A really enjoyable evening tonight at a really great local football club that is the pride of Newton Abbot. Don’t think many Torquay United fans made the short trip the Heath, but there were at least ten TFF members at the game.
There was only one team in the match the whole game and only one team deserved to win it, Buckland Athletic and thankfully they did as it would have been a complete injustice if they had not.
During the game Torquay used seven players who have played in the first team.. Bevan,Ellis,Rowe -Turner,Lathrope,Macklin,Yoeman,Halpin, but I believe only Bevan and Ellis played the whole ninety minutes.
We started with Macklin playing up front and for the first 20 minutes it was like watching the second half of a Torquay United first team game. All our players were camped in their own half as Buckland dominated the play with wonderful slick passing and movement.
If you had never been to the Heath before and did not know they were the team playing in yellow, you would have thought they were Torquay and the team playing in white, the local team from Newton Abbot.
Buckland deserved to go in at half time at least four nil up and the only surprise was they didn’t. They came mighty close a number of times of taking a first half lead and Bevan was forced into making a number of saves, while a few other Buckland efforts ending up just going wide of the goal post.
Not to happy with some of the dirty challenges a number Of Torquay players were very guilty of and Ellis who had been yellow carded, was always in danger of getting a second yellow card.
Lathrope did get sent off after a disgraceful challenge that caused one of those handbag moments, so he won’t be on the bench this Saturday. I also thought Ray Spear who was up front with Maklin was a bit of a dirty player, yes he may feel due to his size he wants to let know defenders he’s there, but not by going in on them with such dirty tackles.
Completely against the run of play Torquay took the lead halfway through the second half. We won a free kick just outside Buckland’s box, Buckland put four players in the wall, but Halpin bent the ball low around them and into the bottom right hand corner of the goal.
Torquay United fan or not, I was disappointed we scored from that free kick as Buckland did not deserve to find themselves behind in the match (maybe it’s the Buckland boy in me that wanted them to win
) and Torquay certainly did not deserve to be winning it.
Buckland were given the chance to get back to level terms when the linesman flagged for a spot kick, it was not a penalty and not even close to being one, but the ref went with his linesman and pointed to the spot.
Anthony Lynch stepped up to take the spot kick and while Bevan dived the right way, Lynch blasted the ball over him and into the roof of the net.
Buckland clearly felt the game was there to be won and for the last 15 minutes had Torquay United on the rack. Attack after attack and they forced Bevan into having to make a number of saves. Buckland’s final ball were the ones letting their excellent approach play down on a number of occasions and as the clock ran down, it looked like the game was going to go to penalties.
With only seconds left on the watch, we failed to clear the ball from our own box and when we did managed to get it outside of our box, Simon Revell was there to fire in a very low and powerful shot that went through a crowd of players and into the bottom left hand corner of the goal.
As soon as the game was restarted, the ref blew the final whistle.
Big well done Buckland, you out played Torquay United and fully deserved your win. If that’s the sort of quality football you are producing week in and week out, I might even fancy becoming a Buckland fan myself in the not to distant future.
Many thanks Buckland for your very warm welcome, thanks Bucklandgull for that nice cup of cofffee and many thanks to the Buckland chairman who wanted to me meet and say hello.
PS. Forgot to say it was nice to meet AMY who writes such great reports on all Buckland's games for the TFF.
) and Torquay certainly did not deserve to be winning it.
