Buckland Athletic can now breathe a collective sigh of relief as they made up for a disappointing start to their league campaign with a resounding home victory in the FA Cup.

In contrast to their previous game, Buckland were in control of this game from early on and should have been ahead at the break. Ryan Bush, making his first start of the season, was looking dangerous throughout but despite creating numerous chances, Buckland’s finishing let them down and Pewsey Vale managed to go in with their goal intact.

Buckland have endured a poor run in the FA Cup over recent seasons but when Dan Harrison headed home Lewis Tasker’s corner within a minute of the restart, it was beginning to look as if the  Extra Preliminary Round jinx was finally going to be broken. Having said that, Marko Radovanovic, Buckland’s third goalkeeper in as many games, was called on to make a great save to keep the Yellows ahead. A Vale goal would have been against the run of play and Buckland finally got the second they deserved when Les Afful’s corner was only partially cleared and Tasker smashed the ball into the roof of Wes Clarke’s goal with less than 20 minutes remaining. Forced to push up, Pewsey Vale were undone for the third and final time when Richard Groves won possession and slotted the ball through to Nick Rudge. The latter spotted Clarke off his line and lobbed the goalkeeper to seal a reasonably comfortable win.

Buckland will face Southern League Bristol side Mangotsfield United in the Preliminary round at Homers Heath on August 25th. First, they will switch focus back to the league and Saturday’s away trip to newly promoted Roman St Glass.

Buckland: M. Radovanovic, J. Richards, L. Tasker, R. Groves, D. Harrison, L. Head (c), G. Mercieca, N. Rudge, R. Bush, L. Afful, C. Duff, L. Drew, C. McPhee, T. Down, N. Barker.

Pewsey Vale: W. Clarke, K. Lever, G. Plank, J. Force-Jones, T. Taylor, C. Marsden, J. Turner (c), R. Wilkinson, L. Smith, H. Lowe, J. Blake, R. Cain, J. Gentleman, M. Martin.