Thame United fell to a 3-0 defeat on Tuesday evening to one the favourites for the league title, AFC Rushden & Diamonds.
Witnessed by a crowd of 227, the opening phases of the game saw United enjoying the majority of possession, with a John Dennis drive collected by the visiting keeper on two minutes. Shortly afterwards, Rushden went close with an effort that cleared the bar, before they took the lead on 7 minutes. Former Football League player, Nabil Shariff, capitalised on some hesitancy in the home defence, before curling the ball wide of Craven in the Thame goal from 20 yards.
Craven then pushed another shot wide of the goal, before a goal-line clearance kept the score at 1-0. However, that did not last long as, on 14 minutes, a long throw in to the Thame box was met by Liam Dolan who headed home from close range.
United then started to enjoy more possession and, on 23 minutes, Dennis nearly got the home side back in the game with a header over the bar from a Ben Connelly cross. Rushden then failed to capitalize on two further chances before, on 32 minutes, a Lynton Goss strike brought another save from the visiting keeper. Craven was called in to action again on 32 minutes, before a fine run by Goss down the Thame left resulted in a cross along the six yard box, from which Connelly saw his effort deflected wide for a corner.
The second half was only four minutes old when the visitors claimed their third goal. Neat inter-play put Shariff through and he carefully chipped the ball over the advancing Craven from an acute angle. For all their hard work, United were unable to fashion any real goal scoring opportunities, relying instead on shots from the distance, with the best chance falling to Goss on 85 minutes who, following good work from substitute Abdi Farah, curled an effort wide of the goal. The final action of the match saw Johnston clear a goal bound shot off the line, as the visitors left with three points and moved to the top of the early season table.
United: Craven, Evans, Lynn, Hercules, Johnston, Ashworth, Connelly (Farah), Goss, Morris (Okonwai), Sturgess, Dennis (Ricketts)
