Hendon 0-1 Billericay

[Simon BTFC]

For me this was a case of roles reversed from the Staines game - for the first half hour we were very good, took the lead, hit the bar and played some excellent football. After that? Frustrating inability to hold on to the ball and we were pretty lucky that Hendon didn't punish us - Buckfield motm for me.

 

We always say that you shouldn't look at the table tul after half a dozen games, well I reckon that considering the lengthy injury list and the loss of confidence we suffered, 10 points is a decent enough return.

 

Buckfield, Marron, Dumas, Clarey, McSweeney, Shave, BWG, Hunter, Bricknell, Ferguson (Burbridge), Wareham (Henry)

SNU Flack, Chatting, Worster

[SteveR]

Buckfield was superb tonight - easily the best player on the pitch, and certainly played a huge part in stopping us from scoring. I certainly felt we were worth a point but it wasn't to be. Such is the way of football! We'll come get our revenge in January!

[GazzaBTFC]

Man of the match - Jack Buckfield, without any shadow of a doubt. Kept his head and the ball whilst all around were losing it. As much as we had the upper hand in the in the first (one of our best starts), it should be mentioned that our ball retention and passing was diabolical in the second and if not for Jack, we would've been punished by possibly a greater scoreline than on Bank Holiday Monday...who the hell hit the panic button? We know we're better than this.

 

But...we won. And it's the results that stand giving us the three points and moving us into 8th in the league.

 

To those that write the season off this early, I was nosing a book that Leighton brought for Jason The Webmiester. It was the 2006 / 2007 Ryman League Stats review and I noticed that after five games we had 7 points...the same as this season. I believe we ended up taking part in the play off finals that season...

[jl]

I thought the first 30/35 minutes was the best football we've played this season. It was a shame Hunter's header hit the post as it would have been a really good goal and probably have killed the game off.

 

I think the ferocity of Hendon's response at the start of the second half surprised us a bit and we were never really able to get going after that. I certainly can't blame a bit of a makeshift defence for wanting to clear their lines but the ball retention of the forwards was disappointing. I was a bit surprised "Burbatov" didn't come on earlier because of this. I did think when Henry came on, the extra body in there did mean we got a bit more control.

 

The ref was abysmal (I'm sure both sides will say that), the free kick count in favour of them was beyond a joke, although both Shavesie and Dumas could easily have seen second yellows late in the match.

 

I agree with the choice of Buckfield for man of the match, not only for his fine saves (the one in the second half was quality) but his all-round performance between the sticks was the most assured I've seen him in a Ricay shirt.

 

An away win and a clean sheet - That's great news and with important players to come back into contention still, I think 10 points from 6 games is a more than respectable start.

 

Come on you Blues!!!!

[Bill of Shenfield]

Excellent result, well done.

[Adam.S]

First half i thought we played well, the best we have played all season. We was passin the ball around which is what we should do in every game. A good strike from bradley for the goal. The second half i thought hendon played well, keeping the ball and passing it around.

 

Jack made some very good saves and in the second half espcially, kept us in the game. Was my MOTM. Neil again played very well dealking with almost everything that came his way. Shavesey again played well however could have got a second yellow. But what matters is that we have picked up all 3 points, away from home and kept a clean sheet whilst doing so.