Coventry Sphinx 4-0 Long Buckby AFC
Stuart Guest
Coventry Sphinx continued their solid start to the 2022/23 Uhlsport United Counties League Premier Division South season with a 4-0 home win against Long Buckby AFC.
Callum Stewart’s ninth goal of the season wasn’t much of a surprise but the other goals came courtesy of a James Bryson hat-trick. Central defenders don’t score three times in a match very often so the third was celebrated with gusto.
Joint managers John Woodward and Shaun Thomas were without captain Callum Woodward and Matty Shipman – the former ran the London Marathon in a superb time the next morning – so there were starts for Luke Downes and Mason Platts in an attacking Sphinx line-up.
Platts and Stewart were supported by Leo Stone, with Downes joining his brother, Jack, in the midfield. Jordan Hayward and Loz Rawlings continued at wing back, while Bryson teamed up with stand-in skipper Louis Guest and Jamie Draper in the centre of defence, with Scott Martin in goal.
The home team largely controlled the match and made a lively start, looking to play through the lines in the absence of Shipman’s physical presence.
They almost took the lead in the third minute after Platts steamed in to steal the ball off the last man. His cross swung towards goal and a glancing header from a Bucks defender took the ball away from the goalkeeper to thud against the angle of the goal.
Platts and Stewart were a menace from the beginning and Stewart was instrumental in the first Sphinx goal in the 12th minute. He went through on goal and was only thwarted by a piece of good defending. Rawlings took the corner and it evaded the goalkeeper. Bryson got up well to nod in from inches out and Sphinx were 1-0 up.
Long Buckby’s play proved that they’re a highly capable side but Sphinx were in charge through the middle of the half. If anything, all that was needed to put the game away before the break was more of a cutting edge.
The Bucks did come into the game, hassling any slow Sphinx play on the ball and looking to capitalise. They curled a free kick over Martin’s crossbar in the 26th minute, a clear warning that they weren’t going to go away unless the hosts made it happen.
Nevertheless, Sphinx were getting in behind Long Buckby with relative ease. One such excursion led to a corner in the 33rd minute, this time a Rawlings in-swinger that caught the wind and bumped the crossbar. Guest got onto it at the back post but there were too many bodies in the way.
Hayward was the next player to breach Buckby’s defence. His cross was diverted back to him and his shot was saved. He was involved again a minute later, flicking on superbly to send Platts into the box. He curled his shot just wide of the post.
Sphinx made it 2-0 a few minutes before half time. Long Buckby were asleep from a smartly taken short corner but the home side had to recycle the ball. Stone exchanged passes with Luke Downes and Bryson outside the box before feeding the ball into Stewart.
With his back to goal, the forward laid the ball off for Bryson. The centre back dropped a shoulder, went past an opponent, and curled a fantastic shot inside the far post from the D. He’s scored a few Sphinx goals from that sort of range – this might be the best of them.
At 2-0, Sphinx were all over the visitors and they struggled to hang on until half time. In the last minute of the half Stone threaded a lovely pass through for Stewart, who squeezed a shot off under pressure. A deflection took the sting out of it for the goalkeeper.
The home team found another gear early in the second half and powered past opposition who’d had their resistance unpicked by the second goal. They conceded a third as early as the third minute of the half.
Sphinx capped a period of pressure with a fine passing move that resulted in Rawlings getting into a dangerous position in the Long Buckby box. He was tripped as he prepared to shoot and the referee pointed to the penalty spot. Stewart stepped up despite calls for Bryson to take the spot kick, and clipped it into the net with a nick off the goalkeeper.
The visitors kept at their task and fired into the side netting a minute later before forcing Draper into a magnificent goal-saving tackle, but by the middle of the half quality was primarily the preserve of Sphinx.
In the 57th minute the football gods spotted Jack Downes trying to score the goal of the season and quickly put a stop to it.
After Buckby’s goalkeeper scuffed a clearance, Downes controlled the ball well, got it out of his feet and attempted a 40-yard chip. It was an excellent strike and on target, but the goalkeeper managed to retreat and claw it out from under his crossbar. Stewart followed in but it was just beyond his reach.
The goalkeeper denied Stewart again with 62 minutes played. Great work by Platts gave Stewart the ball in the box, and with no more than a sniff of a chance the young forward swung a leg at it. The save was relatively easy but the shot was not.
Just as Long Buckby’s irritation about how the game was turning out started to become clear, Sphinx turned the screw.
In the 75th minute, substitute Lewis Noon whipped a brilliant free kick in behind the Buckby line. There, Bryson was onside and unmarked. His glancing header was saved well, but the resulting corner paid off.
The same combination produced a different result. Noon delivered, Bryson climbed highest to win the header and the ball was in the net for a fourth time. The Sphinx centre back had put it there on three of those occasions to put his name on a genuine football rarity.
Stewart drew another save inside the last couple of minutes, before the visitors had to play out stoppage time with ten men due to a late injury. In the time that remained, Sphinx produced the move of the match.
Substitute Danny Fraser fed Noon in the right channel and his cross beyond the back post was collected and controlled back to Stewart by another substitute, Callum Whiteside. Stewart’s low shot from the edge of the box came back off the base of the post.
Bryson’s hat-trick was the undeniable highlight but it was great to see Sphinx put in a polished performance and power to a comprehensive victory with key players unavailable. Long Buckby are no pushovers and the home team had the chances to score more than four.
The first day of October is too early to be looking at the league table, whether your team’s near the bottom of it or the top, and the only way to approach this stage of the season is to win matches and forget what’s happening elsewhere.
Sphinx are aiming to do exactly that, and when points come in threes they still just go on the pile. But watching a winning team is a satisfying way to spend a Saturday afternoon, and Sphinx were able to take two players out and still field 16 who grafted and played with quality, banking another win to nil.
A busy month began with a win. The next game for Sphinx is an unusual 1pm Sunday fixture against Pinchbeck United in Spalding in The Sports Ground Development UCL Cup. Once more into the unknown for the boys in sky blue and white.
Sphinx team
S. Martin (Van Den Top), Draper, Hayward (C. Martin), J. Downes (Whiteside), Guest, Bryson, Rawlings (Fraser), L. Downes, Platts, Stewart, Stone (Noon)