FA Vase: Lions are ‘Thamed’

Despite a virtually full-strength side, the hosts’ downbeat performance ended their hopes.

As early as the third minute, Luke Ricketts saw a free-kick whistle just wide of Pagham’s goal.

Thame’s Jamie Connor saw yellow after a succession of niggling tackles while Ben Gray, scorer of four in Thame’s previous FA Vase tie, shot wide after a solo run.

Pagham were being kept pegged back, although Terrell Lewis almost scored on his return to the side with a shot that whizzed across goal.

Some desparate defending by the home side was helped by some equally-desparate shooting by the visitors. With both keepers kept busy, neither side could break the deadlock. Dan West and Gray had good chances for the visitors.

Thirty-five minutes in, the Lions went down to ten men. Pagham skipper Dan Swain was shown a straight red, apparently for a studs-up challenge, which meant a re-jig in the Lions line-up.

Thame’s Ellis Hercules narrowly missed scoring into his own net. With the first half drifting to a close, Hercules headed home to give the visitors a narrow lead at the break.

Changes for Pagham at half-time saw Lloyd Rowlatt and David Crouch replace Lewis and Alex Kew.

Dan Simmonds put Crouch in on goal, but the strike was cleared.

On 51 minutes Thame keeper Lee Farrow fumbled a free-kick before recovering to make a decent save. Shots well over the bar at either end from Crouch and West left the game finely balanced.

Then on 56 minutes a poor back-pass from Pagham allowed Gray to nip in and score the second.

Calvin Evans might have scored a third, shooting wide then seeing a header well tipped over by Binfield.

Pagham’s best chances were coming from free-kicks and corners, but there was no way through a well-marshalled Thame barrier.

Binfield was sharp as the pressure was kept up by the visitors.

Just after the hour, the third went in, Ricketts’ run and shot giving Binfield no chance.

Andy Brown was booked before the Lions came close to scoring. An in-swinging corner punched out by Farrow was pounced on by Rowlatt, who fed Simmonds. The Lions goal-machine forced a save from Farrow but was unable to capitalise as the ball rebounded to his feet.

Crouch and Simmonds saw shots just miss the target and the game ended in a convincing win for Thame.

PAGHAM: Binfield, A Brown, J Warren (Grommett 64), Swain, Boniface, Garnett, Lewis (Rowlatt 45), N Murfin, R Brown, Simmonds, Kew (Drouch 45). Sub not used: Ediker.

JON ROSE

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