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3rd XI | |
01/29/08 |
     
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Usual quality from the 3rds, they continue to make progress with a brace of wins to start the season off, all under the able guidance of Lance InghamClick link to see current league standings
Click Link to see results and up coming fixtures
Match Reports:
Despite having to start the season wearing the mankiest old yellow kit in Butch’s locker room, the 3rds got of to a flyer here against a side that will no doubt muscle their way to a fair few victories this coming year. The first half was fairly unremarkable as both sides struggled a little to find their feet with new team-mates; and the excitement of a new season kicking off. Little of great note happened really until the Bucks’ cunningly devised 4-3-3 system was abandoned in favour of a more familiar 4-4-2 and Buxted immediately looked more comfortable. Mick was called on to make a couple of brave stops throughout, and palmed a certain goal away to his left late on in the half, but it was Buxted who were in front at the interval; courtesy of a delightful lob from Nigel Robbins. Nobody could quite understand why the Cuckfield ‘keeper made so little effort to get to the ball but the delighted Nigel made the most of the moment with a massive grin and a neat little forward roly-poly in the centre-circle. Buxted were much buoyed by the goal and started the second half pretty brightly. The pressure was mounting on Cuckfield and there was some great movement up front that culminated in a Cuckfield defender getting tempted into a tackle through Shane’s legs yards from goal. The tackle was strong enough to buckle Shane down on top of him and the referee had little doubt in awarding the penalty. Gareth allowed Shane the opportunity of taking the spot-kick himself and he stepped up to beat the ‘keeper comfortably to his {the ‘keeper’s} right. The Bucks possibly relaxed a bit too much after this second goal and, instead of going on to finish Cuckfield off comfortably, were shaken a little by a decisive substitution. The Cuckfield no.15 made a fair impression on the rest of the half; not least with his headed goal after 62 minutes. This set up a tight last half-hour that Buxted did well to hold; and at least it reflected a resilience that they should be proud of. They still restricted Cuckfield to mostly long-range efforts (one of which bounced worryingly on the crossbar on its way over) and dealt well with a series of corners. The defence were only really undone again by the Cuckfield goal-scorer who looked on his way until Gareth’s last ditch tackle earned him a yellow card with about 5 minutes of normal time remaining. Andy Harper replaced Mark (cramp) with a few minutes of injury time left and did enough to help keep the Cuckfield defence busy while the seconds ticked away in Buxted’s favour. There were probably few who left the field here who would admit to being fully fit yet; so there is much to look forward to from Buxted in the coming weeks. There were probably also a few who would be feeling the effects of a “robust” performance from Cuckfield’s {elected} ‘Star Man’ who almost certainly epitomized Cuckfield’s efforts overall!
Man-of-the-Match for Buxted – Shane Bills, whose work-rate and effort were rewarded with a goal. He was notably involved in some fine inter-play and a great deal of the team’s attacking opportunities all across the front line; as well as defending from the front, late on. Most notable debut went to Mick Knowles in goal, especially taking some important catches from set pieces in the second half, providing vital breathing space for a tiring defence. Most smile-worthy moment: Nigel’s joyous goal celebration – still in progress apparently!
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