New faces in dugout see Potton victorious

There were new faces in the dugout at Station Road as Laurence Revell and Graham Hagger joined the first team management.

Darren Staniforth will be managing all football activity from now on, so Laurence will be concentrating on first team affairs with Graham assisting him.

Rob Steele will continue as first team coach alongside Ash Yeomans.

Long Buckby started the game quickly and immediately put pressure on the Potton defence. However, after the first five minutes Potton had turned the screw and had the majority of play for the next 20 minutes.

Nothing came from Potton’s possession but they did create a number of half chances with the best falling to returning captain Luke Harradine who headed the ball unchallenged straight at the keeper from a Calum Forster corner.

With half an hour gone keeper Will Cook dropped a Buckby cross under pressure, a Long Buckby player got something on it but Harradine cleared it from the goalline. This gave Buckby the break they needed and they came close to scoring the first goal of the day when their right winger hit the bar from 20 yards after Potton failed to clear their lines.

It was clear to see Potton were given instructions at half time to include the wingers more, and as early as possible. The system reverted back to more traditional 4-4-2 with John Yambasu and George Kiely becoming out and out wingers. Both of them had lots of possession in the second half and gave their counterparts plenty to think about.

Potton’s first real chance of the half fell to Garry Ansell-Carter when the Buckby keeper miskicked a goal kick and Gary hit the bar from 25 yards.

On 52 minutes Ansell-Carter was brought down 10 yards out of the opponent’s 18 yard box. Calum Forster took the free kick and the keeper got both hand to the shot but wasn’t able to keep it out.

After that Potton had the lion’s share of possession and a number of corners followed and on the 67th minute Nick Finney scored Potton’s second of the day from one of them.

Shortly after Finney and Yambasu were substituted for new comers Charlie Stafford and Cory Cooper. These changes unsettled Potton slightly and Long Buckby took advantage of this. They put pressure on the Potton defence and placed a number of crosses across Cook’s area, having one goal ruled out for offside.

Potton host S&L in the UCL Division One on Saturday and them welcome Oakham United in the Hinchingbrooke Cup on Tuesday.