Thame United entertained Bristol Manor Farm at Meadow view park in the extra preliminary round of the Emirates FA Cup. The visitors arrived at The ASM Stadium, on the back of an impressive pre season, scoring 29 goals in 7 matches. This game would prove to be a more difficult encounter.

The Red kites got off to a dream start, after 3 minutes when Eitel Goueth picked up the ball on the left hand side and crossed the ball into the box where centre forward Ben Kakembo rose above the defence to head the ball into the net.

At this point the home team were on top, passing the ball around and playing out from the back, and after 18 minutes Thame went 2 - 0 up. A quick ball out from goalkeeper Fred Chapman found Harry Williams who squared the ball to Captain Ollie Hogg on the edge of the area and fired up a powerful shot into the net, giving the keeper no chance.

Bristol came more into the game and on 32 minutes, a mix up in the home box saw the ball drop to the Aron Robbins inside the 6 yard box and he slotted into an empty net.

Minutes later Fred Chapman made a stunning save from a low drive from outside the box, pushing to ball out for a corner. And as the half came to an end, Bristol were awarded a penalty when Jordan Jenkins bought down a Bristol player in the box. Jordan picked up a yellow card. From the resulting spot kick Chapman made an excellent save diving to his right to stop the shot.

The half ended with the home side leading 2-1.

The second half saw Bristol step up their game and started to dominate the home team creating several chances and Thame side found it difficult to get the ball into the opposition half and errors started to creep giving the ball away in dangerous areas. Bristol were reward for the constant pressure in the 63 minute when a scramble in the box from a corner saw a shot from Steve Kingdom deflected, wrong footing the keeper and levelling the game.

Manager Ben Williams made two substitutes bringing on Lewis Cross and Harry Alexander for Pierce McNamara and Alfie Anderson. The visitors continued to dominate as the Red Kites began to tire and on 79 minutes after another corner the ball fell to Owen Brain who drove the ball past the keeper into the net.

The red kites pushed on in the last few minutes and although there was 9 minutes of added time, couldn’t force home an equaliser, and the match finished 3 -2 to Bristol Manor Farm. Overall the visitors probably deserved the victory after a very strong second half performances. But the Red Kites showed glimpses of what we can look forward to at The ASM Stadium this season as the team get more game time together. We move onto the start of the league campaign next Saturday with a home game agains Hadley.