Saturday 16th April 2022
The Cooks play their penultimate home game of the season tomorrow when they host county rivals Long Buckby at Compton Park with the usual 3pm kick off time. It was of course the Bucks who brought an end to Darren Long’s tremendous winning start as Cooks manager back in October last year when they fought back from 1-3 down to earn a draw thanks to a double strike from Adam Shaw (now at Rugby) with his second coming in the very last minute of the game. Tyler Reeve had given the home the lead after 9 minutes, but the game swung Cogenhoe’s way with goals from Alex Vaughan on 14 minutes, Chief Boateng on 21 and Dylan Wilson ten minutes into the second half and it looked like being six wins on the spin, but Mr Shaw had other ideas. This will be the first Premier Division contest between our clubs for a number of years as the Bucks have been in Division One since their relegation back in 2015, just three seasons after being crowned UCL champions.
The last time we played them at Compton Park was in December 2014 when the struggling visitors earned a point in a 2-2 draw. Goals from Karl Bates and sub Shane Lyons counted for the Cooks, whilst Elliot Herbert and an Ed Kostiuk penalty ensured the game finished in a draw. Jumping forward to tomorrow’s fixture, Buckby sit in 15th place four points adrift of the Cooks, so they could still finish above us if the win this game, but they have just two games remaining whilst the Cooks have three with our next being a home game against O.N Chenecks. Please note that this game has been moved from Bank Holiday Monday to next Wednesday which is unfortunate for the Cooks as we will miss out on the usual bumper bank Holiday crowd and all the takings in the bar that would have come with it.
The Reserves also have to play the Chenecks with their game being tomorrow afternoon at Billing Road. The Cooks are ten points ahead of their hosts with both teams having picked up points lately after bad spells so this could go either way I guess. The reverse fixture was the first game of the season for the Cooks and Chenecks came to Compton Park with a far more experienced squad and promptly won 3-0 with Benn Kirkham, John Fielding and former Cook Jonny Shakespeare all on target.
