Billy Jeffrey showed faith in the starting line-up that came back from Truro with a point last week, and they didn’t let him down as they secured three valuable points against their Welsh opponents.

Games against Merthyr are never easy and certainly the defensive pair of Andrew Thomas and Matthew Driscoll were not in a mood to take prisoners as they dished out some pretty physical treatment.

Banbury gradually got the upper hand in the first-half, and David Stone was unlucky in the 32nd minute when he had a shot cleared off the line for a corner. Jack Ashton took the corner from the right and it was only partly cleared to George Redknap, who calmly stroked the ball home from ten yards to put United ahead.

Sixty seconds later, Banbury almost doubled their lead when Ollie Stanbridge played Joe Coleman clear on the right, and when he pulled the ball back from the bye-line, Redknap headed just over at the near post.

The visitors came out for the second-half with more attacking ideas that the first, and they soon had United on the back foot, as they pushed forward. In the 51st minute, a mix-up between Marvin Martin and Ashton left Ceri Morgan with a very easy chance at the back post, and he struck the ball home with ease to equalise.

With Merthyr in the ascendancy, they were awarded a free-kick in the 66th minute, and Paul Keddle had bad luck when his shot came back off the upright and was cleared. This seemed to wake United up and with the addition of Nabil Shariff to the proceedings, Banbury went looking for a breakthrough. Not for the first time this season, when Banbury have got Shariff, Stone and Benjamin playing together, their pace always stretches their opponents, and in the 70th minute Driscoll was shown his second yellow card when he brought Benjamin down as he raced through. The awarded free-kick was cleared for a corner, and Merthyr almost succeeded in scooping the flag-kick into their own net.

In the 81st minute, Shariff was brought down by Keddle as he raced into the penalty area, and Stone calmly put the ball wide of Andrew Delve in the Martyr’s goal to put United ahead..

Banbury put the icing on the cake in the 89th minute when Benjamin held the ball up half-way along the touchline, and then cleverly beat three defenders to come out of the melee with the ball and he cut inside before laying the ball off to Stanbridge on the right, who calmly slotted the ball home from 12 yards to complete the scoring.

Team :- Murrell, Stanbridge, Martin, Cray, Learoyd, Redknap (62 mins. Haisley), Coleman (82 mins. Hilliard), Benjamin, Stone, Taylor (62 mins. Shariff), Ashton. Sub. Milner (not used)

Attendance – 281