20th September 2022
Soham Town Rangers vs Thetford Town @ Julius Martin Lane - Soham
Thurlow Nunn Premier Division (Step 5)
19:45 KO
£9 entry
Attendance - 138
Half-time score: Soham Town Rangers 0-2 Thetford Town
Goals:
Thetford Town: Machaya - 4'
Thetford Town: Clarke - 35'
Soham Town Rangers: Watson - 53'
Thetford Town: Gilchrist - 57'
Soham Town Rangers: Chipps - 94'
Leigh Simons recorded the goals, see the links below:
Final Score: Soham Town Rangers 2-3 Thetford Town
The games are coming thick-and-fast, another Tuesday night game and a short away trip to the edge of the Fens at Soham Town Rangers for Thetford. Even though it is early days for the 22/23 season, this will already be the 3rd encounter between the teams, the first two being FA Cup games, the first game ending in a 2-2 draw at Thetford which saw Soham score a stunning late equaliser, followed by a 2-0 win for Soham in the mid-week replay. I was unable to make the mid-week game, so this is my first time visiting Julius Martin Lane for a football game, my only previous visit was to vote as it was my local polling station, back when I was lodging in Soham several years back. Soham Town Rangers are a good side, having spent several of the previous seasons at Step 4, however, Thetford are in a rich-vein of form, so I was again expecting a close and competitive game. The weather is certainly turning, and I recall cold biting winds whipping across the Fens from my time living in Soham and Ely, so I wrapped up warm in anticipation.
It was a shame to see that printed programmes are not a thing at Julius Martin Lane, but online programmes were available for download. Other than this, the club house was decent with a good selection of beers and ciders on draught, and a tea & food hut where I got a nice cheeseburger with grilled onions for my tea, classic footie scran.
Under the lights, both team came out in their home colours, Soham in green and white hoops and Thetford in their claret and blue.
KEY MOMENTS
STR = Soham Town Rangers
TT = Thetford Town
4' - TT - GOAL (0-1) - Thetford get out of the blocks quickly, playing out from the back, Cameron King spots the run from Machaya and prods a ball through to him, he chases the ball and gets to it before the keeper, with his effort hitting the keeper then rebounding back off of him for a somewhat fortuitous goal to give Thetford the early lead.
12' - TT - Cameron King notices keeper Niall Conroy off his line and attempts a spectacular effort from inside the centre circle, his effort going narrowly wide, but he certainly had the keeper panicking for a moment or two.
15' - STR - A long ball is pinged up to Carden, he hits a strike on the bounce and his effort flies millimeters over the crossbar, I certainly thought it was in for a moment.
20' - TT - Machaya powers in a low driven effort from outside the box, heading into the left corner of the goal, but keeper Conroy gets down low to save.
25' - TT - Cameron King twists and turn inside the box, making the space for a curling strike that careers into the right upright and out.
30' - TT - Diggens feeds Machaya, his shot from just inside the area is heading for the right side of the goal, but is kept out by a last second block from a Soham leg.
33' - STR - Connor passes to Watson, who lets rip with a stinging shot from outside the area, and despite the power of the shot Tom Smith calmly controls the ball.
35' - TT - GOAL (0-2) - A left-footed Adam Laker corner is put on a postage stamp for fan favourite centre back Clarke 'The Shark', and he makes no mistake with a long-range bullet header low into the right corner to emphatically put Thetford 2-0 up.
36' - TT - A sustained Thetford attack culminates in a ball from Gilchrist to captain Elliot Smith inside the box, but his effort is blocked.
43' - STR - A long ball is pumped into the box, and it loops off a Thetford head, heading for the top right corner, but Tom Smith makes a fine fingertip save to push the ball out for a corner, and he also takes a knock from the woodwork for his efforts.
47' - STR - A ball is put through for Alex Brown to run onto, but Tom Smith is out quickly to just beat him to the ball.
50' - TT - A Thetford attacks ends with Diggens being released down the right, he bursts in and powers in a shot at the near post that is turned out by Conroy for a corner.
53' - STR - GOAL (1-2) - Left-back Chipps makes a brilliant run from the half-way line, eventually cutting to the edge of the box where he slips the ball out to the left for Watson who finishes well with a left-footed effort from a tight-angle to send the ball past the covering Tom Smith to put Soham back into the game.
57' - TT - GOAL (1-3) - Thetford break quickly from a corner, Machaya passing to Gilchrist to dinks the ball out to the marauding Cameron King, covering defender Alex Brown tries to pull him back but King stays strong to burst through, where he squares the ball back to Gilchrist, who brilliantly rounds the keeper and slots into the goal, to quickly restore Thetford's 2-goal lead. There were a lot of protests from Soham, but the goal stood, there was certainly no foul in the build-up, the replay clearly shows this, but from where I was I can not say for certainty if the final ball was on or offside, what I can say is that the linesman was in a better position than me and despite a lot of pressure kept his flag down.
63' - STR - A long ball is fired up to substitute Ollie Ward coming in from the right, he takes a sublime touch and cracks off a blistering strike at the near-post, with Tom Smith making an outstanding save to prevent a excellent goal.
65' - TT - Some neat interplay between strikers Gilchrist and Diggens results in Gilchrist unleashing a shot which forces a sprawling save from Conroy.
65' - STR - Soham go up the other end and come close, Watson sends a ball across the face of goal, and Ward is breath-takingly close to tapping in.
68' - TT - Gilchrist is released down the left flank and flashes a strike across the face of goal.
77' - TT - A bit of pinball in the Soham box sees captain Elliot Smith get off two goalbound efforts, forcing desperate blocks from the Soham defence, but they stand firm.
85' - STR - A long ball from substitute Auger finds Ollie Ward coming in from the right again, this time he elects to volley the ball and his strong effort at the near post is again turned out by Tom Smith for a corner, an important save at an important time in the game.
94' - STR - GOAL (2-3) - In what feels like a moment of deja vu, Soham get a goal deep in injury time, a throw-in is picked up by Alex Brown and pinged into the penalty area, winger Chipps collects the ball, and under close attention from 2 Thetford defenders, turns both to slide in from close range.
Games between Thetford and Soham are entertaining to say the least, lots of goals, lots of drama, and nail-biting endings! Thankfully, Thetford came out on top tonight, but Soham certainly finished the stronger side, they are definitely a classy outfit with lots of players that impressed me, in particular Chipps, Ward and Connor, so Thetford done extremely well to return to Norfolk with all three points in the bag, a huge scalp and clear evidence that Thetford are becoming a force to be reckoned with. The Thetford front line were yet again a threat all evening, with Cameron King co-ordinating things, but I was also impressed with a classic centre-back performance from The Shark, who came up with a fine header at an important time in the game (and what a ball from Laker!) and an imperious game at the back, even sporting a head bandage by the end of the game, a true warrior. Thetford don't have long to recover until Saturday where they face another huge test, this time on home soil against the team in 2nd place, Woodbridge Town, another game I plan to be at. I hope that the team recuperate and train well for the rest of the week so that they can put in another huge performance before they get 6-days of well-earned respite before another tough away tie, the Thetford faithful are behind you, UP THE TOWN!!!
Line-Ups:
SOHAM TOWN RANGERS: Niall Conroy, Kai Nicholls, Jordan Chipps, Alfie Connor (C), Max Mattless, Jordan Gent, Alex Brown, Michael King, Luke Brown, Ed Watson, Joe Carden. SUBS: Sam Mulready, Jake Andrews, Ollie Ward, Ryan Auger, Lloyd Groves.
THETFORD TOWN: Tom Smith, Artur Visocanskis, Matt Morton, Nathan Clarke, Adam Laker, Jordan Lake, Elliot Smith (C), Cameron King, Emmanuel Machaya, Dan Gilchrist, George Diggens. SUBS: Jake Mann, Ryan Fuller, Santi Davies, Kristian Dixon, Macauley Rodgers.
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