The third pre season friendly brought a tough test as Buckden travelled to Godmanchester to face their reserves. Facing a team in the league above, sprinkled with a few obvious first teamers, it's fair to say Buckden did more than enough to win the game. Unfortunately, due to the reoccurring theme of not taking chances, the win never came.
Buckden lined up in a new untested 4-3-1-2 formation, with Dom having to take one for the team and play right back, a midfield trio of Liam Irons, Darren Scutt and the Mac-Attack. Josh sitting in front of the 3 and just behind J Love and Bramley up top. Buckden started the game with very attractive, quick 1 & 2 touch passing. Godmanchester failed miserably to get anywhere near a Buckden player for the first 15 minutes and eventually the break through came when good work from Lovey ended up in him unselfishly squaring the ball to Bramley who tapped in on the line. 5 minutes later the ball found its way through to Bramley again who's touch took him around the keeper but very wide of the goal. He eventually squared the ball, after Josh had made a lung busting run from the centre circle, only for the ball to be played millimetres behind. Not even 15 seconds later Godmanchester found themselves in on goal and their impressive striker finished calmly to the keepers right. Buckden's heads didn't drop and this lead to Lovey getting bundled over in the box. After a little debate about who was going to take the penalty, Bramley finally handed the ball to Josh. The penalty was saved well to the keepers right and as the ball bounced out, Mac-Attack was clattered in the follow up, which was arguably a more blatant penalty then the original foul. The ref was continuing his poor decisions and bias to the home team as Dennis was getting pushed, pulled and elbowed by their striker but when Adam Wright came on, he some how managed to barge a 6'3 2 ton centre back over and the ref was straight to his whistle. The poor decisions and missed chances were obviously affecting Buckden and this was evident when playing the ball across the back. This lead to Dennis slightly underhitting a back pass to Oli. Oli then tried to Cruyff turn the oncoming striker who read his intentions and tapped into an empty net.
The second half started with no changes. Trying to get back to the first 15/20 minutes of playing but it just wasn't happening due to their blatant man to man marking of Liam, Shane and Josh. A scrappy half led to very little opportunities, minus Bramley again rounding the keeper but having his shot cleared off the line. The Buckden defence was doing well to keep their strike force quiet, with the vice captain Dennis and new signing Noodles particularly impressing, but eventually they were caught out. The full backs and midfield were left high up the field as 4 Godmanchester players waltzed into the box to net their 3rd. New boys Ryan and Sam impressed, with the latter hitting a sweet left foot shot from 20 yards which was well saved by the keeper. The final 20 minutes of the game the lack of fitness was evident, the midfield engine room never gave up but the team failed to work as an 11. The game ended 3-1 to the team from the league above.
