United looked lively early on and would go ahead in the 10th minute when a free kick from wide on the left taken by Duran Martin was pumped into the St Neots penalty area where the ball fell to Guy Tahin who fired the ball home low into the corner of the net past Paul Bastock.

After withstanding some pressure United went close again when Darius Browne collected the ball from a throw-in from the right before shooting just wide from the edge of the penalty area.

In the 20th minute Drew Roberts came close to equalising for St Neots when he flashed a shot just wide of the far post from just inside the penalty area on the left.

But less than 60 seconds later Tahin hit the outside of the post with a shot from just inside the St Neots penalty area.

From this point on though St Neots stepped up their game and began to put considerable pressure on Banbury. Though Banbury were defending well, the pressure told when in the 35th minute a cross from the left by Josh Bickerstaff was headed home at the far post by former Puritan Lewis Hilliard.

Just 45 seconds later Ben Mackey had the ball in the back of the net but fortunately for Banbury the goal was disallowed for off-side.

The last ten minutes of the first half saw Banbury at least stem the overwhelming tide of the previous quarter of an hour and so it remained 1-1 at the interval.

The second half was less eventful with St Neots having much the better of the game but struggling to find a way through a well organised Banbury defence. United did not in this period look so dangerous going forward.

It looked as though United had done enough to earn a point but as last week a late goal would condemn them to defeat. The goal came in the 87th minute when a cross in from the right by Sam Harty was smashed home by Drew Roberts from 12 yards.

United had one last effort to salvage a point when in the second minute of stoppage time, following a corner from the right which was cleared out to Declan Hartigan who then put the ball back into the centre from the right where Tom Ryan got his head to the ball first ten yards out but under pressure his header went wide.

As last week this was a decent performance against a play-off chasing side but once again there are no points to show for it.

St Neots Town: Paul Bastock, Max York (Sam Harty 46), Josh Bickerstaff (Lorenzo Ferrari 67), Mat Mitchel-King, Adam Tann, Tom Ward, Lewis Hilliard, Matt Spring, Ben Mackey (Luis Vieira 74) , Drew Roberts, Jack Wilkinson. Subs (not used): Ryan Plowright, Ben Ford.

Banbury United: Leigh Bedwell, Callum White, Marvin Martin, Luke Cray, Declan Hartigan, Tom Ryan, Jordan Green (Jacob Walcott 68), Duran Martin, Guy Tahin (Nathaniel Lewars 76), Leam Howards (AJ George 56), Darius Browne. Subs (not used): Carl Tappin, Kane Pope.

Attendance: 319