Long Buckby M1s 3-1 Warwick M4s

The saying goes that the sign of a good team is one that wins when they don’t play well. If that’s true, then you could make an excellent case for Long Buckby Men’s firsts being a good team, as winning while not at their best was exactly what they achieved in a home clash against Warwick fourths in the Midlands Men’s Division 8 South East.

Buckby began the game reasonably well, applying pressure to the Warwick backline and creating several chances, one of which was eventually put away by captain Liam Brown, whose shot took a deflection off the keeper and trickled agonisingly slowly over the goal line. The game then descended into a pattern that would become familiar, with both teams sloppy in possession and multiple missed chances for Buckby – their cutting edge in the final third seemed to be lacking.

The home side switched formation in the second half to a 3-4-3 and immediately began overrunning the Warwick midfield. A second goal came when a smart passing move found man-of-the-match David Guest on the right flank who managed to get to the baseline and fire a ball across the D for striker Lee Twynholm to convert. Buckby began to increase the pressure seeking to kill the game off and all but did that when Brown’s clever reverse slip through ball found Twynholm again who bagged his second goal and Buckby’s third with aplomb.

Perhaps it was complacency or a plethora of second half substitutions, but Buckby lost their flow a little and Warwick began to fight their way back into the game. The visitors grabbed what would turn out to be mere consolation with a deflected goal with around 10 minutes to go. Those final 10 minutes were very scrappy, punctuated by the regular sound of the umpire’s whistle as both teams gave away countless fouls.
In reality, Buckby should have probably won by more, but the victory extended the home side’s great run of form making it five wins out of five. Buckby remain in the hunt for the promotion places with two games to go before the Christmas break.