Bedmond Sports & Soc 0 Buntingford Town 2 PAUL Attfield was a delighted man as Buntingford made it three wins from three with a comfortable victory at Bedmond on Saturday. Goals from teenagers Ashley Townsend and Will Turl kept Town top of the table as th

Bedmond Sports & Soc 0 Buntingford Town 2

PAUL Attfield was a delighted man as Buntingford made it three wins from three with a comfortable victory at Bedmond on Saturday.

Goals from teenagers Ashley Townsend and Will Turl kept Town top of the table as they maintained their perfect start to the season.

"I would consider Bedmond to be one of the more difficult places to come to over the course of the season and once again the players could have done no more to impress" he said.

"Once again we have created some excellent chances throughout the game and should have scored more than we did but more importantly our team defensive play was encouraging.

"They never created one clear chance from open play situations and over ninety minutes that it a fine effort."

Attfield made changes from the previous two games with striker Mark Wright suffering from a hamstring strain picked up at Standon and both experienced Chris Hardy and Duncan Easley with holiday commitments.

However, the strength of Town's strong squad was shown with another extremely solid team performance against a very capable side.

The game started a very quick pace with neither team able to stamp any clear authority on the game with the bobbly pitch not helping any chances of good quick football.

The first clear opening fell to Town in the 18th minute when Townsend headed Tom Malins' corner on to the face of the crossbar and two minutes later the pair linked up in open play with Townsend volleying the right wing cross over the bar from eight yards.

Bedmond were little threat in attack, with the visitors working hard as a defensive unit.

The home side knocked plenty of aerial ball into Town's area when they had the opportunity, hoping their experience would count, but the teenage back line were solid throughout and their determination and competent dealing with situations allowed Bedmond very little to work on.

Town eventually took the lead on 38 minutes when Dean Chaffey's look free kick was only half-headed clear by a defender and Townsend hooked a 14 yard left foot half volley wide of the helpless keeper for a fine finish.

The home side were stung into action and pressed hard until the interval and should have equalised right on the break when a right wing free kick found the unmarked Jamie Hill six yards out but he somehow mis-kicked with the goal gaping and Town scrambled clear.

This proved to be Bedmond's only real chance as they created little from open play to test Damion Williamson in the Town goal.

Despite an early initial period of home pressure in the opening 10 minutes of the second half the visitors looked calm and assured in all situations and very gradually Town began taking control of proceedings.

As the game became a little stretched both wide-men Tom Malins and Luke Robins began getting space to run with the ball with Robins in particular beginning to look a threat.

Midway through the half he had one volleyed effort fly just over and another superbly saved by home keeper Wes Jacobs, before crossing for Townsend to head over from six yards with the defence nowhere to be seen.

Town's dominance frustrated the home side and a number of bookings for fouls and dissent followed with Chris Lovelock taking matters a little too far with 15 minutes remaining that led to his dismissal for a second caution.

This allowed Town to take an even stronger grip on the game and they completed the scoring on 78 minutes.

A neat passing movement down the left ended with Robins beating the full back and pulling the ball back for substitute Turl to side foot home from 12 yards.

Other attacking forward Conor De Lacy was unlucky not to extend the lead further when he had one shot just clear the crossbar and was inches away from connecting to another Robins cross with his head late on but this was an another excellent victory from the Town side with a deserved clean sheet.

Town: D Williamson, L Endacott, D Chaffey, D Cain, J Babbage, M Turl, M Smith (W Turl), T Malins (J Stephens), A Townsend, G Christie (C De Lacy), L Robins. Unused sub: C Simmonds

- Town were in action against Knebworth last night (Wednesday). They travel to Elliot Star on Saturday.