Men's 3rd XI Vs Buxton 4

Buxton 4s 1 – 4 South Notts 3s

Having had to get up in the middle of the night for a 9 am meet the 3rds arrived early for their 11.30 start in Buxton. Most had brushed off the cobwebs in the club game last week and South started well; within 8 minutes we were 2 up. Paul was sharp up front and drilled in the first having gone past 2 defenders; James F shot, possibly towards the goal, but a defender deflected it in to make the doubt irrelevant. (Should James be allowed to claim it?)

Buxton fought back and were dangerous on the break on a number of occasions, eventually earning a short corner from which the shot went through the narrow gap between Simon’s feet and into the goal.

South fought back with good work in the middle by Henry and Andy, passing well to Sam, Paul, James and Ken to start a number of promising attacks. However, it was a move down the left as Ken powered(?) towards the goal line before sending an excellent cross into the D for Sam to get a controlled touch and deflect it into the back of the net.

Buxton came out in the second half with an adjusted formation, playing 3 up front. This left them weaker in midfield but they had a few dangerous attacks, two of which nearly led to goals. One attacker found himself 2 feet in front of an open goal but could not get a touch on a spinning ball as it came to him. Another put the ball just wide as Simon forced him to lift it by closing him down quickly.

Tony and James K cut out a number of attacks in the middle by being quicker to the ball or doggedly stopping the opposition from getting enough control to get a decent shot off. Arthur was solid yet again on the right, repeatedly going past one or two players before passing the ball off. Midfielders and forwards were good at finding spaces giving Tony and Graham good options when passing out from the back.

Hamza started a number of dangerous attacks on the left, linking up well with Andy and Henry in the middle as well as putting good balls through to the forwards. Henry was exceptional in midfield, fighting for every ball and starting numerous attacks with excellent passes. Sam had a number of dangerous runs into the D and was only stopped from scoring another by excellent goalkeeping and hasty whistling by the umpire.

The hard work and stout defending paid off as Paul managed to control the ball well in the D before shooting in his second.

Strong performances throughout the team gave South a well-deserved win.