Marlow United 0, Thame United 0

 

3/11/07         League

 

On paper at least an away draw and clean sheet against fifth place Marlow was a good result for Thame, but after 90 minutes United will wonder how they failed to leave Wilks Park without three points. In truth, Thame’s failure to score was a combination of some good goalkeeping, wayward finishing and curious officiating.

 

Thame opened brightly and what turned out to be the best chance of the game fell to Gary Marshall in the 11th minute. Nathan Jack turned well on the left hand side and delivered a low pin point cross between the six yard box and penalty spot that Marshall, arriving at the far post, placed back beyond the keeper but narrowly wide of the post. A similar chance fell to Marshall ten minutes later from a Luke Ricketts cross, but the result was the same. Captain Dave Hocking then went close with a header from a free kick, before Marlow had their best period of the game. However, United keeper Searl was rarely troubled as the back four combination of Thompson, Ansell, Higgs and Hocking dealt comfortably with the Marlow forward line.

 

The second half was more one-sided as Thame searched for the elusive first goal. Both Ricketts and Jack went close when, after 20 minutes of the half, both the referee and his assistant failed to spot an obvious handball in the Marlow penalty box. Despite this, United continued to press forward with Ricketts and Ben Connelly on the left and right respectively causing the Marlow defence problems, with Greg Boult and Adam Rhodes gaining the upper hand in midfield. With 15 minutes to go Marlow were reduced to 10 men when midfielder Matt Flint was sent off for an elbow to the face of Ricketts. Together with the introduction of Nigel Swafford for Gary Marshall, this galvanised Thame further and, with 5 minutes to go, a through ball from Ricketts was met by Swafford who was body checked by the Marlow centre back as he raced in to the box but, again, the referee failed to give a penalty. Still there was time for Marlow keeper Pollard to pull-off a point blank save whilst Rhodes saw his cross shot go agonisingly wide of the far post in the last serious action of the game.

 

Despite their failure to score United will go in to their away game next Saturday (2:15pm kick off) against unbeaten League leaders Chalfont Wasps on a high.

 

Thame United: Searl, Thompson, Ansell, Higgs, Hocking, Boult, Connelly, Rhodes, Marshall (Swafford), Jack, Ricketts.

Subs not used: Graves, Catlin