Thame United were back in cup action on Saturday as they travelled to Surrey to take on Westfield FC in the second qualifying round of the Isuzu FA Trophy.

Westfield current sit top of the Isthmian League South Central Division having won four, drawn one and lost one, their only home defeat this season was against step 3 side Chatham in the FA Cup and had a 4-0 victory in the last round of the competition. Thame came into the match on the back of a 0-1 home defeat after beating Stenying Town FC in the previous round 5-0 to get to this stage.

Manager Ben Williams had some decisions to make on team selection missing Oliver Hogg, Rocko Tamplin and Tom McElroy for the trip to Woking. Mark Rodrick returned to captain the team, Greg Hacket made is debut and Braydon Daniel came in to play up front, with Jefferson Louis and Curtis Brown dropping to the bench.

The home side kicked off with with Thame kicking from left to right in the first half with the sun directly behind them on this warm afternoon, and from the start the visitors were on the front foot and pressing the opposition, the front there of Greg Hackett, Brayden Daniel and Harry Alexander were not giving the Westfield defence any time on the ball and were being forced into long balls to try and get out from the back. And the pressure that Thame were exerting on the home teams defence paid off on 13 minutes a through ball behind the back four enabled Daniels to run onto the ball and into the box on the Thame left, the keeper made an attempt to get to the ball but the young forward was too quick knocked the ball past the keeper and got taken down. The referee had no doubt and pointed to the spot, after a delay of nearly two minutes while a Westfield player was being treated for an injury Alexander finally stepped up to take the kick, and calmly sent the keeper the wrong way placing the ball low to the right and scoring his seventh of the season.

The home team came back into the game and forced a series of corners but a well marshalled defence dealt with the balls into the box, the best chance came from a long throw with a volley just going over the bar. But Thame were comfortable with the work rate not dropping they were deservedly 2 - 0 up on 32 minutes. A cross from the right hand side, into the box, somehow bounced over two Westfield defenders and fell to Greg Hackett at the back post he picked the ball up and delivered a pin point cross into the six yard box for Dan West to knock the ball into the net. Keeper Crowther was then called into action to pull off a fine save tipping the ball onto the post from a close range shot. The half finished with the visitors 0 - 2 to the good and there was a lot of head scratching on the Westfield bench.

Thame kicked off the second half with the home side making two substitutes, to try and wrestle back some control in the game, and it did have some impact with Westfield having their best spell of the game, and keeper Crowther called into action to make another couple of good saves. On 65 minutes Thame thought they had a third a pass through the middle of the two centre backs found Daniel who cooly put a low shot past the keeper and into the net. But the lines man adjudged Dan West who was coming back from an offside position to be interfering with play, looked a very harsh decision. Almost immediately at the other end a cross form the right to the back post found two Thame players and a Westfield player go up for the ball, all three went over and the referee point to the spot for a push in the back, a soft penalty which was converted by Westfields Number two.

The home side pushed on but a resilient Thame side were battling for everything and winning the big battles in midfield with Mark Riddick, Jack Tutton and Dan West chasing down everything. Thame made there first sub of the afternoon on 70 minutes with Curtis Brown replacing Jack Tutton who had worked tirelessly all afternoon. Then on 75 minutes Fabian Garcia replaced Greg Hackett, the fresh legs of the two wingers started to cause the Westfield defence all sorts of problems as they pushed forward for the equaliser. Now there was even more space to run into and time and again Thame were playing the ball down the flanks, forcing the home side into some desperate defending, Thame made there final sub of the afternoon with Jefferson Louis coming onto replace Brayden Daniel who had put in a shift up front against two much bigger centre backs, and caused them problems all afternoon with his pace.

As the clocked ticked down both Brown and Garcia had chances to wrap the game up and the home side were getting frustrated as Thame were playing the ball into the corners and holding the ball up to see out time. The referee indicated six added minutes and as the home side threw everything forward Thame got a third to close the game out another ball over the top found Curtis Brown with time and space and no defender near him to run onto the ball on the right had side and place the ball past the advancing keeper. For his fourth of the season. And with almost the last kick of the game had a similar opportunity this time chasing to shoot instead of passing to an unmarked Jefferson Louis and the ball was put out for a corner. The referee blew the whistle and the game ended with a deserved 1 - 3 victory and through to the next round, an excellent performance from the team today the defence was solid and dealt with everything Westfield had to offer, the midfield battled hard, and the pace of the front three caused the home side all sorts of problems all afternoon.

The managers was delighted with the performance and after the game commented “That was the best team performance in my time at Thame, so happy for the boys who had put in a real shift today to beat a very good side”

The win puts the Red Kites into the 3rd Qualifying round of the Isuzu FA Trophy, which will see the remaining 40 step 4 teams joined by the step 3 teams, with the tie to be played on 5 October.

Man of the Match
Dan West, for his goal and work rate in midfield.

Goals
Harry Alexander (16 minutes Penalty)
Dan West (37 minutes)
Curtis Brown (96 minutes)

Team
1.Matthew Crowther
2.Josh Stranks
3.Oscar Lucey
4.Leo Galpin
5.Fin Murray
6.Mark Riddick
7.Jack Tutton (Curtis Brown 70 Minutes)
8.Greg Hackett (Fabian Garcia 75 minutes)
9.Brayden Daniel (Jefferson Louis 80 minutes)
10.Dan West
11.Harry Alexander

Substitutes
12.Jefferson Louis
14.Curtis Brown
15.Fabian Garcia