West Hampstead 4 Buckingham 2

Buckingham Mens’ team made the journey to West Hampstead in a hard-fought 4-2 loss.
Buckingham started brightly, with the home goalkeeper called into action several times early on. As West Hampstead settled, Buckingham’s stand-in goalkeeper Jack Boyden kept the attack at bay until a goalmouth scramble led to the home team’s first goal of the game. This was soon followed by a counter-attack goal which put the score at 2-0 at half time.
Spirits were high at half time as Trevor McCallum rallied the side who believed they were very much still in the game.

Again, Buckingham got off to a flyer and dominated possession in the final third. After several near-misses, James Trumper landed a stunning back-hand shot into the far corner to half the deficit. Buckingham, buoyed by their early breakthrough, continued to press and on 50 minutes had drawn level through Keegan Gregory’s second goal of the season - a smart finish at the back post.
All of the momentum was then with Buckingham, but despite wave after wave of attack they could not find a third goal as the home defence held on, aided by a strong goalkeeping performance.
As Buckingham committed more players to the attack to try to breakdown the West Hampstead defence, they left themselves vulnerable to the counter-attack and this was exploited twice as West Hampstead scored two late goals from slick penalty corner routines to take the points.

The Mens’ XI face Leighton Buzzard 1st XI next week at Stowe.