Another home match this morning, and despite the deluge of rain this week the Horton View surface was looking surprisingly nice.
The visitors from Birmingham CS Colts fresh from 7 straight wins and at start of play sitting third in the table.

A late injury for Arthur meant Ollie C came into the starting lineup as part of a back four. The midfield three remained unchanged from last week, and in attack Pablo made his first start for the team.

Banbury started the game well, and took the lead as early as the third minute. Pablo received the ball on the edge of the box, his initial shot was well blocked, but it fell back to him. He neatly shifted the ball onto this right and bent a lovely finish into the bottom corner, the keeper could only get a hand to it, but couldn't keep it out.

CS Colts were looking rattled, passes were being misplaced, and mistakes were being made. At one point early in the game they appeared to blame the match ball for their poor performance!

It looked like the lads were going to take a two nil lead after ten minutes, another excellent strike from Pablo, was this time saved by the keeper, the ball rebounded out to Tyra who didn't connect well with a left footed shot and it bobbled across the face of the goal and wide.

CS Colts threatened rarely in the first half, but Nathan had to make an excellent double save to preserve our lead. Saving firstly diving to his right, and then following up with a really good save with his feet. Aidan and Ollie C had marshalled the defence well, and put in a couple of really strong last ditch tackles, that though was as good as it got for the visitors in the first half.

The game was a little scrappy, with the referee perhaps stealing the limelight a bit, 4 yellow cards including one for the opposition coach were handed out, as the game was turning into a bit of a midfield battle.

There was very little more in terms of clear cut chances in the first half, but there was certainly two or three occasions where we broke well, and with the right pass could very well of been in three on two in very dangerous areas.

Into the second half, and CS Colts had definitely raised their game. They were seeing more of the ball, and causing us some trouble particularly in midfield, and getting into some dangerous spaces between our midfield and defence. We adapted the formation a bit to have an extra man in midfield, losing the third forward and a little bit of width to try and get a foothold in the middle of the pitch.

Despite CS Colts having more of the ball and territory, it was still Banbury who were creating the clearer chances. There was two big opportunities to extend the lead within 5 minutes of each other. Firstly Pablo hit a stinging strike from just outside the box. The keeper making a great save at full stretch deflecting the ball onto the post, Josh was first to the rebound but his shot was blazed over the bar.
Next Fin produced some excellent work on the right wing, outmuscling his opponent, getting the ball to the byline and pulling it back, Josh looked certain to score, but his effort was well blocked. Lennon then had the ball nicked off his toe just as he as preparing for another strike at goal.

The missed opportunities proved to be crucial as CS Colts equalised on 59 minutes. It arrived after a flurry of crosses into our box. Eventually one was on the money and the dangerous number 7 for CS Colts nodded past Nathan and into the net 1-1.
This stung Banbury for a while, and they were hit with another sucker-punch less than five minutes later. Number 7 again picked the ball up on the half way line, he slalomed through the midfield and defence before dispatching a good low finish to Nathans left. 1-2. A good goal from the visitors perspective but a disappointing goal to concede from our point of view.

At this point, the boys could be forgiven for letting their heads go down, after looking unlike conceding for most of the game. However slowly they started to regroup and gain a foothold, and were rewarded for a good team performance with an equaliser two minutes from the end. CS Colts were penalised for a foul on Tyra. Pablo whipped a near post cross into the box where Zach arrived with a glancing header which the keeper could only parry into the corner of the net 2-2.

The draw enough to move CS Colts to the top of the league, mixed emotions at full time. Dissapointed to not pick up all three points after a really good performance, but very proud of the boys particularly for the character shown in fighting back to grab the draw after falling behind in the second half.

Next up a third home game on the bounce against Darlaston Town.

Full Time
Banbury Utd U16s 2 CS Colts U16s 2
Goalscorers - Pablo, Zach
Assists - Pablo
MOTM - Pablo