Banbury United U18 0 Brocton FC U18 2

The under 18s got back to league action this morning, following Wednesday nights FA Youth cup fixture - facing a very strong Brocton side, currently top of the Northern Premier floodlit league.

The sun was shining, on a lovely morning for football, the pitch in fabulous condition. The lads started slowly today, almost like the game was following the lord mayor shows on Wednesday. Brocton were completely in charge of the early exchanges, and played some neat passing football, with their Centre Midfielder number 6 controlling the game. They were however restricted to efforts from distance primarily, which Nathan dealt with comfortably.

Banbury created their first real opportunity on x minutes, and it was a good chance too. Pablo cleverly clipped a ball in over the top of the Brocton defence which Lukas met before the goalkeeper, but his header was just over the bar.

Brocton scored the all important opening goal after x minutes. A corner was swung in from the left, the ball was flicked on at the near post and the Brocton number 9 headed it in, just pass Lewis who desperately tried to keep the ball out.

Banbury started to get a bit of a foothold in the game, and soon had the clearest opening of the half. Josh done really well to hold the ball up and slid a lovely ball through to Tyra who was through one on one on the left of the penalty area. He tried to sidefoot it into the corner of the net, but got it all wrong and ended up scooping it high and wide. A glorious chance spurned.

Banbury had two more efforts from distance before half time, from Lewis and Toby, both ended up wide of the post. Brocton for their part had a lot of ball, without creating many clear chances. Meaning at half time it remained 0-1 to Brocton.

In the second half we made a slight tactical switch with Zach moving to left back. The team then started in positive fashion. The ball was being kept better and possession was a lot more even. Brocton though almost doubled the lead on 50 minutes as a long range effort came crashing back off the crossbar.

The game had a period of little in terms of goalmouth chances, punctuated with Brocton cleverly running the clock down. Frustration got the better of Ben on 60 minutes, with the referee issuing him with a yellow card for questioning the amount of time being taken, and whether the ref was adding it on for time wasting.

After 65 minutes their followed a period of the game where Banbury were really on top. Following a dubious offside call from the away linesman, Josh raced through on goal looking more offside than the previous incident, the linesman overlooking it this time Josh was one on one with the keeper, he hit it with his left foot but it was high and wide of the post. Another glorious opportunity goes begging.

5 minutes later, another clear opening, with Lucas Webb one on one with the keeper, Lucas effort hit the target, but this time the keeper who was rushing off his line, made a smart save, and the ball was cleared away.

80 minutes on the watch, and Banbury made further attacking changes to try and get back into the game. Archie played a ball through to Tyra to chase, he cut in on goal, and his touch wasnt quite sharp enough to enable him to get the shot off at goal, the keeper coming out and doing enough, before Tyra was adjudged to have fouled the defender trying to win the ball back.

Brocton who had ridden their luck, regained composure, and following a lovely ball across the box, the on rushing forward looked like tapping into the net, before Nathan made a really smart save to push the ball behind for a corner. The respite was short lived though as from the resulting corner, Nathan called to come and collect the ball, but was just beaten to it, a melee in the box fell fortunately to a Brocton player who smashed the ball into the net for 0-2 on 86 minutes.

Banbury, as usual never gave up, and we still created two further chances before the end of the game, Tyra firstly firing high over the bar, when slid through on the right of the penalty area. Then in the last minute following a Toby corner, Tyra met the cross and it came clattering back off the post. It was just one of those days, the goal would just not come.

A disappointing few days for the Under 18s in terms of results with two 0-2 defeats. However, both games were against top teams, and in both games the side created more than enough opportunities to win the game. The side can feel unlucky not to have got something out of the game this morning, but football is all about scoring goals, and we will need to start becoming more clinical in front of goals in the coming weeks.

Full Time
Banbury United U18s 0 Brocton FC U18s 2
MOTM - Charlie McCloskey