Banbury Bag 3 Away Points
Banbury Men's 1s - 5, Trojans Men's 1s - 4
This was an away win that Banbury made difficult for themselves and should have won by a larger margin. A hectic action-packed first half of this fixture saw 7 goals scored.
The first touch of the game for Trojans was a shot and goal from the Banbury pushback after just ten seconds when lack of focus and concentration gifted Trojans with an early 1-0 lead. Banbury piled on the pressure ripping through the Trojans left flank and after 10 minutes Banbury nearly got the equaliser when two shots were cleared off the Trojans line and then George Brooker hit the bar. Trojans recovered and came down the other end to win a poor penalty flick from a foul in the Banbury D which keeper Kit Lamb almost saved but squeezed inside the right post to make it 2-0 to Trojans.
Banbury did not let up and continued to dominate possession and territory and it was this pressure that led to Banbury’s first goal when Steve O’Connor intercepted a pass and hammered home the goal with a vicious reverse stick strike to make it 1-2. After 20 minutes Banbury won a penalty corner which O’Connor slapped high into the Trojans goal but this was disallowed. Just 5 minutes later Tyson Nunneley found O’Connor with a perfect pass and O’Connor hammered home his second goal to make it 2-2. But the drama didn’t end here as Banbury took the lead just 2 minutes later when Jacob Buckner Rowley won possession and executed a perfect aerial pass over the Trojans defence to find Captain Will Kellett who despatched a reverse stick shot to make it 3-2 to Banbury. After 30 minutes Trojans won another penalty corner which they scored with a low drag flick to claw this back to 3-3, and then in the last minute of the half Banbury pressure led to a penalty corner which Josh Nunneley scored with a screamer of a drag flick high into the Trojans net to give Banbury a 4-3 lead going into the break.
Both teams drew breath at half time and the second half was a far more stable affair with both sides testing each other to find a break. Banbury again piled the pressure on down the flanks through Sam Chadbourne and Tyson Nunneley and with 15 minutes to go this led to a stunning flow of pass and move hockey which found O’Connor on the left of the Trojans’ D who perfectly weighted the pass across the D to a sprinting Kellett who dived and slapped the ball high past the Trojans keeper to make it 5-3 to Banbury. With just 10 minutes to go O’Connor was unlucky to hit the bar and extend Banbury’s lead. Trojans threw one last effort at Banbury and with 5 minutes left won a penalty corner which they converted to make the final score 5-4 to Banbury.
Banbury Manager, Andy Camp said “It's great to come away to a strong club like Trojans and take all three points. We are two league games in and have the perfect start with 6 points in the bag.
However, we gifted 2 early goals to the opposition, and we should have scored more given the
possession and chances we had in the opposition D. Next week we go away to Henley and we cannot afford to lose focus like we did for the first 10 minutes of the game like today.”
Photo: Steve O and Jacob B-R