Banbury United U18s 0 Sutton Coldfield Town 2

The Under 18s had their first experience of the FA Youth Cup, on a wet and blustery evening at the Banbury Plant Hire Community Stadium. The rain was pretty much non stop throughout the day, however the pitch was in fantastic condition for the encounter between the young puritans and reigning MJPL champions and Premier Division Midland Floodlit side Sutton Coldfield Town.

The team started with real confidence, clearly buoyed by the positive results in the first two league games of the season prior to the fixture. In the opening 5 minutes Banbury had two good chances. After good linkup play between Toby and Josh, the ball was played to the left side of the pitch to Lewis, who drilled a low shot a goal only for it to hit the side netting.

Toby was having real early joy in the right wing position, and after 8 minutes he whipped in a great cross that Josh headed towards goal, unfortunately it was straight at the goalkeeper. A yard either side and the net was bulging.

After 12 minutes, another great chance, this time Lewis on the left of the penalty area beat his man, and smashed an effort towards goal that took a slight deflection and was inches over the crossbar.

Still Banbury kept coming forwards, Josh received the ball 25 yards out from goal, got the ball out of his feet and hit a sweet right foot shot that the keeper somehow turned around the post for a corner. A great effort and a top save. From the resulting corner, Toby swung in another delicious cross, Lukas this time won a towering header which was agonisingly wide of the post.

Despite all of the early pressure Sutton Coldfield took the lead on 16 minutes, completely against the run of play. The right sided player for Sutton Coldfield whipped in dangerous low cross into the box that zipped off the surface alluded our defenders and their number 9 was charging in at the back stick to fire in off the post, 0-1.

Understandably, give the direction of the game, this appeared to shock Banbury, and Sutton Coldfield started to exert some dominance on the game for the remainder of much of the half. Nathan had to be alert to deal with a strike from the edge of the box when Banbury failed to clear the danger fully from a corner. Sutton Coldfield then thought they had doubled the lead, but this time the linesman's flag declared that the striker was in an offside position.

On 39 minutes there was almost a carbon copy of Sutton Coldfield's opening goal, this time though Nathan Whyman made a quite astonishing save at the near post, before the ball was eventually scrambled away to safety.

At half time the game was delicately poised, and Banbury U18s had shown enough to suggest that they were definitely in the game. Tyra came on for Lewis, as the team looked to chase down an equaliser.

The half time break seemed to of had a positive effect on Banbury, as we started the second half in a similar fashion to the first, with pressure being applied to the Sutton Coldfield backline. Banbury had the ball in the back of the net after 50 minutes, when Josh Crossman fired in from close range, however the whistle had gone. Some confusion as to whether this was for offside, the referee however appeared to gesture for a handball. Certainly an interesting one to look back on when highlights are available.

On the hour mark, another change for Banbury saw Pablo come on for Jacob. An attacking change, that meant a change in shape as Banbury threw caution to the wind, in an attempt to grab an equaliser.

It almost paid off as Pablo clipped a lovely ball with the outside of his foot over the defence for Tyra to run on to. He was one on one with the keeper, but the keeper charging off his line done just enough to keep the ball out. A fantastic chance that just slipped by. Next, another Toby corner was cleared to the edge of the area, where Harry Collings smashed it left footed a couple of feet over the bar, the Sutton Coldfield defence was creaking as Banbury piled on the pressure.

70 minutes on the clock, and a huge moment in the game. Tyra got away from his defender, and was bundled down in the penalty area. The referee had no hesitation in pointing to the spot. The penalty was taken by Pablo, but he never really hit it with any conviction, hoping for the goalkeeper to commit either side , he placed the ball down the middle of the goal and the keeper saved.

Sutton Coldfield minutes later went up the other end of the pitch, and after Nathan had initially done well to save a header, it fell to the feet of the Sutton Coldfield forward who smashed into the net, rather against the run of play for 0-2.

The rest of the game went without much in terms of goal mouth opportunity as Sutton Coldfield ran the clock down, and Banbury despite huffing and puffing couldn't create anything like the clear cut chances that were spurned earlier.

At the end of the game the lads were understandably disappointed that they were unable to progress to the next round of the competition. However, the team acquitted themselves well - and the game could of gone either way on the night against very strong opposition. The lads represented Banbury United with pride, and should be proud of their performance.

Thank you to all those that braved the conditions to come along and support the side, this is the very beginning of the journey and development for the team, but I'm sure there was enough in the performance to suggest that the future for these young players is bright.

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Banbury United U18s 0 Sutton Coldfield Town 2
MOTM - Jack Kimber