Report

Tuesday 21^st February 2012

Buckland Athletic 3 Torquay United 0

Devon St Lukes Bowl- Quarter Final.

It was the exact round of the same competition were the two sides last met and in that game which was also played at the Heath it was Buckland who came on top in a very entertaining 2-1 win with Si Revell scoring a rocket late on in the game. The Home side tonight were hoping for a similar outcome to take them into the Semi-Final of the competition which Buckland are actually the defending champions of.

The starting line up for Buckland was;

Neil Montandon, Liam Drew, Danny Gaze, Gary Fisher, Cameron Kelly, Danny Lewis, Mike Booth, Gavin Hammon, Liam Moseley, Antony Lynch and Dean Stevens.

And the substitutes were;

Marc Revell, Si Revell and Chris Wright.

The early exchanges between the two sides were fairly even with Buckland giving Torquay’s keeper Martin Rice a couple good saves to make. Torquay looked very quick upfront and with 8 full time professionals on show this was expected.

The deadlock was broke in the 32^nd minute through Gavin Hammon, a cross came in from the left for Gavin to hold the ball at his feet, from about 6 yards out Gavin struck the ball to leave Rice on the floor looking at the ball in the net, a loud cheer echoed around the Heath and set the tone for the duration of the game.

The score remained 1-0 to the boys in blue (which does sound very obscure) but the action was very much end to end with the Torquay forwards making several good runs down the wings but their finishing was not up to scratch!

As the play was re-started for the second period of 45 minutes the ball was in the net once more, and for the second time of the evening it was the home side that netted. A Dean Stevens cross looped into the box with Rice following the direction of the ball, this left him right on the near post which enabled Gaffer Antony Lynch to head across the goal for the ball to go into the net, Rice ran across his line and seemed to have got hold of this header but for him to then sort of throw the ball into the net, a odd goal but the all count. This was Lynchy’s 22^nd goal in all competitions in his 22^nd appearance of the season, a form that any striker would be happy to have.

It was surprising to see Torquay beginning to look a bit lacklustre and not really pushing forward for their opener of the night and therefore Buckland took good advantage of that and scored once more. In the 56^th minute Dean Stevens made a vicious run down the left skinning a couple of the Torquay Lads, he cut inside and unleashed one of his stunning strikes, he hit it as sweet as he could and it rifled into the top right hand corner off the goal.

3 minutes after this Torquay were reduced to 10 men, a player who has previously made it into United’s first team squad Lathaniel Rowe-Turner was shown his marching orders after a challenge on a Buckland player. After the initial challenge a couple of the Torquay and Buckland boys got their handbags out and shared a push and a shove but all was shortly restored by the referee. With 30 minutes still to go and Torquay being down to 10 it began to look like there was only one team in it.

Buckland ran out time and had overcome Torquay twice in the last two meetings, a truly amazing performance by Buckland and some described it as the best performance they had ever seen the boys play,  has now taken them into the Semi’s of the bowl where they will face the winners of Cullompton Rangers and Exeter City.

Although the sponsors on the night gave Man of the Match to Cameron Kelly I have to dis-agree. My Man of the Match goes to Liam Moseley, I personally thought he played out of his skin tonight and was worthy of the MOM. He continuously pushed forward for Buckland and never gave up!

Amy.