An apprentice at Brentford, Buckle turned professional in 1989, was loaned to Wycombe Wanderers and then joined Torquay United, before moving to Exeter City.
He then moved into non-League football with Aldershot Town and Weymouth, before returning to Exeter as player-coach in 2005, first under manager Alex Inglethorpe then his successor Paul Tisdale.
[6] He also played three Conference games on loan at Wycombe Wanderers before leaving on a free transfer to be signed by Don O'Riordan, the Torquay United manager, in February 1994.
He sustained a serious ankle injury in the opening game of the new season and, although he made a full recovery and regained a first team place, he was one of many players transfer-listed by Exeter manager Noel Blake in May 2000.
[8][9] Buckle then joined Football Conference side Aldershot Town in 2002,[10] before dropping down a further division to play for Weymouth in 2003,[11] in addition to being employed as a youth-team coach at Exeter.
[6] In his role as assistant manager, he helped lead Exeter City to the Conference National play-off final at Wembley at the end of the 2006–07 season, although they lost to Morecambe.
[23] After being in or hovering just above the relegation zone for much of the 2009–10 campaign, Buckle eventually led Torquay to 17th place in the table following a strong finish to the season, in which they kept a club record seven consecutive clean sheets.
A seventh-placed finish, achieved on goal difference, led the club to play third-placed Shrewsbury Town in the play-off semi-final, which Torquay won 2–0 on aggregate.
However, things quickly worsened, with the club winning only two further league games before January and Buckle publicly falling out with Bristol Rovers' fan favourite Stuart Campbell, who he released from his contract in December 2011 after a dressing room bust up that involved Phil Kite (physio).
[27] On 6 April 2012, 95 days after leaving Bristol Rovers, it was announced that Buckle had been appointed the new manager of Luton Town on an initial two-year contract until June 2014.
[28] At the time, Luton were sixth in the Conference Premier, one place below the play-offs, having been on a run of one win in their prior seven league games which had ultimately seen previous manager Gary Brabin sacked on 31 March 2012.
There was an immediate turnaround in Luton's playing style and results under Buckle's management with the club securing a place in the play-offs by picking up 14 points from six games, keeping five clean sheets in the process.
Stating that he wanted to "bring players into the club that are not failures", he signed, among others, former Stevenage captain Ronnie Henry, who had won two promotions in three years, striker Jon Shaw, who had scored 35 goals throughout the season, and midfielder Jonathan Smith, who had played 48 times the previous season for Swindon Town as they won promotion to League One and finished as runners-up in the Football League Trophy.
[34] These were later revealed to be an imminent move abroad to the US with his wife, TV sports presenter Rebecca Lowe, who was fronting NBC's Premier League coverage in the country.