Thame United 2-3 AFC Dunstable
Thame United 2- 3 AFC Dunstable
29nd October 2024
A very pleasant evening for a game of football saw the ODs pick up three points on the road for the second time this season with both of those wins coming in Oxfordshire! It might have been a slightly fortunate result (a draw probably would have been fairer), but we deserved the points on the pure quality of the goals scored.
AFC started strongly and were unlucky not to take the lead in the first minute when a deflected shot from Ollie looped over the keeper and hit the bar with the ball rebounding to Rico but he hurried his shot and hit the ball over the top. AFC continued to take the game to the hosts but were caught cold when Thame broke away with 7 minutes gone and a speculative shot from Greg Hackett squirmed past Seb – their first foray in to our area and they went 1-0 up.
Not much happened for the next 20 or so minutes other than the ball going from end to end – very hectic but little quality in either teams play. A few half chances but nothing of any real note. Thame were caught offside almost every time they went near our goal it seemed.
With 32 gone, the score was levelled at 1-1 when Rico went on a run through the middle (the ball ricocheted off a Thame player to get to Rico according to their match report) and he finished very confidently across the keeper with the ball nestling in the bottom right corner of the net. Game on.
A couple more half efforts saw out the first half – the best one probably leading to a goal line clearance by AFC – looked offside to me but no flag forthcoming. There was also a naughty challenge on Harry which resulted in a deserved yellow card for the Thame player – Kwad also picking up a card for a bit of shoving. With 5 minutes to go Thame had a decent chance when their number 8 broke away but finished with a wayward shot with no composure. First half summary – AFC the dominant team with some decent football. Thame very direct style of play and frequently offside.
The second half started in much the same way as the first half ended with half chances for both sides. Thame retook the lead on 70 minutes with another goal from Greg Hackett – a well taken goal from a very decent cross.
AFC made a number of substitutions with Tali, Bruce and Charlie coming on and slowly but surely the game changed in the visitors favour. A great run from Olly ended with a pass to Sean but it was just a bit too far ahead of him to make a decent connection. Another chance from a Rico free kick on 80 minutes saw Tali head the ball just wide. Three minutes later Rico swung in another free kick from the right – Tommy made a run down the wing and when the free kick was headed away it fell perfectly for Tommy who hit the ball with the outside of his right foot and it flew past the goalkeeper in to the top right corner of the net – an absolute blockbuster of a shot – definite candidate for goal of the season!
Thame had a couple of opportunities to win the game as we went into an unknown number of minutes added time. A last ditch tackle by Tommy was followed by an excellent low shot that Seb got down to and push the ball round the post – a superb save to keep us in the game. Thame thought they had won it 6 minutes in to added time when Greg Hackett netted again but the linesman flagged for offside much to our relief.
The winner came with 97 on the clock. Bruce took the ball in the area and squared it to Tali who dropped his shoulder and then slotted the ball into the corner of the net – a great finish. Tali has now played just short of 70 minutes for AFC and scored 3 goals are earned us 3 points!! The ref still played another 2 minutes and it was quite a relief when the final whistle sounded and we took all 3 points. Thame understandably felt a little hard done by to lose the game but we took our chances when they came.
Man of the match as voted by the committee went to Stan Georgiou.
Team line up (subs in brackets); Seb Stacey, Stan Georgiou, Khyan Frazer-Williams (Tali Jallow 74), Tommy Blennerhassett, Harry Riley (Charlie Davis 80), Kwadwo Bugyei-Kyei, George Joyce (Bruce Ovbiye-Nsang 74), Oliver Spicer, Sean Duodu (Russell Berko 84), Rico Greco, Kyle Brooks
