The first good chance of the game arrived in the 11th minute, in United’s favour, when a cross from Luca Woodhouse was played across the face of the goal by Ken Charles, unfortunately behind the expectant Lewis Darlington, when a better placed ball would have resulted in a simple tap-in, a yard out. Four minutes later, Ronan Maher was put through by Owen Farmer,only to see his 12 yard effort bounce back off the post, before being cleared by the Banbury defence. Just two minutes later, Rushall made up for their error when a shot from Maher broke the deadlock, after United had failed to clear the danger.

Plenty of effort was the order of the day for both sides in the ensuing 20 minutes without a great deal of success for either team. In the 39th minute, Joshua Johnson shot over the bar with a fierce drive as Banbury started to look dangerous. Banbury piled on some welcome pressure, and thanks to some atrocious defending by the Pics, they earned a penalty in the third minute of time added on in the first-half when Olympic ‘keeper, Jake Weaver and defender Rico Browne got in each other’s way, and they both then brought down Ken Charles inside the six-yard box. Charles took the spot-kick himself, and cleverly sent Weaver the wrong way to earn Banbury a well-deserved equaliser.

The second half saw both sides looking to take all three points but chances were few and far between. The Rushall back line were finding Craig Hewitt’s pace hard to deal with, and he went close in the 54th minute when Weaver did well to save. However, somewhat against the run of play, the referee awarded a penalty to Rushall in the 69th minute when he adjudged that Owen Oseni had been fouled in the area. Justice was almost done when Jack Harding got both hands to the ball but couldn’t stop Oseni’s spot-kick making it over the line.

Banbury United :- Jack Harding, Jack Davies, Simeon Maye, Luca Woodhouse, Tai Fleming, lawson D’Ath (captain), Ken Charles (83 mins. Ricky Johnson), Craig Hewitt, Lewis Darlington (83 mins. Dineen Hollifield-Meegan), Joshua Johnson, Emmanuel Maja. Subs (not used) Albert Woods, Harley Giles, Zach Scott.

Rushall Olympic :- Jake Weaver, Kristian Green (captain), Camron McWilliams, Alex Fletcher, Jordaan Brown (77 mins. Sam McLintock), Rico Browne, Tom Edge, Owen Oseni, Owen Farmer (71 mins. Jourdain Nkalambi-Masadi), Ronan Maher (80 mins. Jack Tolley), Subs (not used) Kory Roberts, Rackeem Reid.

Attendance - 451

Thank you to Barry Worsley for the match report.