“AS IT stands, we’ll probably be playing Western League football again next year” was the admission from Buckland Athletic manager Matt Cusack after a third draw in a week.

He described his team’s performance against Oldland Abbotonians on Saturday, March 28, as “toothless”, adding that his players “need to go home and have a look at themselves in the mirror, truth be told.”

The first 45 minutes at The VX3 Stadium passed by with little to no incident in the Saturday sunshine, Oldland fashioning the best chance as they forced Andrew Sowden-Bird into a sharp diving save.

Buckland “didn’t look after the ball well enough in the first half” in the eyes of Cusack. He continued, “I’m not even sure we had a shot in the first half. Keeping possession is fine but it’s what you do with the ball that matters and I felt like we kept too much possession in the defensive third and middle third without asking any questions of their backline whatsoever.”

After a “stern talking to”, the home side came out with renewed vigour and were able to put a lot more passes together.

Oldland’s eight, who probably should have been booked for a cynical trip on Sammy Stayt earlier on, was shown yellow for a supposed kick to the head of Ben Carter.

It was then the turn of one of his teammates to get into the trouble, misjudging a high ball and allowing Josiah McKayle to move in behind. The last man felled McKayle with a clip of the heels and a pull at the shoulder, leaving the referee with no choice but to send him off.

This was a clear flashpoint as the Oldland goalkeeper went face-to-face with McKayle, the latter seeing yellow for his involvement in the chaos.

The Bucks put together an interesting move from the resulting set-piece but the final ball let them down- not for the first or the last time.

There were half-chances for Jack Baxter and Luke Forward as the hosts looked to turn the screw.

Looking to reinvigorate the attack, Cusack first sent on Jordan Copp for Tom Amado before then making a double switch, Isaac McCue and Jamie Simmonds replacing Baxter and Coby White as part of a change of shape.

A rare opportunity for McKayle saw him head just wide, Sammy Stayt slicing a golden opportunity and Simmonds firing over too, with time running out.

The afternoon went from bad to worse for the Yellows when Rafael Beadman came off second best from a heavy 50-50. After receiving treatment on the field, he hobbled off and was replaced by Jeremiah Achina.

Cusack confirmed that “It looks like a really bad one, that’s likely to be his season over now unfortunately. From our experience, it may be a medial ligament issue but we’ll see.”

There was just about enough time for the ref to give a second Oldland player his marching orders, their man with the armband receiving another yellow whilst being substituted it seemed.

Buckland scrambled for a last-gasp winner against nine men but to no avail, dropping two huge points and handing the advantage to Sidmouth Town, who beat playoff rivals Newquay AFC 4-2 at Manstone Lane courtesy of four Zack Williams goals.

The Vikings have replaced Buckland in fifth and are a point ahead of Cusack’s side.

Reflecting on the draw, Cusack re-iterated that “We didn’t ask enough questions. As a club we’ve got ambitions and aspirations, but it simply wasn’t good enough in the attacking third.”

He continued, “For us it seems to be a recurring theme, that we can turn up for the big games but without being disrespectful to Oldland, if you’ve got any aspirations of getting into the playoffs and winning titles, which is where the club is heading, then we’ve got to turn up in games like this as well.

“We haven’t done that for two successive Saturdays now and it could cost us.

“I think it’s no longer in our hands, we’re now relying on results elsewhere to determine the outcome of our season which is unfortunate. What we have to do now is make sure we go right until the very end and see what happens.”

Buckland will have to dust themselves off quickly and go again on Tuesday evening (Mar 31), when they welcome fourth-placed Paulton Rovers to Homers Heath.

Their final two games of the regular season see them visit Ivybridge Town at Erme Valley on Good Friday (Apr 3) before then playing host to Cusack’s former club Helston Athletic on Easter Monday (Apr 6).