Saturday 7th March 2009

• Opponent: Pilton
• Fixture type: League
• Venue: Home
• Result: Drew 0-0

Match Report

With regular keeper Danny Barnes away on holiday and reserve John Adams only partially fit, it was left to midfielder Jake Lomax to volunteer and don the gloves. A strong Pilton line-up were kept under tight control in the opening half by a Buckland side determined to put their previous poor performance behind them. Reverting to a defence containing five players in order to give protection to the novice goalkeeper, Buckland worked hard during the first half and limited the visitors to only and handful of shots on goal. Midfielders Simon Adams, Ben Dooley and Gary Montague controlled the centre of the park during the opening half and prevented the Pilton strikers from receiving to much of the ball.

Manager John Adams made a brave decision to bring himself into the action for the second half, although not fully fit, but his experience paid dividends as two early shots from Pilton were well saved by the keeper. Pilton held the greater possession during the second half with the wind at their backs, but it was Buckland’s defence who held strong with fine performances from Martin Tucker and Kevan Parker. With 15 minutes remaining a good move between the midfield players ended with Ben Dooley hitting a long cross field ball to Simon Adams who broke through the defence, only to have a goal disallowed for offside, against another Buckland player who was deemed to be interfering with play. Minutes later Pilton also had the ball in the net, but as with Bucklands earlier attempt, this to was disallowed for offside. The fog and mist slowly lowered across the pitch as the referee whistled for full time to end an enjoyable game played in good spirit by both teams.

Man of the Match: the whole team