Banbury Cross

There was no fine lady upon a white horse to rescue Banbury as Cumnor put their opposition to the sword with a powerful and accomplished performance.  Cumnor ran out 3-2 winners, however, but for the first 5 minutes and the very tense last 5 minutes Cumnor had the game under control.  We scored some very well-worked goals, attacked cleverly and defended resolutely.  A very well deserved victory.

On a nice wide pitch, Cumnor made a better start than they had for a while, though still slightly sluggish. This was soon shaken off and the boys started passing the ball well through midfield, with Fyn and Jack making intelligent and quick runs as we looked to pierce the Banbury defence.  However, the first meaningful chance fell Banbury's way, and was gifted to them by Cumnor.  Rory passed back to Leo and Leo picked the ball up 12 yards from goal!  Our fault, - as a coaching team we should have told him.  Not to worry, good defensive organisation meant the threat disappeared. Unfortunately, shortly after we were undone by a blistering shot from 20 yards which flew into the top corner.  Nothing Leo could do and we were 1-0.  The boys battled back valiantly and started raining shots in on the Banbury goal.  With both Fyn and Doddy going close, Cumnor finally broke through when Will's 20 yard screamer flew in off the post - perfect positioning.

Banbury came back and tried to get their noses back in front, however Rory and Josh were their usual solid self and our full backs of Toby and Harry were excellent - chasing attackers down, preventing crosses and playing some excellent balls up the wing. on final attack of the half saw Cumnor come close again - Will hitting another long range effort, this time in very much the "up and over" mode, only to see the keeper make an excellent save.  1-1 at half time.

For the second half, the excellent Harry made way for James, with Adam pushing back to left back and Jack into left midfield.  The Adam / Jack combination was instrumental in Cumnor taking the lead.  Ben played a pass of real vision to put Jack through on goal.  Having gone round the keeper (twice?) he found himself cramped for room by defenders.  Rather than shoot through a mass of bodies he intelligently played it back to Adam who's hammer of a right foot did the rest.  2-1 Cumnor.

rather than sit back, Cumnor pressed on.  Toby and Doddy worked the right as well as Adam and Jack were working the left.  James created space for everyone around him and Ben and Will just passed their way out of any trouble and into threatening positions.  Fyn worked tirelessly up front, and following one of his surges into the box he was bought down.  After 6 years of football, the boys were awarded their FIRST EVER PENALTY in a competitive match.  Could Ben take the pressure?  The answer was an emphatic yes as the ball nestled in the corner.  3-1 Cumnor.

Banbury came back hard but we stopped everything they threw at us.  Toby used his face on one occasion, drawing blood, but there was no way he was leaving the action and he was back on within 30 seconds.  Adam was excellent in the left full back role, Rory and Josh just kept tackling and blocking, however what was really pleasing was we defended as a team - Fyn and James working hard up front, Doddy and Jack pressing the flanks and Will and Ben tenacious in the middle.  Despite all our efforts, Banbury finally broke through with a ball over the top.  However Leo was alert, timed his run to perfection and cleared the ball away - a brilliant bit of keeping.  10 minutes later and a carbon copy - this time Leo couldn't quite get there first and Banbury nipped in to pull one back. At this point Tim was getting worried about Dave O's health.

Was this going to be Deddington re-visited?   Could Dave run the line for the last 5 mins?  The answers were no and yes.  The boys held out, continued to attack and Banbury were beaten!  Dave relaxed!

Player of the week was a difficult choice.  We scored some good goals, we passed brilliantly and we won the ball back when we needed to.  Will and Josh came straight from rugby and ran for another 60+ minutes.  It was difficult to single a player out, however the vote went to Adam, who had a good first half and an even better second half.  All the space he got at full-back allowed him to turn what is seen as a defensive role into an attacking one and it opened up a threat Banbury could not handle.

On a final note, pre-match there was a passing of the Captains armband from Ben to Rory.  Ben has been our captain for 5 long seasons now and has never let us down.  However his role in the centre of midfield means it is hard for him to see the game unfold and communicate with players.  The coaches felt that the Captain needed to be a centre back and had also determined to ask Rory to assume his more familiar role (having played midfield for most of the season).  He was therefore the natural choice as skipper. We thank Ben for all his efforts and wish Rory the best of luck (we did get our first ever penalty in his first game as skipper, so perhaps he is a lucky Captain?)

Hard Fought Cup Loss

A great effort from the boys as we hosted Thatcham Tornadoes in the Berks & Bucks Cup. Dave O had done a little research on Thatcham and found out that they were top of an extremely difficult league. We decided not to tell the boys this news.

Firstly, congrats to Thatcham... they were organised, effective and very, very physical showing the worth of committing to each and every tackle. Saying that, we thought we were magnificent, especially in the second-half when we added a little bit more organisation by pairing Will and Ben together in midfield. We weren't too bad in the first either, Adam running himself into the ground down the flank. The first goal that went against us was disappointing but on reflection, it was down to good forward play. We would have gone 2 down but for a tremendous effort by Joe to get back and clear off the line.

In the second-half, we took some knocks, made some changes and created chances. Again, the Thatcham goals to go 3 up were superbly taken and once they established daylight between us and them, they were hoping to keep a clean sheet. That wasn't to be. Jack - who was electric all afternoon - unleashed a brilliant first time shot to grab Cumnor a deserved goal.

A 1-3 defeat is hard to stomach but we won't come up against a team as good as that in our League this season. In fact, the Thatcham manager said we're the best team they've played. There are so many positives to take forward and there were some heroic performances in Blue. Take that spirit and intelligence into our upcoming games and we'll be absolutely fine.

Player of the Week: plaudits to Henry, Ben, Jack, Rory and Adam but the award went to Will who excelled in defence and in midfield.