After a closely fought match, Buckden were satisfied at coming away from promotion rivals Fordham with a point. Confidence and team spirit were high going into the game, as exhibited by an enthusiastic rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody from some of the lads on the way over, and some friendly changing room wrestling which resulted in Westbury puking his guts up in the showers. Weird.
Buckden needed to show all of this togetherness to recover from a fast start from the home team, who looked dangerous early on. Tim Smith picked up an early booking (and some savage banter) from the ref for slicing down the oppo's nippy striker as the away side struggled to get into the game. It soon got worse for poor old Tim, as he decided to cushion volley away a long goal kick which came down with snow on it. Unfortunately, a sudden gust of wind caused him to miss the ball completely, and their striker ran through on goal. His underhit lob should have been dealt with by Olly, but Ol's attempted punch clear travelled all of two yards, leaving the Fordham forward to square it to his strike partner to tap in to an empty net. It was a fucking calamity.
The goal did at least wake Buckden up a bit, and they began to create a few opportunities. Brownie botttled another decent chance completely after good work from Smithy and James Woo, and Shane made a great run down the left before his cross-shot narrowly missed both the goal and his team mates. They eventually equalised shortly before half time. Smithy leapt brilliantly to head the ball down for Woo, who caressed a lovely pass into the path of Sammy Underwood, and he strode on and finished with his customary composure, slamming the ball high inside the near post.
The second half began with Buckden in the ascendancy, but without creating too many clear cut chances. Shots on goal were few and far between for both teams, with Darren Scutt doing a super job filling in for Buckden at centre half alongside Kieran, who defended with class all day. The away team managed a couple of openings, with the ball not quite dropping for G after he barrelled through the centre of the Fordham defence, and a cross drifting just over Luke Fennell's head six yards out. Olly was relatively untroubled in the Buckden goal, though he did well to punch away a few set pieces. Fordham looked occasionally threatening on the break, and with a few minutes left Scutty was forced to take one for the team, mercilessly scything down their striker as he ran on to a ball in behind. Otherwise, Buckden defended resolutely, and were pleased with their day's work when the full time whistle wa
