Keeping with the trend of all the club's away teams having early starts this past weekend, the Men's 1XI made an early morning trip to Reading to take on Phoenix Reading. With three subs and on the back of a strong performance at home the previous week, the warm up was positive with the W-KING speaker blaring in the morning sunshine. Thame began the game strongly and dominated possession and territory for the first 20 minutes and were well rewarded when Sid Chignall (aka David Chigwell) finished powerfully off his back foot into the corner. Despite sustained pressure the score remained 1-0 up to halftime as a bit of impatience began to creep into our game.
An 'unorthodox' team talk from Coach Dan and encouragement from injured Captain Caiger at the break saw Thame start the second half looking to re-exert the dominance we had in the first half. Whilst things were a bit scrappier in the second half, Sid got Thame a well-deserved second, flicking it via a deflection into the top corner. A third goal soon followed when Dan smartly converted one of our many short corners at long last. Phoenix got one back via a P-flick following a foot on the line from a short but the three goal cushioned was soon restored. A long ball over the top from Dan set the front three on the attack and some smart interchange between Sid and Kit allowed Adam Lawrenson to smartly finish into the sideboard from the top of the D, a goal a year in the waiting and well deserved.
Full time, a 4-1 victory and three points secured on the road. Sterner tests await at home versus Henley and Newbury over the next couple weeks but some good momentum is building.

MoM - Sid/David Chignall/Chigwell: two good goals scored and "he did his job". Several players could've won MoM for a good all round team performance.