Final Score Buckland Athletic 0 Longwell Green Sports 0
A game that promised so much and yet ended up delivering so little, I have to be honest and say that was the worst Buckland performance I have ever witnessed. Plenty of effort and so little to show for it as for most of the game Buckland just looked very disjointed. Was it down to team selection? I can’t say as I do not know all the players well enough, but Longwell were not that good a side and I would expect a Buckland team to win such games with ease.
After such a bad week weather wise is was a very pleasant afternoon at the Heath, even more so when the sun broke through the clouds. The kick-off was delayed as some bright spark from the Longwell team locked the keys to the dressing room inside it. It meant they were not able to get back into the dressing room after their pre-match warm up until another key could be found.
Both sides struggled to get their passing game together and neither side were able to get on top and mount any sort of serious pressure or create and real goal scoring opportunities. Danny Gaze did put one nice ball into the box from a corner kick, but Steve Bowker who was close in on goal, only managed to head the ball over the crossbar.
In fact the closest we came to seeing a goal in the first half would have been an own goal and a very silly goal to give away. Marc Revell was some 25 yards out from his own goal and under no pressure at all. He decided to pass the ball back to Kenny Griffiths in goal for Buckland. The only problem was that Kenny was right over by his left hand post and Mark fired the ball low and hard towards the right hand post. Kenny went scrambling across his goal line to try and get to the ball and luckily for Buckland the ball only just went past the post as I’m not sure Kenny would have been able to make the save.
Longwells D.Hunt made a good run down the centre of the pitch and it took a foul by Liam Drew to stop his run. For his troubles Liam was booked and to be honest it was not a tackle worthy of a booking.
Liam Drew very soon afterwards found himself on the edge of the Longwell box and hit a very fine shot that D Jackson dill ever so well to tip over his crossbar, it was probably Buckland’s best effort all afternoon.
Buckland did look like they were going to take the lead when Jordan Lam was played in with just the keeper to beat. But the keeper managed to get close enough and low enough to block Jordan’s effort with his body.
Captain Danny Gaze earned himself a silly and needless booking after holding a player down on the floor on the halfway line. Danny had only just been spoken to by the referee after a blatant foul near the corner flag.
The last half chance of the first half fell to Buckland’s Steve Bowker, as the ball was played over the top of the Longwell defence I thought he and at least one other Buckland player was offside. The flag stayed down and the ball was just a fraction to high for Steve to get a good head on it and his effort sailed over the crossbar.
Onto the second half and I was expecting Buckland to take the game by the scruff of the neck and start playing the sort of good football I know they can play. But Longwell started the half much better and while never ever really threatening the Buckland goal, were making the better approach play. Buckland were reduced to hitting long and hopeful balls that were dealt with by the Longwell defence.
Longwells L.Perkins fancied his chances from 20 yards out, but was unable to keep his shot down and the ball flew over the crossbar. Just after this Longwells manager decided to get very mouthy with the lineman who then called over the referee.
The referee ordered the manager to the stand but he did not want to go and carried on shouting his mouth off, he went in the end but was soon back close to the dugout where he used even more foul language that he directed at the linesman. The last game I watched at Homers Heath with a visiting Bristol team also had a very mouthy manager, are all managers from that area just so mouthy?
Both teams were working hard enough but not getting very far, to me buckland looked like a team that needed a player on the pitch who knew where the back of the net was. There were so few good goal scoring chances being created by either side and I thought if any team was going to score it might by Longwell.
Longwells F McCarthy hit a good low and hard shot 25 yards out, but the ball just went wide of the right hand post. Bucklands Steve Bowker had one more effort on goal from just inside the left hand side of the Longwell box, but his shot also went wide.
That was it, not the best game of football ever seen at the Heath and not up to the standard you expect from this league. In saying that I still enjoyed my afternoon and came home with so many programmes to scan and put up, its going to take me until Christmas to do them all.
Many thanks to Amy as always and finally have to say how good the pitch looked today. The recent rain has sure helped the grass grow and get some of its green colour back.
