United came out of the traps on fire, taking the lead in just 65 seconds. Troy Bryan played the ball out left to Lewis Travers who took the ball down the wing and his cross went to Ollie Stanbridge who had enough space and time to steady himself before firing a perfectly directed shot from 15 yards, wide of Tom Willshere in the Brackley goal and into the top corner of the net.

The game then saw Brackley applying pressure but they found it almost impossible to break down United’s defence and finding it difficult to cope with Banbury’s non-stop commitment with chances were at a premium.

Banbury replaced Bryan with new signing Nicky Gordon at half-time, and within six minutes they increased their lead. Gordon outpaced the Brackley defence up the right wing, and when he screwed the ball back from the by-line, the unmarked Travers whipped in to score at the far post.

Brackley then piled on the pressure but they were reduced to shooting from distance or sending in high crosses and found Andy Wheeler’s handling in the Banbury goal faultless.

Banbury United:- Andy Wheeler, Lewis Travers, Tommy Kinch, Mark Essex, Andy Baird, Ady Fuller, Mike Feely, Wayne Blossom, Matt Murphy, Troy Bryan (Nicky Gordon 46), Ollie Stanbridge. Subs:- (not used) Stuart Bridges, Ben Milner, Murray Nicholls, Sammy Ibrahim.

Banbury would beat Bromsgrove Rovers 4-2 at the Victoria Ground in the next round before disappointingly going out in the quarter-finals 1-0 at home to Division 1 side Hillingdon Borough.

Below is a squad photo from season 2007/08. The players are:

Back Row (Left to Right): Kieran Sullivan (Manager), Anton Sambrook (Assistant), David Malloy, Mike Feely, Ben Milner, Andy Wheeler, Wayne Blossom, Murray Nicholls, Ben Weedon, Brian Robinson (Assistant), Kevin Hicklin (Physio).

Front Row (Left to Right): Troy Bryan, Mark Essex, Tommy Kinch, Andrew Stidder, Sammy Ibrahim, Lewis Travers, Darren Beckett, Stuart Bridges
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Nicky Gordon, making his debut that evening, would be a regular starter for United for the rest of this season and the next before leaving the club. He made 79 appearances for the Puritans and scored 41 goals. Below is a photo of Nicky taken during the Brackley game.
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The two league games between the sides that season would see Brackley win 2-1 at St James Park at the end of September before the Puritans repeated their cup success over the Saints at the Spencer Stadium on Boxing Day, this time winning 1-0 with Nicky Gordon scoring the goal.

There are 33 photos from the Southern League Cup game in November 2007 on this link click here