A crowd of 1232 at the Silverlands as the Bucks defeat FC United 3-0, a result that lifts Buxton into the top half of the table.

It is not often in the recent past that Buxton have played well in front of large home crowds, but this afternoon they sent the home fans ecstatic with a performance that even had John Reed slightly lost for words after the match….and that is a rarity!

Reed decided to revert to a 4-4-2 formation with Sam Liversidge earning a starting shirt in place of Christian Millar. FC United had been on a superb run of form since the New Year but were without on-loan forward Kyle Wilson following his recall by Macclesfield Town.

In a very entertaining first half it was the Bucks who found the net twice, through Kieran Lugsden and Lee Morris (4 goals in 4 games since his arrival from Frickley). Scott Hartley had to be at his best to deny the lively Phil Marsh but Buxton fully deserved the interval lead with Michael Towey having probably his best game of the season. After the break the Bucks were able to snuff out the FC United threat and the points were sealed on 83 minutes with Mark Reed bagging his 151^st goal for the club.

Full match report to follow.

Both sets of supporters impeccably observed a minute’s silence in memory of Macclesfield Town manager Keith Alexander before the kick-off and there was an award for Mark Reed of a framed shirt for his 150^th goal for the club, pictured above with John Reed, Chris Brindley and Tony Tomlinson. 

Saturday’s Results…

Buxton 3-0 FC United 1232

Durham City 1-4 Boston United 230

Frickley Athletic 1-0 Matlock Town 199

Marine 2-1 Hucknall Town 315

Nantwich Town 0-2 Guiseley 331

North Ferriby 0-2 Kendal Town 295

Retford United 1-1 Bradford PA 547

Stocksbridge PS 2-1 Ashton United 118

Whitby Town 4-0 Burscough 291

Worksop Town 3-1 Ossett Town 143    

Last week’s top two in the Premier Division, BRADFORD PARK AVENUE and RETFORD UNITED, met on Saturday and the 1-1 stalemate will have suited Avenue more than the “Badgers” as it kept the five point gap between the two intact. BOSTON UNITED took advantage of that result to move in to second just four points behind Avenue after beating bottom club DURHAM CITY 4-1 thanks to a treble from Spencer Weir-Daley whilst GUISELEY are right in the thick of things after two wins in the week to go fourth with games in hand. Meanwhile sixth place KENDAL TOWN closed the gap on fifth spot NORTH FERRIBY UNITED when they beat Ferriby and they are now only two points off the final play-off position with a game in hand whilst Ferriby seem to have gone off the boil with only one win in seven. There was a vital game at the bottom of the table where WORKSOP TOWN put some distance between themselves and next to bottom OSSETT TOWN with a 3-1 win whilst FRICKLEY ATHLETIC also took some pressure off themselves with a win over MATLOCK TOWN who have been in useful form recently. The biggest crowd of the day, over 1,200, saw BUXTON put an end to FC UNITED of MANCHESTER’s recent unbeaten run. Elsewhere STOCKSBRIDGE won at home for the first time in four attempts, BURSCOUGH dropped to third bottom after losing 4-0 at WHITBY TOWN and MARINE made it six games unbeaten when getting the better of HUCKNALL TOWN.