Post by Dave on Feb 3, 2013 8:56:57 GMT
Buckland Athletic v Larkhall Athletic venue Homers Heath 3pm Kick-off
With the sun shinning so brightly over the Bay today it was the first opportunity for a good number of weeks to get out and go and watch a local football match. Mind you once the sun started to go down it soon became very chilly indeed, but then we are still in the winter months.
It was a toss up to either go and watch Galmpton play just up the road, or drive over to Homers Heath to watch the Buckland game, Buckland came out easy winners. Much work had to be done to get the pitch fit for play and credit as always to the grounds man and his assistant for getting the game on. The usual problem area had to be heavily sanded and the pitch did cut up badly during the game.
This was not a game for the faint hearted and to be honest I felt it was a shame that a few of the Buckland players were very guilty of being very over physical in the first half and it cost them dearly in the end. I’m not one who normally complains about refs, but when I saw Antony Cloak from Barnstaple ref a game last year, I thought he was a joke then and that was confirmed today. I understand he is qualified to ref at a much higher level, but in my opinion, he is just about suitable to ref a South Devon League fixture. At halftime Buckland manager Antony Lynch sure made his feelings on the ref’s first half performance very well know to him. The only thing I would say about Mr Lynch’s outburst is that he should have reframed from using the bad language he did, if I had been the ref, we would have not been allowed to take up is place in the dugout for the second half.
For nearly the entire first half it was Larkwell who played the much better football and had most of the game. The Buckland lads could not get their game together at all and I’m not sure if was just down to frustration, but they started to get very over physical and gave away foul after foul. Three Buckland players went into the ref’s book and halfway through the half, the ref showed a second yellow to Luke Horricks followed by a red card. To be fair to Luke he should not have even received the first yellow card, but then we know who gave it to him.
It looked like Larkhall were going to take an early lead after a good long through ball put their number nine Tyler Sibbick clean through on goal. I’m not sure but I think it was Bucks Luke Horricks that made a great last ditch tackle that stopped Sibbick getting a shot in on goal. Buckland seldom got near the Larkhall goal and when they did was only able to take long range shots from outside the area. Dean Stevens had one good effort on goal from about 25 yards out and while the shot had some power, it went straight down the throat of Pete Hussey in goal for Larkhall.
Back up the other end and the ball came back out of the Buck’s penalty are to Jamie Lyons, it was at a height he had to get his foot up high to wrap it around the ball and his hook type shot from the edge of the area, just went wide of the right hand post. I thought Nat Auckland should have given Larkhall the lead just before Luke Horricks was sent off. I think it was Danny Gaze who is such a fine player, who made a very poor clearance from inside the Buckland box. The ball just went to Auckland who only had the keeper to beat, but he put the ball over the crossbar. That was it for the first half and if nothing else, Buckland did well to go in at halftime on level terms, but I felt it was going to be a big ask of the players to win the game in the second half.
With the risk of further sending offs in the second half, I’m sure the Buckland players may well have been told at halftime to watch their tackles a bit more. It did not take too long before Larkhall were mounting attack after attack and they used their extra man very well and were able to play the ball around with ease at times.
It was no real surprise when they took the lead, but I’m sure Antony Lynch will want to know where the defence was and why they seemed to fall asleep. The ball had gone out for a corner and when it was played into the box, up jumped Mike Jones complexly unchallenged for what turned out to be an easy header that gave Kenny Griffiths no chance at all.
Buckland kept trying but with only one player upfront, failed to find him with the long balls they kept playing from their own half and there only looked one team out on the pitch who were capable of scoring any more goals. Larkhall's second goal was not that long in coming, it was the best goal of the match and to be honest was well deserved. The ball was played out wide on the right to Tom Welch who then played an inch perfect pace along the deck to Nat Auckland who fired an unstoppable shot into the back of the net.
It was very soon three nil to Larkhall, a low cross was fired in from the left hand side very close to the goal line, a shot came in and was blocked on the line by a Buckland defender, but the ball only came out a few yards to Tyler Sibbick who could not miss from such close range.
Buckland did not give up and came very close to getting one goal back right near the end of the game, a shot that just skinned the crossbar on its way out for goal kick. I can’t remember the last time I ever saw Buckland get beat, to be fair they had to make a number of forced changes today that did not help.
Still a very enjoyable afternoon at the friendliest club I know, as always special thanks to Any for filling out the team on my programme. Also a special mention to tufc01 mum for the lovely cup of coffee she made me and selling me one of those pasties I love.
