Tuesday evening saw promotion chasing Buckden meet local rivals Eaton Socon. The Early evening Kick off at 6:15pm meant preparation was never going to be smooth, people filtering into the changing rooms as and when doing there best to finish work early.
Buckdens injury list was a worry but places back filled by Owen Howard and Luke Finney gave us more options. The 5:45pm text Luke Fennel sent the #gaffer was another blow and pushed Luke Finney into starting line up.
The game was underway, Eaton out of the blocks at a very quick tempo caught the home team out, for the first 15/20 minutes Eaton were the better side, not giving Buckden anytime to get in their usual passing game. Every time Buckden moved the ball forward Socon would come right back at them. On one these attacks Eatons number 9 managed to get the wrong side of Luke Finney who caught the back of the strikers heels as he made his way into the box and the penalty was given.
It was great penalty not giving Ollie Day much chance even though he had gone the correct way.
The goal seemed to settle Buckden down and slowly we began to control the game and start taking chances. First chance fell to Sam Underwood who managed to get there before the keeper but unfortunately the ball dropped wide. Similar again when James Woo put a fantastic cross in, to which Dom Smith peeled off his man and also put wide. Chances were missed and the score was 1-0 at the break.
The gaffer and Ian raised the attitude in the changing room at half time and Buckden went out looking to take the game to Eaton. Which they did, winning the aerial battles in midfield and beginning to put some tackles in that were fitting to a local derby. Alex Shepherd was getting on the ball a lot more and managed to pick it up in midfield and make a fantastic run to the byline, the ball across was inch perfect and Dom Smith slotted it home. With the pressure Buckden were applying came chances, yet another chance fell to Dom Smith who managed to beat the keeper with the ball hitting both posts and eventually crossing the line.
2-1 Buckden and the job should have been finished. Unfortunately not, late on Eaton won a corner, the ball was whipped in and met at the near post and beat the keeper, who was unable to get near the ball having been fouled by an Eaton player, unfortunately the ref missed the foul.
2-2 was probably a fair result in the end, not a great performance as a team, disappointing not to add to the recent wins. But we move on.
