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With three straight wins in the group, without conceding a goal, Thamesmead have pretty much booked their ticket into the quarter finals, despite being faced with two upcoming encounters against Beckenham Town.

Slade Green could claim that it took two stunning second half saves from visiting custodian Chris Arnold to keep out seemingly unmissable chances that fell the way of Glen McTaggart and Tony Weir, while Weir was also narrowly wide with two other first half chances.

But Thamesmead, who controlled most of the game, could equally point to impressive saves by Green’s Gary Arterton which denied first Kieron Collins, and then Scott Saunders, in addition Green’s centre back, Mark Penny cleared off his line midway through the first half to frustrate Sam Thomas.

Mead’s goals came in the middle section of the second half. On the hour Green were aggrieved at a corner decision given against them, but this didn’t excuse their culpability when, from the resulting flag kick, Dean Burns was totally unchallenged standing in centre goal, just five yards out, to head into Green’s net.

Seven minutes later Burns followed up with an assist fielding the ball along to Thomas who unleashed a thunderball over Arterton and into the roof of his net.

Burns’ productive afternoon was only slightly besmirched when, with just a minute left, he missed the opportunity to clock up a second 3-0 success over Green by squandering a golden gift of a chance from just a few yards out.