TWO GOAL BURST PUTS THORNABY OUT OF VASE
Two goals in a four-minute second half spell put paid to Thornaby’s Vase hopes at the first hurdle.
It was a Jekyll and Hyde performance by the Teessiders. At times, when they tried to play a bit of football and pass the ball around, they were a match for Thackley who are in the top division in the Northern Counties East League.
In other spells in the game they seemed content to just kick it out of defence, at times they looked lethargic and their passing wasn’t up to scratch. Manager Steve Bell had a blunt assessment after the game: “We weren’t good enough.”
Things might have gone their way with a couple of crucial incidents.
The first came as early as the second minute when they had a good chance to take the lead. Jordan Wilson sent the ball over into the box from the left. Matthew Osmond met it with a header which hit the inside of the post and came back out. He’d got within a whisker of scoring.
Despite that chance and a couple of other half chances, in the 26th minute I wrote: “Thornaby can play better than this.” They picked their game up a notch or two around the half-hour mark.
By then they were a goal down. Thackley No. 9 Luke Robinson got his head to a corner and put it into the net, even though it wasn’t the tidiest of contacts.
The first half of the second crucial incident came in the 29th minute when Thackley defender Ryan Basi was booked after pulling Daniel Chapman back when the No. 10 threatened to break through the defence and get a shot at goal. Nine minutes later Basi committed another blatant foul on the edge of the Thackley box and it seemed a clear yellow card offence, but the referee only gave him a long lecture. The dynamics of the game might well have changed had he been sent off.
In between the bookings Jordan Wilson had put Thornaby level when the No. 3 received a free kick by Joe Scarfe-Wheatley, ran with the ball and then put it across the Thackley keeper and in. Half-time saw it all square.
Thackley started the second half more brightly than Thornaby and 12 minutes into the half the visitors were effectively out of the Vase.
At a free kick in the 53rd minute the Thornaby defence lost concentration, let Pat McGuire nip in between the back line and shoot to make it 2-1. Their third came in the 57th minute when Robinson got his second for the hosts with another header – this time of much better quality than the first. He met a ball into the box with precise timing and placement to put it just inside the right post, giving Thornaby keeper James Dawson no chance of saving it.
On the hour mark, for Thornaby Lewis Murphy had a header and Stephen Morrison a back heel effort, but they were at best half chances. In the 77th minute Murphy was just about to shoot when Thackley defender Jerry White slid in with a well-time tackle to dispossess him. At the other end, Thackley’s Kieran Thompson hit the Thornaby post with a pile driver.
The game started to peter out until Murphy got a late consolation goal when a mistake by Thackley’s back four let the Thornaby man free to run through and score to make it 3-2.
Thornaby got close, but they’ll regret the fact that they could have played better.
Thackley 3 Thornaby 2 – Buildbase FA Vase First Qualifying Round
PS – thanks to Trevor Wing and the rest of the Thornaby team for the lift to (and from) the game.
Mike Snowdon