Thame United were back in the Pitching In Southern League Central Division One action on Tuesday night when they welcomed Kings Langley to The ASM Stadium for this rearranged match that was postponed in January due to a frozen pitch. After the last home defeat to Biggleswade FC, where the performance was somewhat below par, Thame were hoping to get back to winning ways. Thame had already faced Kings Langley this season back in September with Harry Alexander scoring two goals to give us a 2 - 0 away victory. Thame had a weekend off as their game away to AFC Dunstable was postponed two hours before kick off, while Kings Langley suffered a home defeat to Aylesbury. Manager Ben Willams was still without captain Mark Riddick who was serving his second of his two match suspension, new signing Lewis Thorne was missing through Illness, Curtis Brown reverted from right wing to right back with Josh Strands switching to left back.

Thame got the game under way kicking from left to right in the first half, but started the game off nervously, allowing the opposition to grab a foothold in the game and push Thame back, the visitors were playing some nice football, and were helped by the home side giving the ball away too many times, allowing Kings Langley to gain in confidence. The visitors had the first chance with a shot rebounding off of the bar and won a series of corners with keeper Matty Crowther called into action on serval occasions to pick the ball out of the air under pressure from the visitors front men.

Thame gradually started to gain more possession and started to threaten the Kings Langley goal, Ty Deacon, had a header just wide and Fin Murray was close to getting on the end of a short corner. Brayden Daniel was beginning to get some service on the left wing and was causing the visitor right back a few problems but it was turning into a good battle. The deadlock was broken on 26 minutes and it was against the run of play. A ball was played over the Kings Langley left back for Greg Hackett to run onto he outpaced the fullback and delivered a great cross into the six yard box where Brayden Daniel had beaten his marker to run onto a free header and into the back of the net.

Shortly after the goal, Thame had another half chance a cross from the right wasn’t held by the Langley keeper and the ball fell to Dan West, who wasn’t expecting the ball to reach him and his header looped over the bar. We then went through a phase of the opposition dominating the ball with their number 10 becoming more involved and calling the shots in midfield, Thame were under pressure and were again giving up possession with some poor clearances, the Thame defence was having to work over time to block balls into the box. With the amount of pressure Langley were putting on, it was only a matter of time before the equaliser came. Another poor clearance from the Thame defence found a Langley player midway in the Thame half, unmarked he played a cross field ball to the left hand side this was picked up by the Langley left winger as he raced towards the Thame box he was brought down from behind, on the edge of the box. The free kick was taken and although keeper Crowther got to the ball he could only tip it onto the bar, as the ball bounced out the langley number 6 was first to react to head the ball into the net, 1 - 1 after 44 minutes.

The last action of the half saw Thames Harry Alexander go down after slight coming together with a Langley player, he was in a lot of pain, and the physio was called on immediately, after a few minutes of treatment the referee blew the half time whistle, treatment continued until a stretcher was brought out and the player moved to the medical room. The half ended with the teams level, with the score a fair reflection of how the half panned out.

Thame came out for the second half with Tom McElroy coming on for the injured Harry Alexander and were galvanised into action pinning the visitors back, There were some blocked shots and a couple of corners won and it wasn’t long before the home side retook the lead, from a corner taken by Jack Tutton from the right hand side, both Greg Hackett and Ty Deacon ran across the goal mouth towards the front post and Hackett swung at it and the ball flew into the net it was difficult to see if the ball had come off of Ty Deacon, but no matter Thame were back into the lead after 51 minutes, and almost immediately it was three. Josh Stranks picked up the ball from a loose pass, ran at the Langley defence, he was tackled just out side the box and the ball fell to Dan West who’s first time shot beat the diving keeper into the left hand corner of the goal. Thame made there second substitute on 77 minutes with Oscar Lucey replacing Greg Hackett in a straight swap.

The two quick goals had stunned the visitors and the home side were now in control of the game content to sit back, allow Langley to come onto them and counter attack, which was causing a lot of problems as the visitors were so open in the midfield area, with Curtis Brown, Oscar Lucey and Brayden Daniel all going close to extending the lease. Jefferson Louis replace Ty Deacon on 83 minutes who gave the Langley centre backs a different type of problem to deal with. And as the game reached its conclusion the Thame keeper Crowther had had little to do with Thame controlling the tempo and flow of the game. With 3 minutes of added time the home side comfortably saw out the remaining minutes for a deserved victory in the end. The result keeps Thame in 6th place but now on the same points as Flackwell Heath and three points behind third placed Barton Rovers, next up is a vista to Northwood on Saturday 22 February

Man of the Match

Curtis Brown

Goals
Jefferson Louis 64 minutes
Ty Deacon 82 minutes
Greg Hackett 91 minutes
Curtis Brown 94 minutes

Starting Eleven

1.Matty Crowther
2.Josh Stranks
3.Oscar Lucey
4.Jack Tutton
5.Fin Murray
6.Mark Riddick
7.Brayden Daniel (Harry Alexander 75 minutes)
8.Ethan Lack (Greg Hackett 45 minutes)
9.Ty Deacon
10.Dan West (Jefferson Louis 62 Minutes)
11.Harry Alexander (Curtis Brown 66 minutes)

Substitutes
12.Ethan Lack
14.Tom McElroy
15.Oscar Lucey
16.Jefferson Louis