Enfield FC delivered a fighting performance at home, securing a convincing 4-0 victory over Thame United in the Pitching In Southern League Division One Central. The hosts battled for everything to try and keep their several hopes alive, with Toib Adeyemi opening the scoring early on and Joni Vukaj completing a remarkable hat-trick from the penalty spot. Thame United struggled to mount a meaningful response, despite some promising moments in attack, and were ultimately undone by defensive lapses and controversial refereeing decisions. Manager Ben Williams made one change to the last game with Lance Williams replacing Charlie Stow up front and there was a welcome return to the squad for Louis Walsh who started the game on the bench.

Thame started the game brightly creating a number of chances in the opening 10 minutes with two goal line clearances from the home side defence denying Thame from taking the lead, then a good save from the home sides keeper denying Luke Tingey with his head from a Jack Tutton corner. but it was Enfield who took the lead against the run of play and it was a poor goall to concede after winning a corner on the right hand side the ball was whipped across the 6 yard box, with the Thame defence failing to clear the ball twice and it fell to the number 6 Adeyemi at the back post who fired it into the roof of the net. The visitors reacted and pushed forward with some neat play in midfield but failed to capitalise on the ball into the final third and were guilty of over playing the ball, but the visitors were in the ascendency with Enfield forced to play on the counter attack. But as the half continued the visitors grew into the game with all Thames efforts coming to nothing, then as the half drew to a close a moment of controversy which favoured the home side. Enfield left winger broke on the left hand side past Ethan Lack and into the penalty area as he neared the touch line Lack who had been chasing back made the tackle, clearly winning the ball and playing it back to keeper Crowther, the Enfield player went over Lack and fell to the floor, unbelievably the referee pointed to the spot, a really poor decision of which Thame felt really aggrieved by it. The home side number 7 Vukaji stepped up to send the keeper the wrong way and send them into a 2 - 0 lead at half time. Clearly unhappy with the referees performance Manager Ben Williams was booked for arguing with him as both teams walked off.

The second half started with Thame pushing forward and again dominating the play but struggled to really make a difference time and time again they got in and around the penalty area but couldn't direct a shot on target countless times shots sailed wide and over the bar. The Enfield keeper was booked for time wasting and it had been coming as every time the ball went out of play he took an age to restart the game. The visitors made a double substitution with Louis Walsh and Abu Khan replacing Lance Williams and Mark Riddick. Then on 65 minutes Thame lost the ball in midfield a long ball was launch up field keeper Crowther hesitated for a moment and the forward beat the defender he was taken down by the advancing keeper, again looked a close decision as the contact was very close to the line, number 7 Vukaji stepped up to score his second. Charlie Stow replaced Ethan Lack who had been earlier booked for a foul when he clearly won the ball,

Thame continued to push forward, but did really trouble the home sides keeper, then to add insult to injury the referee awarded a third penalty to Enfield, a free kick was launched towards the Thame box on the left hand side. The forward was backing into Luke Tingey with his arm on Tingeys shoulder as the forward fell backward he took down the Thame defender, and the referee pointed to the spot even before both players had hit the ground. What made it worse was the initial contact was well outside the area. Again the Thame were very unhappy with the decision and you cannot blame them it was poor. The home side saw out the rest of the game, with Thame well beaten and lacking any threat in front of goal, but weren’t helped by a poor refereeing performance who got sucked into the play acting and made some dubious decisions through out the game especially for the penalties.

Thame suffer their second defeat in a week and need to pick themselves up for the visit of Hertford Town on Tuesday night which will be a tough encounter, while Enfield stay fourth bottom, but close the gap on the teams above them with the win and are now only three points adrift.

Starting Eleven

1 Matty Crowther
2 Callum Hall
3 Ethan Lack (Charlie Stow 69 minutes)
4 Fin Murray
5 Luke Tingey
6 Mark Riddick (C) (Abu Khan 56 minutes)
7 Curtis Brown
8 Jack Tutton
9 Lance Williams ( Louise 56 minutes)
10 Dan West
11 Harry Alexander

Substitutes

12 Abu Khan
14 Louis Walsh
15 Charlie Stow

Attendance 88