the main threat again coming from striker Nathan Jack. With time running out, Thame threw caution to the wind and as a result, gaps appeared in the defence. Twice in the last 10 minutes Melksham hit the woodwork and Thame relied on Searl to make a number of good stops. However, Thame were unable to find the equaliser and the dream of a trip to Wembley was put on hold for another year.

Thame return to League action next Saturday, September 29, with a home tie against third place Englefield Green Rovers (AFC Wallingford, 3:00pm kick off).
Thame United: Searl, Ansell, Graves, Higgs (Way), Jackman, Boult, Connelly, Hocking, Leach, (Reading), Jack, Watkins (Cowan)