For a second consecutive season, Buxton suffered a clear defeat by nearest neighbours, Macclesfield, in a pre-season friendly.
For an hour home manager, Craig Elliott, experimented with a formation based on a back five but his team, which included a trio of trialists likely to sign, lacked the authority and fluency seen in previous outings, though, after reverting to a back four formation, went close to scoring on several occasions.
Just four days from the start of the National League (North) season, Buxton suffered the setback of losing skipper Josh Granite to injury after 10 minutes, but the exchanges were mostly even until the visitors scored twice within 60 seconds late in the half. ‘The Silkmen’, who themselves had suffered defeat on Saturday at Bromsgrove, showed a cutting edge when Kane Drummond placed a low,14-yard shot into the net's far corner, to be followed, almost immediately, by a fast-moving passing sequence for Alex Curran to net from a central position.
For 'the Bucks' an early Jak McCourt (Pictured) 30-yard range-finder, a blocked Connor Kirby blast and a couple of Sam Smart crosses were the only signs of first-half promise.
In the second half, despite multiple changes by both sides, there was plenty of goalmouth action at both ends but, just before the hour, James Berry at close range made it 3-0 and soon afterwards a flowing 'Macc' move saw home 'keeper, Max Dearnley, turn a firm drive over the bar. However, ‘the Bucks’, reverting to a formation similar to that of earlier outings, showed more attacking promise with Jake Wright and Tommy Elliott shooting wide before the unfortunate Wright was pole-axed close to goal by a fierce, likely scoring shot!
On Saturday, Buxton entertain Boston Utd (kick-off 3 p.m.) in the first National League North round of matches.
Comments