BUCKLAND Athletic completed August with a 2-1 home win over Wiltshire-based side Bradford Town.

That is the first full month of competitive football in the books and so manager Matt Cusack reflected on his time in charge thus far.

He commented, “If you were to go by the form guide then you’d probably say we’re roughly about right.”

Including the Western League and both cup competitions, their record stands at 6-1-2 currently, experiencing their first league defeat a few days prior to the Bradford win.

The Yellows headed to Sidmouth Town, Cusack labelling this as “a tough place to go.”

Cusack continued, “I said to the boys, people will look at that one and say that’s a surprise result but you’ve only got to look at today, Saltash have gone there and lost 5-0, Saltash are at the top of the league, so we know we won’t be the only ones to suffer there this year.”

As mentioned there, Saltash were leading the way but newly-promoted Sidmouth are more than happily putting the cats amongst the pigeons already in 2025/26.

Buckland’s FA Vase journey is still ongoing having beaten Elburton Villa whereas, after overcoming St Blazey, they then came up short against Exmouth Town in the FA Cup.

On the exit to Exmouth, the Bucks “didn’t take it away from them, we were the better side in the first half but games are 90 minutes long and we had a mad 5-minute period which has undone us in that particular game but we’ve lost to a higher-level team.”

Then, “We went to Elburton last week and didn’t play as well but as the higher-level team, we managed to find a way to win the game so that’s true to form.”

A standout result in the grand scheme of things could well be the 3-3 draw with Street FC, Cusack’s men “showing great character” to score twice at the death to rescue a point following some earlier controversial circumstances.

Looking at the bigger picture, he said, “We’ve got to make sure that this place [Homers Heath] is a fortress, so far we’ve got three games and three victories here so overall, positive start, but not where we want to be in terms of performance levels. I feel like this group has so much more to offer.”

In the aforementioned victory over Bradford, striker Jared Lewington had to be stretchered off with “what looks like quite a serious injury.” He joins Sammy Stayt on the sidelines, who was stricken down in pre-season, and when you add the recent departures of Cieran Bridger and Owen Stockton, it is safe to say that the Buckland squad is a little thin on the ground.

Cusack admitted to being “really surprised” when Stockton chose to move on, adding that “we didn’t want him to go and we loved working with Owen” whilst also “wishing him well” as he joins Bridger at Bovey Tracey AFC.

“He was an ever-present and a starter, you never want to lose any of your starters but he’s deemed that it is time for him to move on.”

In response, it is now time for Cusack and Buckland to go in search of reinforcements for their squad.

“We’ll be in the market now to get another one or two recruits in, to come in and bolster the squad, but it’s important that we don’t rush into that. It’s important that we get the right personnel in that’s going to add value to what we’ve already got, as opposed to just bodies.

“We’re currently speaking to a central midfielder, maybe looking at another wide-man and possibly a forward after today, we’ll have to assess Jared and if he’s going to be longer term, then it’s a big ask just to have Bushy [Ryan Bush] up there all on his own, so yes, certainly those three areas.”

In terms of central midfield, captain Ben Carter started on Saturday alongside Sean Thomson and Ruben Kane with Cameron Sangster the only other natural fit there following those two departures to Bovey.

As Cusack mentioned, Ryan Bush is the only senior striker on the books in the absence of Lewington with young Will Hughes in and around the squad too.

Finally, to the wings and the triumvirate of Phil Mendonca, Luke Forward and Jack Baxter are rotating to fill those two positions and all have shown moments of brilliance to date.

It is certainly worth keeping an eye out in the coming days and weeks for any potential arrivals at The VX3 Stadium.