Late strike dashes Buckland's FA hopes

An agonizing late strike ended Buckland Athletic’s FA Cup dream on Wednesday evening.

Poole side Hamworthy United scored two minutes from time to snatch the preliminary round replay 3-2.

After Saturday’s fiercely contested 1-1 draw at Homers Heath – Athletic traveled east with high hopes of progressing to the next stage of the famous club competition.

They started brightly and took the game to the home side. About 15 minutes in and John Rimmer was fouled in the box and the referee awarded a penalty.

Rimmer dusted himself off, stepped up, and took the penalty. Although his initial strike was blocked he duly converted the rebound.

The home side failed to pose too much threat to the Buck’s goal for the remainder of the half and the score stayed at 0-1.

Hamworthy came out firing after break and equalized within two minutes. Five minutes later they struck again and Athletic were rattled.

The tie changed again when, after 60 minutes, United’s striker Carl Mutch was sent off for two cautions. It was the second time in as many games against Buck’s that he has been given his marching orders.

With the man advantage the visitor’s dominated the remainder of the game peppering the Poole side’s goal.

Just when it seemed time was running out – Marc Revell popped up to level in the 85th minute.

Buck’s celebrations were short-lived though as they lost the ball in midfield and the home side scored on the break two minutes from the end.

Although they came out on the losing side, Buck’s will be buoyed by their debut performance in the FA Cup and will no doubt come back stronger next year.

Final score 3-2