Post by Dave on Feb 12, 2011 19:48:58 GMT
Buckfastleigh 2nd V Marldon 12th Feb 2011
Buckfastleigh 2nds 1 Marldon 3
Prolific marksman Ant Roach surprising has never scored in any game he has played on the Buckfastleigh pitch, I can confirm that is still the case, but it was not for the want of trying.
It’s a very big pitch at Buckfastleigh and after some rain around lunchtime today, it ended up a very heavy pitch to play on and one goal mouth was particularly very muddy indeed.
After their very disappointing cup exit last Saturday, the question was could top of the table Maldon bounce back and get a win that would keep them in the top spot. With the Marldon's team manager having taken the club secretary for whatever reason to America( don’t worry they are married) it was left to club captain Stuart Forrester, who was unable to play due to injury, to take charge of the team.
He gave a first class team talk in the dressing that sent out the Marldon players all fired up and fully believing the three points were theirs if they played to their strengths. He also took the decision to try a new formation the team has not played before; I think I would call it a 3-1-4-2, but he might want to call it something else.
The game kicked off and Marldon took a very early lead. Ant won the ball and turned to face the goal and noticed the Bucks defence was rather square and also spotted the run Ramon Matran was making. Ant cleverly lifted the ball over the Bucks defence into Ramon’s path and as the Bucks keeper came rushing out, he coolly lobbed the keeper.
Five minutes later and Marldon scored again with an almost carbon copy of their first goal. This time the ball into Ramon Matran’s path was played by Marldon’s number three. The buck’s keeper once again came rushing off his line and once again saw the ball going over him and into the empty net as Ramon lobbed the ball over him again.
Ant then scored what I felt was a perfectly good goal; the picture shows he does have his back to the keeper and the ball clearly coming off his head. The Bucks keeper and players shouted “handball” and the ref then decided to disallow the goal.
Not a great deal more action in the first half that Marldon had controlled and they fully deserved their half time lead. The Marldon players stayed on the pitch, while the Bucks players headed for the dressing room. I went to the canteen hatch and the lovely lady served me up a very nice cup of coffee. Loud and angry words were coming out of the Bucks dressing room and they did had some effect as they started the second half a bit better than they started the first half.
They won a few early corners at the start of the second half and managed to pull a goal back, Their centre half and captain had come up for the corner and had a free header on goal that the Marldon keeper could not keep out.
I felt at this stage of the game it was important for Marldon to go and get a third goal to kill off any hopes the Bucks players might have had of getting anything out of the game. That happened very soon after Bucks had scored and it was that man Ramon Matran who scored again getting his hat trick.
This time he scored with a good header at the back post from a corner taken from the left hand side of the pitch. He rose so very high in the air and almost made what was a difficult header look easy.
I think the Bucks players knew they were well and truly beaten, but they fought on and worked hard enough without creating any further chances to score a goal. Then the ref blew his whistle and went racing (sorry he couldn’t race anywhere) over to the young Bucks linesman and sent him off. I can only think it was due to something the linesman had shouted out to the ref.
Ant was working his socks off up front making good runs into space but was let down by Marldon players not looking up and making the right choice with their passes. He did pick up a poor clearance on the edge of the Bucks box, cleverly turned and hit a good right foot shot that looked destined for the top right hand corner of the goal, but the Bucks keeper pulled off a wonderful flying save. He also had two other efforts very close in that the keeper just managed to smother.
So the ref blew for the end of the match and the Marldon players celebrated a much deserved win, I got a big hug from Stuart Forrester who told the players the win was down to the return of their lucky mascot.
Once all the players were showered and dressed it was time to head into the clubhouse where we were greeted by plates full of hot pasties, perfect end to a great day watching a good local football match.
There was one other highlight for me today; Buckfastleigh is a hotbed of Plymouth fans. I was filled to see one of the kids playing football in the park area next to the main pitch was wearing a Torquay United shirt.
Finally I won’t name him, but I can confirm that he is not gay. He recently broke up with his girlfriend and she very kindly has put it all over facebook he is. It’s not true as If it was I would not have let him sit next to Ant in the dressing room and then follow him into the shower. Mind you they were in there alone along time.
