WE PROGRESS TO NEXT ROUND OF CUP

As this game was played on a Tuesday night it could only mean one thing – we were playing a cup match. This was our 7th consecutive Tuesday night cup tie, 5 at home and 2 away with 4 wins and three losses. We are lately showing an improvement in form winning 4 out of our last 5 games in all competitions with our only defeat coming against Bovingdon when we went out of the St Marys Cup on penalties. We have also managed to keep 4 clean sheets in our last 7 games.

This victory takes us into the Quarter Finals of the Gladwish Challenge Trophy, a cup we have won on two previous occasions firstly in 2008/09 after beating Chalfont St Peter 3-2 and then last season after overcoming Aylesbury Val Dynamos 2-0. We are likely to play in the next round at home against either Desborough Town or Dunstable Town who are due to meet on 9th December.

Our guests were formed in 2023 after the merger of two Buckingham sides called United and Athletic, so this was our 18th encounter against the old and new set up. Buckingham F C are 11th in Division 1 but reached this stage of the competition after beating Wormley Rover 3-2, who of course we beat 1-0 on Saturday, so they were obviously a very capable team and demanded respect.

The game got off to a sluggish start without anything meaningful to write about until around the 27th minute mark when Dylan Fitzpatrick produced a super ball over the visitor’s defence to release Max Hercules who was foiled by a great save from keeper Noah Vaughan. But the let off for Buckingham was short lived as from the resulting Max Hercules corner James Kimber scored his 4th goal of the season. Score 1-0.

This ignited the spark that the game needed and in the 35th minute Buckingham caused problems for us when we failed to deal with a nicely taken free kick from Buckingham skipper, key midfielder and joint leading scorer Lucas Bailey and the ball fell to Lloyd Pamber whose shot was cleared off the line. This pepped up the visitors who had a good spell but we landed another blow in the 41st minute with Greg Deer rolling back the years to set up goal number 2 for us. He picked up the ball from a throw then ghosted past the defender on the bye line and whipped over a sumptuous cross to pick out Frankie Hercules whose bullet header gave the keeper no chance. Score 2-0.

Two minutes later we somehow failed to put the game to bed with Frankie again involved this time as creator. He manged to get past two defenders down our left and cross the ball into the area where Dylan Fitzpatrick knocked it back to Harry Jones who from close range headed the ball against the bar. The ball bounced back to Blake Argent whose first shot hit the prostrate Harry Jones and then bounced back to Blake who shot over the bar. It was a good opportunity lost to increase our lead just before the break but we were still in a strong position as we went in for our half time cuppas. HT Score 2-0.

At the start of the second half Dylan Fitzpatrick was presented with a decent opportunity but fired his shot into the side netting after being set up by Frankie. Our opponents had played some nice football without troubling young Freddie in goal too much but just past the hour mark they had their best opportunity from a cross from the left wing which fell to Ude Osim who turned sharply and shot just wide of the far post.

Buckingham started to grow in confidence and in the 64th minute a corner from the left resulted in a mad scramble at our near post which fortunately we were able to clear. Soon afterwards there was a cry from the away bench for a penalty when the ball bounced up and appeared to hit Dylan Fitzpatricks arm which was certainly not intentional but fortunately for us was nothing was given by the referee.

Our opponents were intent on having a go and pushed forward at every opportunity and showed the sort of form that overcame Wormley Rovers. In the 85th minute a Buckingham sub had a sight of goal but his shot was weak and didn’t trouble Freddie Burroughs. Soon afterwards sub Joe Sheldon had a better chance but Freddie pulled off a great save to keep our 2 goal lead in tact.

Buckingham’s last throw of the dice arrived at the end of normal time when a long throw fell to defender Lloyd Kamber whose shot went wide of the post and we were able to book our place in the next round. FT Score 2-0.

An excellent performance from Buckingham FC and we wish them every success for the rest of the season. We get back to League action on Saturday when AFC Welwyn are the visitors to The Michael Anthony Stadium so lets get behind the players and hope we can get three more points towards our drive for a Play Off place.
Finally Man of the Match was Greg Deer who was superb in defence, took on the role of Captain and found time to set up the second goal.

TEAM,
TA: Freddie Burroughs, James Kimber, David O’Connor (Mason Clarke HT), Greg Deer (Capt) (Pablo Kalamaras 62), Dylan Fitzpatrick, Harry Baumont, Blake Argent (Dylan Whitelock 68), Frankie Hercules (Bailey Osborne 62), Luke Peerless (Jack Harvey 56), Harry Jones, Max Hercules.

Scorers

TA: James Kimber (28), Frankie Hercules (41)

Crowd: 79