DEEP JOY AS LONG BUCKBY HIT LATE EQUALISER

LONG BUCKBY AFC 2 V OLNEY TOWN 2
UNITED COUNTIES LEAGUE 1 @ STATION RD
13 AUGUST 2016 --- 3PM

LATE SAVE DENIES LONG BUCKBY

In the words of comedian and former resident of Long Buckby Stanley Unwin Stevy Djedje brought 'deep joy' for the home side with an equaliser 3 minutes from time.  The second half had been more fruitful after a dour first half had ended goal less, the home side had taken gone in front before Olney Town shocked Long Buckby to take the lead and then that late equaliser brought both sides a point each to maintain their top 7 positions in the early league table.
The blog seems to be covering some UCL games last season and after last weeks Peterborough Sports game we decided to call in at a club we had passed on our journey to Northampton ON Chenecks last season.  Todays journey would involve 8 trains with changes at Derby, Tamworth and Rugby.  It was a pretty smooth procedure that saw us arrive at Long Buckby just after 1pm although as ever a fair amount of standing was the call of the day.  With new houses being built on Station Rd near the ground and with a large commuter car park the feel of regular Monday to Friday travellers to London was very evident.  The station is an unimpressive stilted affair with a commuter only ticket office that to be honest did not give a great impression.

We decided to walk past the ground which is easily accessible in well under 10 minutes and onto the village.  Its an attractive affair without being chocolate box representative there are many old and quirky houses and an attractive church which is the final resting place of the aforementioned Stanley Unwin who resided most of his life in the village and had invented his own language 'Unwinese'.  For those not familiar with the gentleman a You Tube search will bring up some funny interviews to enjoy from the more gentle times of comedy.  Before we did a mini tour of the village we called in at the local delicacy shop, fish and chips to you and me.  The Big Fryer had been researched and was well populated with a selection of customers and today we opted for fish cake and chips twice with Mick back on the travels today.  Interestingly base county is never far away with the shop owners having relatives running fish and chip shops in Matlock Bath and Ashbourne and formerly in Buxton.  The Northamptonshire shop though was looking good and people spoke well of it locally and we enjoyed our fayre this afternoon.  As we finished off our tray of lunchtime food we opted to take a look at Long Buckby Castle and as you can see its pretty impressive..................sadly only a mound is now left!

LONG BUCKBY CASTLE IN ALL ITS GLORY

Back to the ground which has an impressive little clubhouse on Station Rd with a walk way to the ground around 100 yards away.  To the left Long Buckby are in action with leather and willow and their little pavilion is well populated with adjacent to this the rugby clubs impressive building fronting up their pitch for when their new season starts shortly.  So an impressive collection of sports in one place in the village and going on round the back of the fenced off football ground are more open sports pitches.

LONG BUCKBY AFC CLUB HOUSE

Having decided to watch a bit of cricket till just shy of kick off time Mick had gone on ahead as an advance party.  Entrance to the club is a smart 2 sided turnstile block with immediately to the left a snack bar with hospitality and then the players changing rooms.

THE MAIN STAND AT STATION RD

To the front is the grounds impressive feature a half pitch length stand with European moulded seat bases in turquoise plastic bolted into the concrete but with no backs.  The top goal and far goal has hard standing with the top end edged off by large popular/conifer trees below the stand is a raised small terrace area which commands a good view of proceedings.  The far side houses the dug outs and sadly has no hard standing so is out of bounds which is a bit of a shame for a nicely situated stadium.  The floodlights are corner placed as opposed to most non league clubs which hug the touchline.  The public address system is in full swing with music which is good to raise the atmosphere although it does not re appear at half time or the end it is good to see clubs using them.

EDWARD KOSTIUK ON THE BALL FOR LONG BUCKBY

The small crowd of around 40 had gathered on this warm afternoon and for most of the first half its very agricultural stuff with lots of big ball and little in the way of controlled football although as ever at this time of the season the pitch does look a little bobbly and hard which may not be helping.  It was 33 minutes before the first real effort Nick Bines seeing his effort pushed away by the home keeper May.  This semed to wake Long Buckby up with the visiting keeper Jack Taylor pulling off a close range stop before Manny Salumu hit the post.

LEWIS SMITH OF OLNEY TOWN BRINGS THE BALL AWAY

Score less at half time was about right but the second half saw the home side start at a pace and take the lead after 53 minutes with Edward Kostiuk firing home with a firm strike.

CLOSE TO THE ACTION IN NON LEAGUE FOOTBALL

Long Buckby should have forced home their advantage but as so often happens when you don't you are punished and Olney equalised on 68 minutes when Aarron Murrell rose high at the back post to head home before on 80 minutes the visitors took the lead through Vinny Shrieves who was well placed again at the back post.  Just as it looked like the home side would have nothing to show for their afternoon efforts Dale Linton crossed from close in and substitute Stevy Djedje headed home to make it 2-2 with 3 minutes remaining.

In the final minute a succession of free kicks on the edge of the Olney box ended with a curling set piece from Linton which visiting keeper Taylor flew across to deny the home side three points.
Probably not one of the better games that will be viewed this season but a nice little club with a steady little village well worth a visit and indeed with a FA Vase game versus Hillingdon Borough in a few weeks it is sure to feature on further visitors lists this season.
A couple of balls viewed of the cricket as we made it smartly back to the station with the return journey taking a similar route back to base station with a little time built in for refreshments at Rugby.  Base station was achieved around 7.30pm and the only was the return stripey boys bus which messed up my connection.  Good day out nice visit to Northamptonshire and another UCL club visited on a nice summer afternoon.

WELCOME TO LONG BUCKBY STATION