A beautifully bright yet brutally bitter november morning became the backdrop for Buckden's next battle. Alliteration aside, Oversports away on a near-freezing wind farm in pikeyville? Murmurs of "I'm not up for this" could be heard from the pre meet whatsapp chat (Shane was gonna "come out swinging" if he got out of his cosy bed to a cancelled game), to the convoyed journey to Over (where there was almost a three car pile up), throughout the awkward dressing room banter (because the gaffer was in a stress) right up until the point Jonny realised he could warm up his kit on the industrial water pipes above his allotted space. A few followed suit and thus we began to switch on.
We had a strong young and very hunky squad as per usual, Scutty, Fennel and young linesman of the year Sam Underwood graced the bench. We were all heartbroken to see Luke Fennel get injured in the warm up for probably not boozing enough the night before. Traditionally I try to drink at least 8 pints the night before a match to ensure I'm still a bit pissed and don't think about anything too much.
The first 10-15 minutes were shocking. Not just by the players on the pitch, but by Sam's disinterest in running the line seriously, and from what I've heard, Fennels analysis of our first goal "That was fucking shit". A great boot from Jan "the beast" Beliansky saw their defender nod it inadvertently back towards his own keeper. Josh Smith did well to gamble and find himself one on one with the keeper and slotted it home.
The next 15 minutes saw patches of good play from Buckden.. a bit of solid defence work from the usual crowd, some nice one-twos through the middle and a few clips down the line. We certainly grew in confidence and were winning corners. Finally a short corner was played after Lovey kept trying to score from one again, Dom picked it up skinned a couple of players and curled it into the danger zone. Every keeper and defenders nightmare as it passed through everyone and into the corner of the net. 2 nil. Probably deserve to be winning now but still bang average football.
Another size 14 drop kick from Jan caught up in the wind and Gman assed the defender out of his way whilst flicking it on in a controlled manner which can only be explained by his afro like hair acting as a cushion. He bolted on and of course, beat the keeper.
3 nil up. That needed to happen as we all agreed the next half is gonna be tough, they have the wind, the sun has dropped behind the trees and Chris Dennis was crying about something and said he didn't want to play anymore.
Back out for the second half anyway, CD wiped his tears away and we started better. There was some nice passages of play out from the defence, one twos down the flanks or through the middle and an awful lot of MOM Josh Smith slotting what seemed like outside-of-the-boot-only through balls to his brother Dom who would do anything he could to miss the goal.
He cannot be the only one to blame for not adding to our tally of 3. Gman picks up the ball and heads towards the by-line, skipping past two or three defenders. He has a look and plays a perfect cut back to Tim Smith who had, using stealth mode, found himself in a fantastic position to bag our 4th. All the lads expected timmy "tucker" to do what he does best and find that side net but an enormous bobble forces the ball over the bar, some inconsistent groundsman work can only be to blame.
There was a point in the match where our usual aggressor Adam Westbury seemed shocked and almost saddened (as i think we all were) on Brownies 'very out of character' plain nasty fouls on his opposing winger. Darren came on and went off again after 5 minutes due to a pulled hamstring which was "probably from shagging" after his recent honeymooning with a well known bar lady.
I genuinely don't remember their first goal but there could have been a second shortly after. Some heroic defending from Chris Dennis and everyone else who was on the line except Westers kept the score at 3-1.
We were inviting pressure, they tackled our diamond formation midfield by eventually doubling up on the flanks and ultimately bossed the game for the next 10 minutes. They won a corner or something and Jan flannel handed it which resulted in an easy tap in. Shit.
Sam underwood came on, and shocked us all by showing full interest and ability in his football. Almost as if he just didn't want to be lino. Fair play to the lad.
Anyway we managed to hold it out, get in there boys!. A tough game with even tougher conditions. We jollied back to the boozer and brought back the fine system which resulted in a few hoots and knee slappers but also a bit of caution in who was fined as a dropped Owen Howard was giving goodge the eye, or what some may call "the sniff".
