Alphington 4 - 1 Buckfastleigh Rangers 26th January 2008

A beautiful afternoon in the sunshine was really the prettiest thing to grace the Chronicles this afternoon. Both sides started purposefully and it was end to end but the Alphas were getting caught off-side on almost every forward movement for a great deal of the time. There was still no score but in the 12th minute the Bucks were reduced to ten men when Neil Weeks had to go off with a knee injury and the Bucks had travelled with the bare 11 so could not bolster the side.

Once the Bucks were down to 10 men the first half was pretty much all one way traffic and the Alphas came close in the 20th minute when a deft flick on by Lawrence Khoo beat the Bucks keeper but slid wide of the post, the Alphas continued to push and were rewarded in the 32nd minute when a trade mark Gary Hayes corner curved into the danger area to be duly headed home by Ryan Leverton. The Bucks had a gifted opportunity to equalise arond the 40 minute mark when Jason Warren gave away a needless free kick just outside the box which took an excellent save from Spike to keep the Alphas in front, the Alphas had another great chance just before half time when they laid seige upon the Bucks penalty area but seemed unable to co-ordinate a finish, and the 1st half ended 1 - 0.

the Alphas came out in the second half and looked like they had recieved another Robbie Rocket, but still the ycould not take advantage of the 10 man Buckfastleigh and midway through the 2nd half the Bucks drew level when some slack midfield and defensive play by the Alphas gifted the stiker an opportunity to go one on one against the keeper who had little chance ot stop the ineveitable 1 - 1.

Yet again it was the wake up call the Alphas needed and with the introduction of Simon Madge from the bench the whole dynamic seemed to change and with some intelligent and thoughtful passing down the wing around the 88 minute mark he threaded the ball through to Leverton who rounded the keeper to make it 2 -1. Less than 2 minutes later the Alphas went 3 - 1 up from a Leigh Atkins penalty after Leverton was brought down in the area.

The scoring was rounded off with a goal from Jason Warren taking his tally to 5 for the season and his first goal from feet ( 4 headers) after a goal mouth scramble wit hhin in the thick of it came out in the Alphas favour.

The Alphas made hard work of this game and will definitely need to up their game for next weeks visit to Newton Abbot

Eds man of the Match: Simon Madge - Came on late in second half, changed the dimension, played intelligent passes, ought to be in the next starting 11!!

All first team reports are written by and are the sole view of Russ Murch, they are in no way endorsed by Alphington AFC