Romeo happy to experiment with young Thatcham Town squad

Thatcham Town’s start to the season has been one of mixed fortunes.

A trip to Devon to face Exmouth Town in their league opener last Saturday was disastrous, as they were sent home with a 3-0 defeat.

Three days later, they made amends, hosting Shaftesbury at the Mettal Stadium and securing a 1-0 victory to get their first points on the board.

Centre-back Oli Bourne scored from a 12th minute corner, with a well struck volley at the back post to take an early lead.

The youngster is a graduate of Thatcham’s own academy who spent time on loan with Reading City last season and has been ever-present so far this term.

Saturday saw the Kingfishers host Andover New Street in the FA Cup Preliminary Round, but they were unable to secure a second straight victory.

Town took an early lead, as Kyle Daniel-Spray fired a shot between the keeper’s legs to make it 1-0.

It was all downhill from there though, as the visitors took the game away from Thatcham to knock them out of the cup.

Manager Yashwa Romeo has spent the summer building a noticeably young squad and is optimistic that with time, they’ll find their feet.

“We've definitely got talent in the squad”, he said.

“I've just got to find the right balance, you have to get all the players working together.

“Overall, it's been okay. Exmouth was a very disappointing performance.

“If we didn't make those key mistakes, we would have got out with a draw.”

Romeo is still experimenting with his squad.

Last season’s star left-back Kyle Daniel-Spray has returned from a broken shoulder and is being deployed higher up the pitch, with Romeo also considering a change in formation to help balance his side.

“We are probably lopsided at the moment, more of it comes down the right hand side than the left.

“I may change the formation to a three at the back and try to manoeuvre it that way.”

Such a change requires well suited centre-backs, and that’s exactly what has arrived in the last week.

Roberto Nditi is a 23-year-old, formerly of Reading’s academy where he was U16 captain, before moving to Scotland to play with Forfar and Queen of the South.

He was linked with a move to Hearts and was included in the provisional squad for AFCON 2023 with Tanzania.

“He's a good egg!”, said Romeo.

“We saw him for the first time and he was very robust, good with his head. Very, very good player.”

“We are still a very, very young squad and communication is probably one of our biggest downfalls”, Romeo concluded.

“But it has improved a little bit, even early on.

“We’ll need more, we have to get better.”