OXFORD UNITED 3 BANBURY UNITED 1
(Oxfordshire Senior Cup Final)
A strong Oxford United side deserved their victory on Wednesday evening, but Banbury were certainly not disgraced and they worked hard to frustrate the Conference side.
Banbury went close in the 13th minute when Lewis Hilliard made his way into the opposing penalty area, but Henry Owen was awake enough to clear the danger. However, just a minute later, Oxford took the lead. Billy Turley tried some ‘route one’ football and John Grant flicked his long ball on to Matt Green who lobbed the ball over the stranded Joe Murrell to open the scoring.
Three minutes later, Oxford went close again when Murrell ran out of his area to clear from Green and Jamie Cook, but the scuffed clearance went to Alfie Potter who tried his luck from 35 yards, but Declan Benjamin cleared spectacularly with an over head kick that prevented Oxford from adding to the score.
However, Oxford did add to the score, just 60 seconds before the interval when Potter raced down the right and clipped the ball across the goal for Green who smashed the ball home with ease.
They say that the worse time to concede a goal is either just before or just after half-time, but Banbury surpassed themselves by conceding a few seconds either side of half-time as Green completed his hat-trick before anyone had time to sit down. Owen won the ball inside the Banbury half and when Grant laid the ball into the path of Green, the hat-trick man thundered the ball into the corner of the net to make the score 3-0.
To their credit, with the game basically over as far as a result was concerned, Banbury were not going to let this spoil their night, and they continued to work hard, with no-one putting more effort in than George Redknap, and he got his just rewards in the 68th minute when a cross from former Oxford man Marvin Martin was touched on by Nabil Shariff, and when Turley only got a half-clearance to the ball, Redknap pounced and stabbed the ball home.
Whilst obviously being second-best to Oxford’s superior talent, Banbury fluffed two good chances in the next five minutes, firstly when Shariff skied a shot over the crossbar, and then the best of the two chances when Hilliard completely missed the ball when it needed a good goalward contact.
Team :- Murrell, Redknap (83 mins. Foster), Ashton, Milner, Learoyd, Stanbridge, Coleman, Benjamin, Stone (62 mins. Shariff), Hilliard, Martin. Subs (not used) Taylor, Staff, Scott.
Attendance – 650 (est.)