Sunday 25th November saw the Buccaneers make the familiar trip down to Deeside to take on old friends and rivals, the Flintshire Phantoms looking to break what is becoming a bit of a curse in Deeside having not come away with a win for the last 6 games.
There were Buccaneers debuts for Sam Calderbank and Hudson Nuttall.
The game started brightly for Flintshire after Liebelt put them ahead after just 28 seconds but the Buccaneers fought straight back through Tom Laurie – his first goal for the club, Longworth getting the assist. Flintshire regained the lead on the 10 minute mark with a goal from George Perrett and the lead was doubled just 3 minutes later by Chalmers.
The game was finely balanced moving into the second period and Sam Calderbank wasted no time reducing the deficit, grabbing a goal just 21 minutes into his Buccs debut. Cotterill responded for the Phantoms within three minutes and despite a number of chances at both ends, there would be no more scoring in the period, largely thanks to an MVP-performance from Rattray in the Buccaneers goal.
The third period saw 5 goals split 3-2 in favour of the home side. Valyear and McGee extending the Flintshire lead to 6-2 before Matt Dixon and Rob McNair fired back for the Buccaneers. The Buccaneers were gaining momentum but despite throwing everything at the Flintshire goal, it was the Phantoms who would have the final say with Martin firing in with 2 seconds left on the clock.
Final score Phantoms 7-4 Buccaneers
MVP for the Buccaneers was Glen Rattray and Peter Cotterill took the honours for the Phantoms.
Simon Pickering wore the ‘C’ for the Buccs and we asked him for his thoughts on the game.
I was really impressed with the whole team and I thought for our first outing with some new players we handled a very well organised Flintshire team pretty well. We played an organised and structured game with a lot of what we have been practicing in training starting to come together. The main thing for me was how much fitter everyone was. We have a long way to go but I think we have a nice little team developing thanks to the hard work of Mark Higson. Lastly, I have to mention Glen’s performance between the pipes. He had an outstanding game and saved the team on many occasions.
The Buccs won’t need to wait long to avenge the loss, we head back to Deeside next Sunday for another game with the Phantoms.