It was a case of so near yet so far away for Buxton FC as they ultimately missed out on the end-of-season playoffs in their Vanarama National League North debut season as they lost 4-0 away at 3rd place Chester FC.
The side from the Deva stadium raced into a 2-0 lead thanks to goals from Anthony Dudley and Elliot Whitehouse and, despite a spirited second-half performance from the Bucks, they conceded twice more through Charlie Caton and Kelly Nmai to end the season in a disappointing fashion.
Going into the game, Buxton’s job was simple- win and they would be in the end-of-season playoffs. Anything less than that and they would be looking over their shoulders as teams as far down as Darlington in 13th place could spoil Buxton’s party.
Chester have been one of the teams to watch in the National League North this season and, from the opening exchanges, it was clear to see why as they made all the early running. They had the game’s first chance on four minutes when Declan Weeks was played in down the right before he found Dudley in the area. Unfortunately, he put his chance wide of Theo Richardson’s goal.
Richardson was almost left with egg on his face just moments later when he raced out of his goal to clear a loose ball. However, Caton pipped him to the ball and was able to take it around the Bucks’ keeper. Going around Richardson meant that his angle of the goal was obtuse, and it allowed Buxton captain Josh Granite to get back and block the effort.
The hosts were not going to be kept out for long and, they finally broke the deadlock on 20 minutes when after a spot of head tennis, the ball fell to Dudley who noticed Richardson was off his line and he looped the ball over the former Cleethorpes keeper to give Chester a deserved lead.
One of the reasons why Callum McIntyre’s side have been so good this season is because of how ruthless they have been going forward and, they doubled their lead just eight minutes later. Following some delightful play, former Stoke City youngster Kieran Coates was found on the right wing, he cut the ball back to Caton who saw his shot hit the base of the post. The rebound fell to Whitehouse who made no mistake in steering the ball into the goal.
Buxton, on the other hand, were simply not at the races, yes, they did see a fair bit of the ball in the middle of the park but, any time they looked to get the ball to talisman Diego De Girolamo they found the supply line was cut off by the Chester defence. Their best moment saw some neat play in getting the ball out to Jack McCourt, however, his cross was not that good and, it ended up in the stand behind the goal.
After the break, Buxton did show a bit of endeavour to get back into the match as they looked to get forward through fullbacks Connor Brown and Max Conway but, it was to no avail as Chester’s defence held firm.
In fact, Buxton’s only shot on target during the game came just five minutes into the second half when De Girolamo hit a volley from just outside the area but, despite it being a fizzing effort from the forward it was a comfortable save for Harry Tyrer.
After that effort, Chester put the pressure back on Buxton which allowed them to get a third on 75 minutes when Weeks played a defence splitting pass that found Caton and, when he went one on one with Richardson there was going to be only one outcome, which was a goal. It also meant that Buxton’s hopes of making the playoffs were fading quickly.
Those hopes were effectively over with 10 minutes to go when out of frustration Brown brought down Chester’s Darren Stephenson about 10 yards out from the penalty area on the left wing. Nmai took the free-kick which pinged around the penalty area before falling back to the taker- Nmai, who had ran into the box, and he converted to put some gloss on Chester’s performance.
In the end, it was a disappointing day as several of the Buxton players failed to perform. However, at the start of the season, not many pundits gave the Bucks much hope of being up there challenging for a playoff spot so, they can be proud to have gotten this close. Also, if you throw in the Derbyshire FA Senior Cup win over Derby County a fortnight ago and, the run to the second round of the Emirates FA Cup, then you can certainly say it has been a reasonable season for Buxton.
After the game, I caught up with Buxton manager Craig Elliott to get his reaction to the disappointment on missing out on the playoffs.
Chester FC: Tyrer, Coates, Williams (Burke, 65), Kenyon, Brown, Earl, Weeks (Stephenson, 79), Whitehouse, Nmai, Dudley (Willoughby, 52) and Caton.
Unused subs: Lynch and Edwards.
Buxton FC: Richardson, Brown, Conway (Barnett, 69), Grainte, Brisley, Kirby, McCourt, Osborne, Jackson (Elliott, 52), De Girolamo and Ackroyd (Boden, 52).
Unused subs: Moult and Poole.
Attendance: 3,528 (411 Buxton fans)
