Thatcham Town and a bad day at the office

Thatcham suffered a bad day at the office as they fell to a 3-1 loss at Abingdon.

The problems began before kick-off when Hugh Scott, deputising in goal for Maciej Wieczorek, suffered a deep cut in the warm up. Even so, Scott was alert in the opening seconds as he back-pedalled to catch the ball under the crossbar after Lewis Bloomfield shot straight from the kick-off.

The hosts, shooting downhill, made the brighter start, with Thatcham’s momentum disrupted by seeing both Luke Polding and Fin Tombs briefly sidelined through injury.

As a half of few chances drew to a close, the home side broke through on 38 minutes when Scott’s clearance was charged down and Doyin Adefila reached it first, finishing with a neat back-heal.

On 45 minutes, Abingdon made it two as Chris Castle curled home a fantastic 35 yard strike from the left.

Just before the break, Kye Williams had the Kingfishers’ first meaningful shot, which Eddie Cavanagh met with a firm fist.  However, Town did pull a goal back moments later, as Callum Winchcombe’s in-swinging free-kick wasn’t dealt with and Levi Heholt knocked the loose ball home.

There was little change in the second half as Thatcham failed to get their creative wide players in the game or threaten from set pieces.  Abingdon were playing better than the early league table suggested, as Pablo Haysham almost rounded off a fine move but hit the inside of the post.

Kyle Tooze was off-target with a couple of shots before Town shot themselves in the foot when Andy Matthews was red-carded for a heavy challenge.  Then, Archie Denton was sin-binned for dissent after expressing frustration over a series of decisions against him.

With Thatcham down to nine men for the final ten minutes, Finlay Beckett exploited the vast pockets of space to fire home Abingdon’s third, while Tombs’ late goal-line clearance helped keep the score down.