Saturday  October 22nd 2011 Thatcham Home Saturday 22nd October 22, 2011 FA Trophy 1st Qualifying Round Frome Town 0 Thatcham Town 1 Frome Scorers: None Thatcham Scorers: Melledew (49) Crowd: 199 Star Man: None awarded. Entertainment Value: 2 A bad tempered second half that saw Frome finish the match with nine men saw a determined Thatcham go through 1-0, thanks to a 35 yard scorcher from Tom Melledew. Frome probably just shaded the first half but failed to convert pressure and chances into goals, with Dean Evans heading a Ben Thomson cross over the bar in the 18th minute, Kris Miller and Josh Brigham both having shots blocked in the 28th, and Mike Perrott having a shot saved on the line by Paul Strudley two minutes later. The second half saw Thatcham take an early lead in the 49th minute, as Melledew received the ball from a free kick, advanced 5 yards unchallenged, and let fly with  a 35 yard screamer that flew over Darren Chitty and curved into the top corner. A Brigham header from a corner hit the base of the Thatcham post in the 56th minute, but nobody reacted quickly enough and the chance was cleared for a corner. Thomson had a golden chance to score in the 59th minute as a well worked left wing passing movement saw him clean through on goal, but Strudley spread himself low and wide and was able to push the ball for a corner. Matt Smith and Josh Brigham both hit 30 yard shots that just cleared the bar in the next couple of minutes, and Frome certainly looked like they were in with a chance of an equalizer. Up until this point, the match had been hard but fair, but that all changed in the 66th minute as Chitty was caught late and high by a challenge from Gareth Thomas that saw a 10 man fracas develop around the prostrate keeper, and from that point onwards the game always looked close to sliding out of control, with the match becoming increasingly frantic and fractious and yellow cards being produced at regular intervals. As Frome threw everyone up looking for the equaliser, a Thatcham break in the 92nd minute led to a three on one situation and Matt Smith was red carded after he made a huge amount of ground to get back, but his slide tackle brought down Shane Kingston who was through on goal and about to shoot. The resulting free kick led to a corner, and as Thatcham played out time by the corner flag, Dean Evans was shown a red for an incident that led to another melee involving seven or eight players. In summary, ten yellow cards and two reds gives a fair reflection of a bad tempered  game that is probably best forgotten.   Frome Town Thatcham Paul Strudley Robbie Sadler Sam Flegg Mark James Garteh Thomas Tom Melledew James Clark Shane Kingston Sean Cook Scott Rees Marc Green Matt Bowler Sam Tucker Paul Taplin Jemel Johnson Will Bratt Officials R: M. Taylor A: P. Wright A: S. Agles Match Sponsor Ray and Margaret Pearce Ball Sponsor Graham & Kimber Builders Match Photos Photos of this match taken by our expert photographer Chas Hadfield can be viewed by clicking on this rectangle