Goalless Draw For Unlucky Thame United (Contributed)

LEAGUE: 26/01/08; Thame United 0,Finchampstead 0

DESPITE winning 0-4 the last time these teams met, Thame United could only manage a goalless draw with lowly Finchampstead last Saturday. It was Thame?s first game for three weeks and it showed. They were without leading goal scorer, Nathan Jack, whose leg injury is likely to keep him out for several weeks.

Thame dominated the game from kick off and in fact the game was 15 minutes old before the visitors launched their first attack. But, despite having two thirds of the possession, they were unable to create many goal scoring chances. Thame almost conceded an own goal after 23 minutes when both goalkeeper, Paul Searl, and defender Matt Higgs went for a ball on the edge of the Thame area. In the confusion Higgs lobbed his own goalkeeper and the ball was goal bound but Dave Hocking reacted quickly and was just able to clear it before it crossed the line.

A few minutes later Higgs was unlucky when he met a corner with a good header which was cleared of the visitor?s goal line. About five minutes before the break, Thame defender Hocking was injured during a scramble following another Thame corner and sadly left the field with a suspected fractured arm.

Thame came close to scoring with the last kick of the first half when the impressive Luke Ricketts took a free kick about 25 yards out. The ball was heading for the top right hand corner but the visiting Keeper did well to get his finger tips to it and deflect the ball over the bar.

The second half was much the same with Thame dominating the game but not able to penetrate the visitors defence. Manager, Mark West, made substitutions to enable Rickets and Graeme Catkin to play as strikers, but it was to no avail. The visitors packed their defence and managed to hang on until the final whistle.

For Thame this was definitely two points dropped rather than a point won. It is a measure of their superiority that they forced 16 corners against the visitors 1.

Thame United: Searl, Thompson, Ansell, Higgs, Hocking (Watkins), Catlin, Connelly, Rhodes, Skiller (Graves), Leach (Miah), Ricketts.

THAME UNITED are at home to local rivals Chinnor next Saturday 2nd Feb.(K.O. 3.00)