Thame United travelled to Kings Langley in the pitching in Southern League Central Division one, hoping to build on their improved performances and back to back wins. After the departure of Juwon Akintundu and Harry Williams, Manager Ben Williams was forced to make two changes to the starting line upfrom the last outing, in came Ben Kakembo and Josiah Bridgeman, whilst there was a debut on the bench for new signing Ryan Knight.

The Red Kites started the game well and dominating the opening 20 minutes, with the home side on the back foot and struggling to cope with the wide attacking threats of Josiah Bridgeman and Jayden Carbon. Thame had a string of corners and should have taken the lead with several good opportunities missed and the Kings Langley keeper making a number of good saves. It was all Thame with little threat to the visitors goal, and the opening goal came on 23 minutes, Josiah Bridgeman picked up the ball on the left flank beat the full back in the area, who then brought down Josiah from behind. The referee had no hesitation in pointing to the spot, a clear penalty. Eitel Goueth stepped up to fire the ball low past the keeper to put Thame 1 - 0 up and nothing more than they deserved.But the lead didn’t last long two minutes later a mistake trying to run the ball out of defence aloud the home side to pick up the ball and Harrison fired the ball in from 30 yards with keeper Archie Davies not seeing the ball come through a group of players, it was the home sides first shot on goal and rallied them to finish the half much stronger.

The half finished 1 - 1 Thame starting the stronger with the home side coming back into the game. The second half started in much the same way as the first the visitors on the attack and creating chances, however Kings Langley looked dangerous on the counter attack albeit without threatening the Thame goal. Pierce McNamara was replaced early in the second half, already on a booking was treading a fine line with the referee. Elliot Kettle came on and slotted into midfield. The visitors continued to press, and thought they had scored a second when a break into the box and a shot rebounded off of the keeper to Ezra Forde who hit it into the roof of the net, only for the lines man to flag for off side, the decision looked rally harsh and questionable with the Thame players believing it should have counted. Moments later Ben Kakembo found himself one on one with the Keeper only for his shot to just go wide of the post.

Against the run of play on 70 minutes the home side took the lead, with a low shot from out side the area beating Archie Davies at the near post, and four minutes later with Thame still trying to compose themselves after going behind, they made it three in a similar position with another long ranged shot finding the other corner. Ryan Knight came onto make is debut replacing Ben Kakembo and Harry Alexander replaced Ezra Forde. But as much as they tried could not find the net again and the game ended 3 - 1 to Kings Langley. Another hard lesson for the Red Kites, who dominated large parts of the game, were the better side, created many chances but couldn’t find the finishing touch, made more frustrating by the home side having far few chances and shots on target but scoring from three of them.

After the game Manager Ben Williams was full of praise for his side “ It was a frustrating afternoon, the team put everything into todays performance, battled hard and fought for everything, we created so many chances but we have to be better and more composed in front of goal to convert the chances into goals”

Next up for the Red Kites is a home game against Cirencester on Saturday 23 December followed by an away trip to Kidlington on Boxing Day.

Team
Archie Davis
Pelumi Maxwell
Oscar Lucey
Fin Murray (Captain)
Tyler Lawson
Pierce McNamara (Yellow Card 28 mins)
Jayden Carbon (Yellow Card 70 mins)
Eitel Goueth (Yellow Card 67 mins)
Ben Kakembo
Ezra Forde
Josiah Bridgeman

Substitues
Harry Alexander (Ezra Forde 75 mins)
Harry Riley
Ryan Knight (Ben Kakembo 65 mins)
Elliot Kettle (Pierce McNamara 50 mins)