Post by Dave on Oct 3, 2015 8:50:29 GMT
Buckland Athletic V Street FC
Saturday 3rd October 2015 Kick-Off 3pm
Venue Homers Heath
Saturday 3rd October 2015 Kick-Off 3pm
Venue Homers Heath
Referee Robert Dabbs Referee Assistants James Gould & Gareth Bridge
Final Score Buckland Athletic 1 Street FC 2
The draw of Homers Heath and the chance to watch the mighty Buckland Athletic in action was one I could not resist today. It has felt more like mid summer rather than the beginning of October this past week with wall to wall sunshine and would the sun continue to shine on Buckland Athletic.
Adam Castle could not have asked for a better start to the new season, the clubs forth in the Western League. In their very first season they finished in tenth place, eleventh place in the second season and runners up last season. A remarkable achievement for a club that started its senior football life in the Devon & Exeter League in the 1987-88 season.
In terms of age Buckland Athletic are only a baby compared to Street FC who was formed way back in 1880, making them one of the oldest clubs in Somerset. Street is the largest village in the whole of the United Kingdom, the club got its nickname “The Cobblers” due to a large shoe making industry in the village.
In the 1938/9 season, The Cobblers had their finest hour when they reached the 1st Round Proper of The FA Cup and were drawn away to Division 3 side Ipswich Town, a game they ended up losing by seven goals to nil. In the 1947/8 season Street reached the FA Cup 1st round for the second time after knocking out Yeovil Town 2-1 along the way in front of a crown of 5000 at The Victoria Field. Once again the road to Wembley ended there as they were beaten 5-0 by
Cheltenham Town
Last season Buckland were beaten by Street by three goals to two at their ground in September. The two clubs met again in October at the Heath in the Les Phillips Cup, a game Buckland won by three goals to two. Street were the visitors to the Heath again on the 21st March 2015, a game Buckland won by two goals to nil and a game I attended.
Match report of that game here
davesworld.proboards.com/thread/466/prem-buckland-athletic-street-march
As you may know Buckland have applied for promotion this season up to the EVO-STIK Southern League Division One South & West, work has already started on a number of the required ground improvements, all that will be left to do is finish the season as the champions of the Western Premier Division.
To that end Buckland has made a fine start to this season, winning twenty five points out of the thirty that have been on offer so far. They sit proudly on the top of the table after winning eight games, drawing one and losing just one giving them a plus sixteen goal difference. Today’s game gave Buckland the opportunity to hold onto that top spot.
Before today’s game Street were in twelfth place in the table on thirteen points, they had also played ten games, winning four of them, drawing one and losing five, with a minus six goal difference.
First thing to say is the pitch is now looking much better after all the drainage work that was carried out on it. There are still some scars where the drainage channels were cut, but it is a much better playing surface than last season.
Some might just say it was a bad day at the office, but for some reason Buckland were not at their best today and while they worked hard enough, did not really deserve to win the game.
A few key players were missing from the starting eleven and it did not help when early in the game Karl Green limped off with what looked like a repeat of his hamstring injury. Buckland were not able to get on top during the first half and were not passing the ball around as neatly as you expect them to.
Street came close to taking an early lead when a free kick was fired into the Buckland box .A Street player headed the ball back across the box from the far post and close in Lee Begg headed goal ward close in, but the ball ended up dropping to Steve Murray who fired the ball into the back of the net, only for the linesman to stick his flag up for offside.
On twenty one minutes Buckland took the lead, slightly against the run of play. Kieran Parkin burst into the right hand side of the Street box and hit a powerful shot, Tom Punchard in goal for Street, could only push the ball up into the air. Gavin Hammon always alive to what is going on around him, got to the ball first and put his side in front.
Street never looked like scoring until George Buckmaster missed the ball close to the goal line on the left hand side of the post with the Street player going away from goal. Sadly for him and Buckland he brought the Street player down and the referee pointed to the spot. Up stepped Steve Murray who hit his shot into the bottom right hand corner of the goal.
Shane Gill was working his socks off as usual and went on a great run feeding the ball in the end to Gavin Hammon who was on the edge of the Street box. Gavin turned neatly and hit his shot well enough, but it was straight at the keeper who saved it with ease.
That was it for the first half and surely Buckland would come out all guns blazing for the second half? Sadly not and the half was not that old when Street were awarded a second penalty kick. Craig Herrod burst into the right hand side of the Buckland box and was brought down by Grant Fisher. Steve Murray took the spot kick again with the same result.
Buckland then seemed to go into panic mode and instead of taking their time to build moves, ended up hitting long hopeful balls. The Street forwards started to see a bit more of the ball and Keith Emmerson hit a powerful shot just inside the Buckland box that thankfully got defected behind for a corner.
Gavin Hammon was now just feeding on scraps and so nearly got on the end of one long ball played out by Grant Fisher. But facing his own goal Lee Begg somehow fired the ball over his own keeper high enough for it to go out for a Buckland corner.
Street maybe should have added to their lead when they crossed the ball into the Buckland box. Dale Hurst got his head on the ball and headed it to Steve Murray who was not able to get any real power on his header and Grant Fisher was able to make the save.
There was then a very long break in the play when Simon Laughton ended up getting a bloody nose. After some treatment and a change of shirt and shorts, he did see the game out.
Gavin Hammon was played in one the left hand side with one decent ball. Gavin looked up and fired a low shot across the keeper to the right hand post, but it just went inches wide. Dan Griffiths fancied his chances from distant, but was never going to score from there. Shane Gill could have rescued a point for his team when close in the ball dropped to him, but he snatched at the ball sending it high over the crossbar.
Buckland are not going to win every game this season and no medals are given out in October. Every team has an off day and today it was Buckland’s turn. They will bounce back from this defeat, but they do need to stop giving away needless penalties as they will prove costly in the end.
