WESTERN FOOTBALL LEAGUE

Buckland Athletic 2 Ivybridge Town 1

IVYBRIDGE Town manager Wayne Gamble labelled Buckland Athletic as “The type of club we’ve got to be aspiring to be like” after they were beaten 2-1 in Newton Abbot, reports Jamie Rooke.

It was “A really well-contested game” according to Bucks boss Dan Hart with his opposite number Gamble, also offering up a very honest assessment. “Last season in the Peninsula League, you could get away with some mistakes, in this league you can’t, you get punished and end up with zero points.”

This was a first taste of action for both sides in 2025 after their respective New Years’ Day clashes were postponed.

Ryan Bush opened the scoring for Buckland although the hosts “didn’t have to work too hard for it”, owing to a gift from Ivybridge. Jordan Powell had his pocket-picked by Bush and with the goalkeeper already committed, the Bucks striker was more than happy to convert into an empty net.

After Bush squandered a chance to double the lead, Ollie Aplin levelled the score with a great header on 35 minutes. Aplin led the SW Peninsula League scoring charts last season with Bovey Tracey but is yet to hit the same heights in green and white, making this an important goal for both him and his team.

The two managers were in agreement that Buckland could and perhaps should of the put the game to bed before the break, Hart commenting that, “If the forwards, who are normally ruthless, are at their flowing best, we probably end the contest in the first 45 minutes.”

After the pair went in level at the break, it then became a game of two halves with the weather taking a turn for the worst.

After all, fixtures around the country were curtailed due to frozen and waterlogged pitches this weekend and Gamble “personally thought, looking at the forecast [that morning], that the game wouldn’t finish so credit to the ground staff here on the surface, how the pitch held up is remarkable.”

Adam Seedhouse-Evans made a couple of very impressive stops to keep the game at one apiece, either side of golden opportunities that came and went for Bush and Jared Lewington. The latter in particular, should definitely have done better from close range.

It was Lewington who eventually had the final say at Homers Heath though, an easy enough finish set up by the relentless Ben Fowles.

Ivybridge pushed on in search of a second equaliser but to no avail and so, whilst “there were a lot of positives for” the Greens, they “still picked up zero points and need to start picking up points soon, if not, we’re going to end up in the cluster at the bottom of the league with teams we know that we’re better than” said Gamble.

Moving forward now and the pair are next playing on Saturday 11, Buckland visiting Nailsea & Tickenham and Ivybridge travelling to Street FC.