Visitors Curzon Ashton, 1-0 winners, showed why they are Vanarama National League North promotion candidates, brushing aside Buxton: hard-working, dominating possession, but lacking penetration and creating few chances on Saturday October 5.
Faced by a well-drilled defence and fast-moving forward play, the Bucks were industrious without troubling the visiting goalkeeper, whereas their own keeper, True Grant, had a busy afternoon. The front-line partners, birthday boy Diego De Girolamo and Ben Andreucci, were given insufficient support to make their mark. Tommy Elliott made his 150th appearance, on as a substitute.
Curzon Ashton scored in the 22nd minute after a weak goalmouth clearance and rarely looked like losing that advantage. Late in the game, the referee saw a tackle by the Bucks' on-loan defender Lee Delap as unacceptable and he was sent off.
Frustrated team boss John McGrath was disappointed but pleased by the second-half effort and said afterwards. "After a poor start, we gifted them a goal, then they sat in and we were chasing the game, naively at times. I thought we might nick a goal in the second half. We certainly had our moments, but it wasn't to be. The squad is work in progress. It's a project here and we'll keep working at it."
In a change to the published fixture list the Bucks will be at home to ninth-placed Hereford on Saturday 12th of October with a kick-off 3pm. The original game against Brackley Town still requires a new date.
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