It was a beautiful October morning for our home match against Rushall Olympic U16s. The pitch at Horton View was looking immaculate, and the the rain from the previous couple of days meant the surface was slick and had a lovely zip to it. No excuses for poor passing today!

There were three changes from the starting lineup last weekend with Aidan, Josh and Tyra coming in to replace Lex, Fin and Zach. But the formation and shape remained the same.

The game started with United in control, and rarely threatened at the back. However play was a little slow, we weren't moving the ball around with any great urgency, and out of possession we were ponderous. We were restricted to a couple of half chances. Lewis winning the ball back in midfield before driving forward and hitting his shot high and wide.

In truth in the opening 20 minutes, there was very little in terms of goal scoring opportunities for either team with defences on top. In attempt to alter the flow of the game we made a couple of tactical changes with Zach and Fin coming on in the wide position and Pablo on upfront.
The lads did seem to get a bit more of a foothold in the game after this. Zach appeared to have a good opportunity on the left wing, but having taken a further touch he was unable to get his shot on target.

On 29 minutes the game burst into life with a spectacular opening goal. Zach played the ball short to Toby in the middle of the pitch. There looked initially to be very little on, but Toby took the ball past a player and thundered a strike from fully 30 yards out that smacked the underside of the bar and into the net to give United the lead 1-0.

A slight change of shape then followed with Ollie E and Jacob coming onto reinforce the midfield positions, allowing Lewis and Toby to push on a little. Banbury had two excellent opportunities to extend the lead before half time. Firstly from Zach's cross into the box, Ollie E reacted first and looked certain to head the ball in, but the Rushall keeper raced across his line and palmed it away. The loose ball was lobbed back into the box by Jacob and after a brief melee in the penalty area Fin's shot was blocked on the goal line.

Two minutes before half time Rushall threatened for the first time, for the first time there was a bit of space on their right hand side of the pitch. The forward was released through on goal but as Nathan came out to narrow the angle the Rushall player completely miskicked his shot out for a goal kick.

At Half time the score was 1-0, and although rarely threatened the score meant the game was on a knife edge. A defensive change was made at half time with Lennon moving into the back three.

We started the second half well, and got the second goal in the 42nd minute. Lewis industrious as ever nicked the ball high in the Rushall half, and with shades of last weeks goal, he skipped past a couple of challenges before sliding the ball low into the bottom corner 2-0.

Another 10 minute period of dominance for the boys, resulted in no further goals. Despite efforts from Pablo and twice from Josh that were wide of the target. Then at the hour mark the game begun to get a bit scrappy. Rushall were getting a bit more joy higher up the pitch, and the lads were seemingly dropping off a little.

Rushall's centre midfielder took aim from just inside the penalty area, but the ball was right at Nathan who held it well. Nathan then had to make an excellent stop with his feet when the left forward for Rushall was seemingly in acres of space when the ball was played across our box.

Ten minutes from time the referee waved away a penalty appeal for us, as the ball appeared to strike a defenders hand in the box. But, luckily this didn't come back to haunt us as the game was effectively put to bed in the 78th minute. An element of route one for this goal, as a long forward pass was played over the top. Tyra out muscled the defender before deftly lobbing it over the keeper and into the net 3-0.

Disappointingly the scoring didn't finish there, as Rushall were gifted the opportunity to get on the score sheet, and in turn cost the team their third consecutive clean sheet. Nathan was penalised for a trip in the box, and Rushall's number 8 confidently stepped up and fired the ball low and into the corner 3-1.

The rest of the game was seen out without incident, despite the refereeing seemingly finding an eternity of stoppage time.
Three successive wins for United U16s now, and the team will look to continue with the momentum as they going into a busy weekend next weekend with two matches in 48 hours.

Full Time
Banbury United U16s 3 Rushall Olympic U16s 1
Goalscorers - Toby, Lewis, Tyra
Assists - Zach, Nathan
MOTM - Lewis