'Was Like Istanbul'

Buckingham Athletic captain Matt Chew described a heroic performance from his side as Liverpool-esque from the 2005 Champions League Final as Buckingham Athletic Under18’s came back from a 3-0 half time deficit to beat Harefield 4-3 to proceed past the preliminary round to the first qualifying round of the FA Youth Cup. The game saw large praise for their character and grit to over-come their opponents and gives the side huge confidence going in to the next round against Wingate and Finchley.

The game could not have started worse for Buckingham as they trailed quickly when the visitors managed to open the scoring as their two quick wingers caused multiple problems for the back three.

A strange second goal occurred when a looping ball from the wing caused goalkeeper Laurence Mills to adjust his position backwards, only for him to see the ball drop in at the far post, bemusing everyone.

The third goal from Harefield was their best goal. A long diagonal ball was met by a first time pass into the box for a first time, volley finish from the forward to give them a comfortable lead going into half time. In truth, the visitors could have been out of sight if it wasn’t for the heroics of Mills in goal turning a couple of excellent chances passes the posts, but the back line and midfield of Buckingham needed adjustment just to handle their opponents.

The break saw changes occur for Athletic as Ore Soetan went in at full-back and all of the defence upped their game, and Jordan Tavener came on at left midfield to try and find a grip on the game, and also to maintain a balance in their play. It was the latter who latched on to a fantastic outside of the boot pass by Antonio Belardo to get inside the gap between right back and centre half before finishing to the keepers right, decreasing the gap from 3 to 2 after just a few minutes.

The game was on as Ben Acquaye continued his fine start to the season when he raced through the defence and despite a good initial save by the keeper, he followed up to convert from close range. For the second time the men in blue snatched the ball from the net to start quickly as they knew it was really possible to make the next round.

The equaliser followed as the hosts finally looked threatening from set pieces when Antonio Belardo scored to set the place alight and momentum was fully on their side going into the final 10 minutes. The header was met expertly by the midfielder who doubled his season tally. This meant there was 10 minutes for a winner or the game would be settled by extra time.

Extra time would not be needed as with only 5 minutes to go Jordan Tavener raced down the wing and pulled back to the waiting Acquaye, who would slot calmly and win it for Buckingham Athletic, causing mass celebrations by the players, coaches and supporters. The final 5 minutes was full of digging in by every player to see the game over the line.

Laurence Mills in goal was massively deemed man of the match for saving the side on numerous occasions, but every single player participated to their highest ability in the second half and you can see the heart that all of them have. The night will go down in the memories of every player for Athletic and on the 22nd of September they will hope to do it all over again in the next round, but hopefully a little more comfortably.