Draycott hits late winner

A youthful Banbury side belied their lowly league position with a spirited display which saw them come extremely close to earning a point at the Spencer Stadium,until we got out of jail with an injury-time winner from Mark Draycott (pictured) in a below-par performance which followed an excellent display at Corby last week. Perhaps the journey to Banbury did not help, for the A34 was closed and finding a diversion was not easy, even the obvious route from Hungerford via Wantage and the A338 was extremely congested and took much longer than our usual route, but the management team and players arrived in time and there was no delay of the kick-off.
The home side started with a flourish and the speedy Darius Browne and Jordan Green put our defence under pressure with some tricky and speedy runs, and Paul Strudley had to come quickly off his line when the ball was looped over Gay Horgan to open up a route to goal, but we began to come into the game and Alan O’Brien shot well over the bar when a good run had taken him clear of the defenders, and we took the lead after 14 minutes when Draycott scored from the penalty spot after a hand-ball by a defender. A header from Charlie Mpi was headed off the line, but the Puritans levelled after 41 minutes when our defence was opened up by some good play by Browne, and Jordan Green was on hand to finish the move to make it 1-1 at the interval.
Any thoughts that we would take control in the second half were soon dismissed for we found it difficult to open up the home defence who chased everything and did not allow us to settle, although Draycott almost got on the end of a good pass, but was offside in any case. Sam Wilson pushed forward, but fired over the bar when well placed and Leigh Bedwell saved well from a Harry Goodger header.There looked to be no way through for us and a disappointing draw appeared the likely outcome, but two minutes into injury time we finally got the winner, Draycott volleying home from Lee Smith’s cross, a splendid finish to a rather lack-lustre display.
Team; Strudley, Horgan,John, Rusby, Day, Pilling(Wilson),Clark, Collins, Mpi(Smith),Draycott, O’Brien(Goodger). Subs;Rees, Osei-Tutu.