Men's 3rd XI Vs Buxton 4th XI

Match report South Nottm 3’s vs Buxton 4’s.

Injured skipper Stuart “Grozzy” Croston reporting from the sideline..

A very wild & wet Bingham welcomed the visitors from far afield for the first fixture of the new league season... Buxton 4’s arrived late to the pitch at the unusually early pushback time of 10:30am! A swift 2 minute warning from umpires Dick and Ray led to a hasty team talk by injured skipper Grozzy to the bare 11 of South in a return to the tried and tested 4-4-2 formation. A few changes to the regular team included Mark Roe and Alex Jones who both slotted in on the right hand side of the pitch. The opening skirmishes saw a very lively Buxton cut through South’s defence almost immediately, but the back line of Craig Bingham, Brian Blackmore, Leon Pinkney @ Mark Roe marshalled every attack with relative ease. Some excellent pressing by the central pairing of Alex Butler & Adam Sharpe led to an opening down the right where Sharpie found Alex J with a lovely reverse pass, Alex then drove into the opponent’s 25, finding striker Elliot Dixon with a solid pass into the D, who squared to the waiting Richard Butler to tap in and open the scoring, 1-0 to South!

South then went through the gears and started to boss the game with some great interplay across the field, especially young Hamza Adamjee who seemed to be involved in every attack from his flying left midfield position! A familiar story of South failing to take their chances and relinquishing possession too easily threatened to spoil the party as a Buxton forward found himself free at the top of the D after a couple of failed clearance attempts, but fired just wide of Tom Hall’s post.

The rain continued to fall and with the last play of the half, a clumsy South challenge just outside the 25yd line led to a free hit which Buxton “pinballed” into the South net past keeper Tom Hall with a couple of lucky deflections. 1-1 @Halftime.

The team talk urged everyone to remain focussed and continue to push on as in the 1st half, but trying cutout the mistakes and be more clinical!

Wave after wave of South attack was denied by a blend of good defending and poor decision making by the South forwards, until a cracking move started by Craig B & Brian B, releasing Hamza down the left, he then slipped to Adam S in the centre who found Alex J over lapping down the right and finished with a lovely firm shot past the stranded goalie who was expecting a cross! 2-1 South!

The South attacks kept coming

and Hamza almost scored a “Worldy” reverse stick shot in the top corner only to have it cleared off the line by his fellow striker Lord Richard Butler!

The result was briefly threatened when the Buxton youngsters tried to jink their way through the solid South defence, but with no end product.

Final score 2-1 to South, 3 points in the bag!