Buckland V Winterbourne 27/04/2013

[Dave]

Buckland Athletic V Winterbourne United

Toolstation Western League Premier Division

Venue Homers Heath 3pm Kick-off

Buckland may have had good grounds in some recent games to lay some blame on the officials for not winning games where they were clearly the better team, but that was not the case today. There were so many times during the first half that Buckland looked very disjointed and as a result, did not play the flowing and good passing game you expect from them.

The game started off very evenly with no team really getting on top and very few goal scoring chances were created. Plenty of effort along with a good number of misplaced passes but the game needed a goal I felt to really get it going.

Had to laugh when the ref took a big tumble and I laughed again when he booked a Winterbourne player and then told him he would have done the same thing bringing down the Bucks player who had just broke past him. I did feel Bucks had a very good shout for a handball inside the united box, but neither the ref nor the linesman saw it, or did not feel it was a deliberate handball.

The only notable efforts for Bucks in the first have both came from S Revell, but both efforts were long range from outside the box that flew high over the crossbar. Bucks then went a goal behind and I have to say it was the best move of the entire game. Uniteds left winger James Mainstone picked the ball up out wide on the left hand side, He beat a number of Bucks players as he headed for the corner flag, he then cut in field heading for the area and on his way managed to beat a few more of the Bucks players. When he got close to the left hand post he laid the ball back to Ben Dowdell (I think it was him) who buried the ball into the net.

The ref blew up for halftime and I was expecting a much better second half display from Buckland. For most of the second half they ended up camped in the Winterbourne half and surely it was only a matter of time before they scored. Jamie Mudge came very close as a ball came out to him on the edge of the area, he did well to get his left foot up to volley the ball goal ward, only to see his effort just clear the crossbar.

Winterbourne seemed content to just try and hold onto their slender lead and get the odd break away. One very quick break away saw Ben Dowdell hit a fine volley from the edge of the Bucks box, that only just went past the right hand post.

Bucks kept up the pressure on Winterbourne and Danny Glaze rose well in the box and got a good head on the ball, but his effort went straight into the keepers arms. G.Hammon for Bucks must have thought he was going to score, but Tom Sheppard in goal for Winterbourne, pulled off a fine save diving low to his left to get a good block on the goal bound effort.

Effort after effort either got blocked, or crept past the post and it turned out not to be Bucklands day. Thanks Amy once again for writing down the players name on my programme and thanks to all who talked with me during the afternoon.