Buzzard lucky to take the spoils

Buzzard went to West Hampstead looking to get rid of any rustiness brought about by the festive break. Having looked at recent results, Leighton knew West Hampstead would be stronger than the team they played in the first game of the season and so it proved. The home team started strongly and went close on a couple of occasions.

However the deadlock was broken when Leighton struck first when Tim Bellamy transferred the ball to man of the match Tom O'Reilly who fed Kevin Abranches who returned the favour with a fabulous ball to the back post for O'Reilly to finish.

Buzzard tried to be patient and move the ball but a number of miscontrols led to West Hampstead forcing a series of short corner. The equaliser soon followed when they smashed a ball past Liam Wavish.

At half time, Buzzard knew that if they continued to move the ball then chances would come. Soon after the break Bellamy managed to find Steve Fuller following a quality stepover from Martin Bailey. Fuller used his pace and squared the ball for Abranches to finish to make it 2-1.

Back came West Hampstead who managed to force another short corner. Following a goalmouth scramble the scores were level. West Hampstead continued to press but the scores remained level thanks to some great keeping by Jim Galloway and good defending by Clive Warncken, Tom Handley and Wavish.

Buzzard were rocking but following a break in play due to an injury to one of the home players, they regained control of the match. They knew the three points were vital if they were to keep pressure up on Marlow in the race for the title and so went for it. After some good interplay with Matt Nash, Fraser Retford fed Dave Jackson who in turn laid the ball off to Finley Bell Taylor who volleyed the ball past the keeper. Soon after the final whistle went and Buzzard had secured three vital points even though they know the performance was below par. So plenty to work on this week at training ahead of a home game against mid table Phoenix and Ranelagh.