Athletic Edge Tight Encounter

Buckingham Athletic travelled to Hatfield Town on Saturday looking to climb to ninth in the league, where they have placed themselves in the middle of a crowd of teams. Their hosts have struggled so far this season with them sitting second from bottom, Buckingham had a good chance of climbing the table.

The game was close throughout and it started a chance from Juyin Oluwayemi who couldn't convert to take a lead for Athletic, but then keeper Lewis Dench had to keep them in the game where his save managed to keep the score at 0-0 going into half time. There wasn't too many chances a piece in the first period, but the ones that did done could have certainly found the net on another day.

It wasn't until the second half that Buckingham started to play their own way as they started to string some passes together and dominate the game more, but Hatfield also came to the game very organised and proved they would be hard to break down. The work rate started to increase as Buckingham went in search of a lead but the shots they took were constantly from range.

New signing Mason Trowell came on from the bench in the second half and that added some much need energy going into the remainder of the game. Another U18’s player, Sam Olawale came on on the wing for the rest of the game with target man Sid Hawkins coming off in order to add some more pace in attack. Ben Acquaye moved up front with Robbie Carter in hope of finding a winner, and that he did. Carter pulled it back to this Acquaye who finished to get an 85th minute winner.

There was still some time to play however, and in an attempt to shut out their opponents, Mark Carter put on Sam Pateman who could add some reassurance at the back. They prevented an equaliser and saw their 1-0 win give them 9 points in a week where they now sit in ninth place, just seven points off fifth. Manager, Mark Carter was starting the plaudits for his defence after shutting out their hosts to claim a clean sheet, “I must congratulate our defence who were well marshalled again by Dan Staley and Dan Hassell at the heart, but I thought Jack Carter was excellent at left back.”

They travel to Harpenden on Saturday for a tough game where they will try to defend their three game winning streak.