Top of the table Buckingham Athletic arrived in confident mood to face the out of form St. Panteleimon and would have fancied their chances against last years stand out team.

What was witnessed was a quite extraordinary match.

The Saints started quickly, creating numerous chances to take the lead however a combination of good defending and excellent goalkeeping kept the sides level. It was the visitors who opened the scoring with the first attack of the match on 17 minutes with a terrific strike from Carl Tappin from 20 yards out that found the bottom corner. A scrappy second soon followed from a corner that appeared to deflect off numerous players before finding the net.

Buckingham Athletic were somehow ahead in a match being dominated by their opposition and they must have thought it was ‘game over’ when Mr Williams, the match Referee, very controversially reduced the Saints to 10 men.

What happened next was truly remarkable for those fortunate enough to be in attendance. The St. Panteleimon team we have all grown to admire over the years suddenly resurfaced and in the remaining hour of this match you would have been forgiven for thinking that they were playing with 15 men! The football was simply magical and one such passing move saw Courtney played through from the unplayable Guilherme Monti who thundered the ball past Nick Bennion to make it 2-1. The very loud, confident mood that was so evident in the Buckingham Athletic technical area and on the pitch became a more of a whimper.

The Saints were flying. It was not long before Guilherme Monti then left his mark on this match with an unstoppable equaliser that levelled the score 2-2. The remainder of this match was a one sided affair as the Saints continued to box Buckingham Athletic in with some mesmerising football and within minutes it was 3-2, 4-2 & 5-2 with goals from Brad Gilmaney, Hamza Semakula & Noyan Tajbakhsh.

A much needed 3 points for the Saints who are now back to full strength and perhaps more dauntingly a reminder to all in the league that the St Panteleimon FC of last year may have just awoken!

New Salamis who played Bedford another top team away from home scored from the second minute with a penalty through Richard Georgiou and held out till the 40th minute when Bedford equalised with a freekick goal.