Crusaders hit four against Puritans

A third successive win and another clean sheet (indeed we have yet to concede a goal at home) saw us climb to 5th in the table, although Cambridge and Corby have a game in hand and one of them will go above us after their meeting tonight. Lowly Banbury put up a strong fight and their youthful side battled on to the end, but we scored some excellent goals and were soon in command, winning fairly comfortably in the end, despite some occasional sloppy play.
We were on the attack right from the kick-off and opened the scoring after only 7 minutes, Matt Day heading in from Alan O’Brien’s free-kick. It was 2-0 after 38 minutes when Charlie Mpi got away on the right and Mark Draycott headed spectacularly home from his cross. We were having most of the play but became rather casual and gave the ball away all too easily, but the visitors were full of spirit and earned 3 corners in quick succession to remind us that they were still well in the game. With the game in injury-time at the end a the first half, Diak John played the ball down the left, the Banbury defenders seemed unaware of the danger, but Mpi was alert and siezed on the ball to beat Leigh Bedwell from close in, a fitting addition to his attacking prowess.
A 3-0 lead seemed commanding, but Aidan Hawtin went close with a cross-shot which skimmed just over the bar as the visitors did not give up whilst Draycott did the same at the other end, but we were never in any real danger and Draycott made it 4-0 after 76 minutes firing in the rebound after a shot from James Pilling had hit the bar with Bedwell struggling to get to the ball.