Friday 13th February, 2026 | Buckhurst Hill 2-0 Basildon United | Essex Senior League Premier | Attendance : 116
By Harry Biggs
Buckhurst Hill kept their unbeaten run going at a peculiar home setting in The TechSoc.com Stadium, home to Redbridge FC, after a Harry Lusher brace gave The Stags yet another three points on their path towards promotion.
Manager Mark Williams made two changes to the side that were victorious away from home against Sporting Bengal United last time out. Tony Martin dropped to the bench and made a straight switch with Harry Lusher up top, who featured off the bench against Bengal for only twenty three minutes. The other change saw Tyler Dolan return to the side on the wing, with Dimitri Nicolaou also dropping to the substitutes.
Onto the action now and The Stags started well and had a great chance to take the lead inside just ten minutes when Arthur Massingham put an effort just over the bar from point blank range.
Basildon came with an instant response and inside a minute, the visitors had two great chances to go ahead with one striking the crossbar and the other saved twice, brilliantly by Christian North, who received a standing ovation from The Stags fans who were in full voice the whole night !
Callum Maltese was the next player to go extremely close for The Stags, who although were playing well, still weren’t up to the standards that we had seen so far this season. Maltese skipped past two defenders before firing a shot at goal from outside of the box, with the effort going inches over the crossbar !
The deadlock was eventually broken when Harry Lusher fired a bullet header past Basildon’s keeper Duah to give the fans something to cheer about four minutes after Maltese’s close effort. Foster was able to deliver a sublime cross into the box towards Lusher, who fired the ball past the visiting keeper, who was left with no chance.
Onto the second half of action and it took just six minutes for The Stags to produce a chance nearly worthy of a second. A great run from Harry Lusher gave the young striker an opportunity to strike the ball goalwards but he unfortunately dragged his shot wide of the post and the distance between the sides stayed at just one.
Just five minutes and it was Lusher’s time to shine again and this time without fail, he was able to double our lead in almost identical way to the first. A quick throw-in was able to catch the Basildon team sleeping and Foster was yet again able to deliver the ball towards Lusher at the front post, and it was the young striker again on the scoresheet, adding to his tally for the season and giving the home crowd something to cheer about again !
Right after restart, a nasty late challenge was left on Christian North by Southend United loanee Nikolay Zlatev who was eventually booked for leaving one late on North with Harvey Brown for The Stags and Emmanuel Shana for the visitors also booked for being involved in a confrontation after the challenge went in.
Mark Williams turned to his substitutes bench just after the 70th minute mark to make some changes for the first time in the game with Martin & Nicoloau both stripped and ready to replace the players that came in for them this game after starting last time out with Dolan and goalscorer Lusher both replaced.
The Stags started to control the game as the clock ticked towards 90 with a few efforts going close to goal with a free kick from Maltese being saved before a great header from a set piece by Martin was also held onto by The Basildon keeper.
As the clock ticked down, Mark made his final change of the evening with the return of Ethan Daniels at the back with Arthur Massingham replaced.
The Stags eventually went on to see out the game with another victory and making it 13 games unbeaten in a row and we continue to push for our play-off ambitions.
TEAM:
North 🟨, Foster, Edwards, Williams ©, Fernandez, Brown 🟨, Massingham, Banfield, Lusher ⚽⚽🟨, Maltese, Dolan.
SUBS:
Daniels (84’ – Massingham), Hammond, Mengou, Nicolaou (73’ – Dolan), Martin (73’ – Lusher)