TRURO CITY 1 BANBURY UNITED 1

Banbury’s ‘Babes’ were robbed of an unlikely victory at Treyew Road on Saturday, thanks to two very poor linesmen’s decisions in quick succession.

Banbury, sporting no fewer than eight teenagers in their 14 man squad, took the game to Truro in the first-half and easily matched their hosts in chances and possession. The opening 45 minutes were full of effort from both sides but real chances were very few and far between until the 44th minute when David Stone latched onto a pass up the right, following good work from Joe Coleman and debutant Luke Cray, and he out-paced his marker before despatching the ball past Martin Rice from 15 yards to put United in front.

The second-half was only 8 minutes old when Truro’s Andy Watkins saw his shot hit the crossbar as the home side posted their intentions, and used the strong wind to push United back, but Banbury defended brilliantly as they hung on to their lead. Joe Murrell’s handling was faultless as he easily claimed every cross as Truro pushed forward. Truro’s substitute Scott Walker then hit the crossbar, as Banbury still held out.

As the game moved into time added on, Jason Taylor held the ball up by the corner flag, but to everyone’s amazement, the assistant on the opposite line signalled that the ball had gone out for a goal-kick, even though it definitely had not crossed the line. Just to compound Banbury’s bad luck, and four minutes into injury time, from the resulting goal-kick, Jake Ash shot and although Murrell saved the ball on the goal-line, the opposite assistant adjudged that the ball went over the line, a fact that was denied by Truru’s own centre-forward after the game.

With the squad that was available and the distance to travel, together with Truro’s pressure during the second-half, Banbury would have taken a draw before the game, but it was a pretty sick way of being denied a win, thanks to some pretty awful decision making by the assistants,

Team :- Murrell, Stanbridge, Martin, Cray, Learoyd, Redknap, Coleman, Benjamin (73 mins. Shariff), Stone, Taylor, Ashton. Subs (not used) Hilliard, Peppiatt

Attendance – 452