Page 16 - Ashton & Backwell FC v Buckland Athletic 300722

Match Report

ASHTON & BACKWELL UTD 2 [BENNINGTON-MANNINGS 14m; FORD 44m]
BUCKLAND ATHLETIC FC 2 [BUSH 25m; JOHANSEN 96m];

On a dry but cloudy afternoon, for the Stags, still battling to beat the drop, two
words summed up both this game and the whole season, what if. The
examination of the trials and tribulations of the whole season can wait, yet in the
context of this match and the fight for survival they can’t.

It was a scrappy game against a physical and limited mid-table team, yet what if
debutante Solari, whose delightful cross-field ball to split the defence and find
another new starter, Bennington-Mannings, who coolly took the ball and went
round Collings for the opener, had not been forced to leave the field on the half
hour with a nasty foot injury? What if Bishop had not let Bush past five minutes
before that, probably his only error of the game, into the box to square the score?
And what if Bishop’s great header from a corner had hit the net not the bar in the
last ten minutes? Or what if the Stags had been able to take advantage of
Bridger’s ten minutes in the sin-bin for comments made over a disputed penalty?
What if we could witness brilliant play every week like when the Stags took the
ball from their box, Cummings supplying the final pass for Ford to cut in from the
right and drill home from an acute angle on half time for Stags second? And,
finally, what if the home defence could have hung on for 30 seconds more, rather
than let Johansen in to score from an Athletic throw-in at the death?

This was definitely a match for taking those valuable three points, though Athletic
were not without opportunities beyond long range shots, first half, a loose ball
wide on the left produced a stinging Stockton shot for Coombes to parry away and
Webber nearly succeeded in lobbing from distance over an ill-placed Coombes’s
head. In the second Hedges cleared off the line from Bush at the restart, while
Coombes saved from Johansen, but that was about it. Stags with Hartley stressing
the defence linking with Price might have scored twice, his ball bobbling along the
goal line but no-one quite able to put a toe on the ball, then his shot in the 65 th
minute not quite powerful enough to beat Collings.

There are four games left and the Stags sit five points behind Street and with a -
13 worse goal difference. Their destiny is out of their own hands, so after a league
cup interlude midweek, a win at Millbrook on Saturday is looking increasingly vital.
MAN OF THE MATCH CHARLIE SAUNDERS
Team:
COOMBES, ANTHONY, HEDGES, CUMMINGS, BISHOP, CHARLIE SAUNDERS,
FORD, PRICE (sub WHITE 89m)
BENNINGTON-MANNINGS (sub SADY 77m), SOLARI (sub HARTLEY 31m),
SOLLAR