Banbury should have won this game at a canter against a poor City side, but they were guilty of trying to walk the ball into the net when a few shots would have been what was needed. Considering that both sides had already played a difficult away game within three days of this one, the play on offer was quite entertaining, albeit neither sets of players were looking to break any records.

Early on, Joe Murrell did well to make a good double save from Harry Harding and Lee Steele, and that was about it as far as Oxford’s attacking aspirations for the first-half. Banbury looked by far the better team, but they refused to try any shooting until a minute before the interval when David Stone put Marvin Martin away on the left, and he did well to slot the ball past the advancing Richard Knight to put United a well-deserved goal in front.

Five minutes into the second-half, Martin was brought down in the penalty area for a certain penalty, but needless to say the rule book was thrown out of the window by the referee, and he gave absolutely nothing, and the ball was cleared, but where he was actually looking when the incident happened is anyone’s guess. This would have wrapped the game up, but it was not to be.

In the 66th minute, Knight did brilliantly to save a bullet of a shot from Stone, as Banbury continued to dominate play, but following their three substitutions, Oxford looked to get a new lease of life, and with ten minutes to go, they equalised. United lost concentration in defence and Elliott Sandy took advantage to rush into the penalty area and fire home from ten yards.

Team :- Murrell, Redknap, Ashton, Stanbridge, Learoyd, Martin, Coleman, Benjamin, Stone, Taylor (74 mins. Shariff), Staff. Subs. (not used) Hilliard, Livous, Scott.

Attendance – 258