United suffered their first opening day of the season defeat for ten years, going down 1-0 to Poole Town at the Spencer Stadium, a Steve Devlin penalty after 57 minutes earning the South coast side the three points.

Poole started the better of the two sides and in the first minute of the game from a free-kick wide on the right United goalkeeper Lawrence Nuamah did well to push away a Jamie Whisken goalbound header.

United though soon settled down into the game and began to compete well. This was a promising spell for United though twenty minutes into the game Nuamah again came to United’s rescue when he denied Josh O’Hanlon’s close range effort after he had been put through on goal.

The game though seemingly swung United’s way on the half hour mark when Carl Pettefer was shown a straight red card for a reckless challenge on Jack Westbrook.

Despite having to re-organise Poole came close to scoring just four minutes later but Nuamah made a superb diving save from a close range Carl Preston effort to keep United on level terms.

Poole worked hard and despite the numerical disadvantage matched Banbury for the remainder of the half.

Poole began the second half well and it was not a total surprise that they took the lead in the 57th minute. The goal came from the penalty spot after Tanasheh Abrahams was adjudged to have brought down Brooks. Banbury responded well though and battled away trying to find an equaliser, an Abrahams header from a Banbury corner went over the bar and the same player then shot wide after going on a solo run.

However, Poole always looked to have the edge on proceedings and overall one cannot complain about the fairness of the result.

Many pundits were predicting this would be an easy win for the visitors. One will never know how easy it might have been if they had kept eleven men on the field but even up to that point Banbury had been competing well and the United performance looked promising for the season ahead.

Banbury United: Lawrence Nuamah, Luke Cray, Lewis Strafford, Nkosi Mzungwana, Jack Westbrook (Joe Osyemi 80), Shepherd Murombedzi, Tanasheh Abrahams, Nic Evangelinos, Marcus Green (Jordan Adekunie 58), Marvin Martin (Darius Browne 88) , Saleem Masri. Subs (not used): Odunayu Oke, Kane Vincent-Young.

Poole Town: Nick Hutchings, Lewis Tallack (Neil Martin 68), Mark Jermyn, Michael Walker, Jamie Whisken, Carl Pettefer, Luke Burbridge, Steve Devlin, Josh O'Hanlon (Luke Roberts 85), Carl Preston (Charlie Davis 78), Marvin Brooks. Subs (not used): Lamin Dabba, Ben Manley.

Attendance: 291