Post by Dave on Jan 12, 2019 12:49:37 GMT
Match Referee Stuart Kane Assistants Shaun Edge & Hiary Achegenui
Final Score Buckland Athletic 2 Wellington AFC 0
A very unexpected Saturday off work and I had planned to cover another game until I saw that Chris Todd had just joined Buckland Athletic and was going straight into today’s squad against Wellingto AFC.
Chris Todd was a great player for TUFC, but he was also a hero and major inspiration in one very ill young mans life. Chris was diagnosed with Leukaemia back in 2008 around the first time I met a very special eight year old young man Lewis Starkie who had been diagnosed as having Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia.
Firmly believing that Chris Todd would after treatment be back playing for TUFC, ( and at the time I was very heavily involved with the club) I talked with Lewis’s dad and suggested they both followed the progress of Chris Todd. Lewis took a big interest in Chris and a few months later was a mascot at a Torquay United home games, a game the team won.
At the end of the season Lewis led the Torquay United side out at Wembley for their play-off final and what a wonderful day it was for that young man. Lewis has had years of very intense treatment and has had a number of very serious relapses and has won all the battles he has had to endure.
Lewis has recently passed his driving test and believe me when Lewis first saw Chris Todd back playing again, it helped him in his own very brave fight. While this is not my normal pre match report, I have done it this way to show just what role model footballers can become to young people and there is no finer example than Chris Todd.
In order to prevent this post becoming too long, I will only add my final match report after the game. You can read the full story about Lewis with many photos of him here davesworld.proboards.com/thread/174/lewis-story-picture-thread
Match Report
A very cold afternoon at the Heath and this was a game that was very stop start at the beginning and never really burst fully into life. The most important thing was Buckland won the match and fully deserved too and could have and maybe should have won by an higher margin than they did.
Class is class even if you are thirty seven years old and Chris Todd’s first contribution in the match was a very long and low pass deep in his own half that went straight to his intended target.
Buckland took a very early lead in the match around the three minute mark, Richard Groves entered into the right hand side of the Wellington box and fired a cross come shot goal ward. Neither I nor young Tom Besford who was with me at the game was sure if the ball had gone straight in or if a Buckland player had a final touch. The goal was given to Ryan Bush so he must have got a touch on the ball close into the goal line.
Buckland looked the most likely of the two teams to get the second goal in the match and came so very close when two shots from inside the Wellington box were blocked on their way into the back of the net.
The Wellington players were working hard enough but were not really able to break down the solid Buckland defence. They did have one very good chance when Jack Bryant found some space on the edge of the Buckland box to get a shot away. His effort lacked any real power and it ended up a very easy save for the Buckland keeper Kenny Griffiths to make.
At times Buckland were passing the ball well and one good move and pass saw Ryan Bush make a good run and played Richards Groves into the box with a sweet pass leaving Richard with only the keeper to beat. It looked a certain second goal for Buckland but sadly Richard scooped the ball up and over the crossbar.
With just five minutes of the first half left to play, Wellington so nearly got back onto level terms. Their number two George Rogers took a free kick out wide on the left hand side. The ball came in low towards the back post and Kenny Griffiths dived down low to grab hold of the ball but lost it and it was so nearly knocked home.
But right after that Buckland’s Dan Harrison went on a great run beating all who tried to stop him and as he entered the Wellington box, looked up and picked his spot to fire the ball home past the Wellington keeper Josh McLean.
Wellingtons Mitch Woodgate had his name taken for chopping down Lloyd Gardner who was going on a good run down the left hand side of the pitch in the Wellington half, it was the only booking of the match.
That was it for the first half and I wondered if this was going to be a game of two halves as was the case on Boxing Day when Buckland had won the first half and lost the second half to a determined Plymouth Parkway side.
It was necessary for Buckland to put the floodlights on for the second half, they are not the brightest and that made taking second half match photos even more challenging, There were no further goals during the half and the nearest Wellington came to scoring came about Jack Porter started a good move that played in Joe Chamberlain, who only managed to shoot across the keeper and wide of the far post.
Buckland grew stronger as the half wore on and went on a number of good powerful runs, but the final shots were often lacking the power to beat the Wellington keeper.
Lloyd Gardner created a great goal scoring opportunity for himself after a good run into the box from the left hand side, by then I had moved to behind the Wellington goal and I was expecting the ball to burst the back of the net. Lloyd was unable to get any power into the shot and it was an easy pick up for the Wellington keeper.
The game seemed to go on longer than it should have and Buckland came so close to getting a third goal, a great ball was fired into the box from the left hand side and Richard Groves was inches away from getting his head on the ball.
I was glad when the match referee finally blew up for full time and quickly headed for my car to get the heater on, many thanks to my friends at the club who made me so welcome again and not for getting the legend Big Roy himself a man I am always pleased to see
