3000 Trinity fans made the long trip to Garons Park to witness their side slump to the hands of a Thamesgate side in fine form. Many of the 22000 Thamesgate fans leaving the ground passed comment of Thamesgate playing the best football of the season so far in this 6-2 win.
The game was battled heavily in the middle of the park for the 1st 20 minutes when Mike Hall broke through on goal flying in as he is known to do showing 110% commitment in a 50/50 with the Trinity keeper. The ball flew loose with M Hall the quickest to react as the keeper lay motionless like a vegetable and Hall managed to toe poke the ball back to C Hall who slotted past a crumbled Trinity keeper at the outrage of the Trinity players and fans. Both the Trinity keeper and Hall looked to have taken heavy knocks to the ribs and leg respectively which showed through the remainder of the game. Trinity hit back shortly after with a header from close range off a corner, the Trinity CB arriving late in the box to head high into the roof of the net. The game then saw Thamesgate take control, passing around like a young Barcelona and just before halftime C Hall burst past 2 Trinity defenders, pure pace leaving the defence yards behind in seconds, Hall drove the ball across box looking for strike partner Collins only to see the Trinity CB convert into his own net.
HT 2-1 Thamesgate
Second half-
All Thamesgate, Trinity struggled to hold onto the ball to even string 5 passes together, Thamesgate really looked like title challengers with sensational tika-take style football. And it was only a matter of time before a goal came, cue Chris Wright bursting into the box pushing the ball past the last defender, defender froze in the knowledge he was in trouble as Wright flew over the defender with the only thing missing from a perfect diving score was the swimming pool. Collins slots.
Collins then got another chance to convert another penalty however inches to the left hitting the post. Knowing the Thamesgate rotation policy the three names mentioned to take responsibility of penalties moving forward were Sargent, C Hall and Cardosi. Thamesgate poll seeing 65% of fans wanting to see Hall with the responsibility.
Confidence flying through the Thamesgate team the goals kept coming, Korboe slamming home from close range after yet another assist from an in form Charlie Sargent being branded as the "Assist machine", it was looking like Thamesgate would go onto double figures, however a light of hope saw Trinity strike a second goal against the run of play to take the score to 4-2.
The controversial moment of the match when Reza came on for Chris Wright only to quickly be sent back by Referee Paul Bahbout as Reza forgot to put his shin pads on, who forgets to put their shin pads on?!? . Bahbout seemed appalled with Reza's actions so instead of letting Thamesgate take Kick off he made a rule of his own and rolled the ball to Trinity at the disgust of Cardosi who swiftly received a yellow card for dissent. Bahbout later accused Cardosi of even insulting Bahbout's mother which is to be investigated by the FA.
The game came back to reality when minutes later Korboe knocking an inch perfect ball to the feet of Dom Buckman to smash home a 5th. The game coming to a close however left enough time for Mike Hall to make another bursting run, he looked very uncomfortable in such an advanced position and of the 100 Thamesgate supporters questioned about the goal after the game 82 actually thought their captain was about to fall over, in fact only 5 fans thought he would do what he did and slam the ball home. The other 13 with 12 opting for missing the target and 1 fan suggesting Hall would fake an injury to get away from the reality of actually having to shoot.
After the game Korboe and Mike Hall joined Sky sports news. Korboe not only being a rock in front of the back four also showing his ability to find a superb pass along with his solid performances this year including this MOM performance has seen millions added to his transfer value, not that he is going anywhere. After the game Korboe spoke to Sky sports news "I'm loving my football here at Thamesgate, a few lads joined this year and there were doubts over how we would gel but it was instant and its been such a strong start and we seem to be getting stronger and stronger, we will take every game as it comes and I'm sure we will be fighting for trophies this year." Korboe went on to say about the players around Thamesgate which sheds some light on their start to the season "The lads have an attitude towards the game I haven't seen at my previous clubs, they constantly want more from every individual and its made me a better player, playing along side one of my idols Chris Hall is also obviously a dream come true and Im going to be here for years to come that's for sure" His captain Mike Hall went on to hand over the infamous bottle of champers for his Man of the match display.
Thamesgate looking as strong as ever, a great unit seeing their odds of lifting the league title slashed to 7/4. Thamesgate seem to have found a fine balance this year and with players still come into squad they seem to also have depth. Continued performances and desire such as today will see Thamesgate very close to silverware this year.
