The Under 18s made the long journey to Walsall for this second consecutive away match in the MJPL.
Banbury rotated a few players, notably Oscar coming in for his competitive debut for the side.
The early exchanges were fairly even - Walsall had an early chance to take the lead, Bobby standing firm with a good save in the opening minute.
There followed 15 minutes of no real goal mouth incident, but Banbury enjoying much of the possession and territory.

On 18 minutes Banbury nearly took the lead, following a cleared corner the ball reached Lennon some 25 yards out and he hit a ferocious shot that cannoned back off the woodwork. This was shortly followed by another save by Bobby in the Banbury goal.

On 25 minutes Brook replaced Dan, which seemed to give the team a bit of a spark. Almost immediately Brook fed the ball through to Oscar who finished calmly with his left foot, but he was adjudged to have been offside and the goal was ruled out.
Three minutes later Oscar had another effort blocked, at the other end a deflected cross struck the top of the woodwork as Walsall almost fortuitously took the lead.

As half time approached Brook beat two men and his a shot at goal, but it was too close to the keeper and was saved comfortably.

Into the second half and Leo and Ryan had come on in an attempt to grab the lead. Ryan hit a free kick well, but the keeper turned it around for a corner, then Leo had an excellent opportunity to score, but after doing well to break into the penalty area his effort was agonisingly into the side netting.

On 62 minutes a moment of real controversy. Brook somehow retained the ball despite three of four Walsall player trying to foul him. They finally succeeded in taking him down apparently just inside the penalty area. The referee however deemed it to be just outside. The resulting free kick was well hit from Seb, the keeper saved well down low, it was parried but Oscar couldn't quite react in time to knock the ball home.

It was against the run of play that Walsall took the lead. A long ball forward disected the defence, and the Walsall number 10 finished well into the bottom corner. 1-0.

The goal didn't affect the way the game was going, it was all Banbury pressing to score. Dan was back on by this stage, and he fired over the bar on 67 minutes. Four minutes later Brook's effort from outside the area suffered the same fate and on 76 minutes after a lovely chipped throughball Dan headed into the hands of the keeper - when perhaps he had the time to take the ball down and shoot past the keeper.

Into the last ten minutes and it was one way traffic - below is a summary of chances spurned

78 - Brook effort comfortably saved by the keeper
81 - Dan drags a shot wide of the post
84 - Oscar effort blocked as he looked to have beaten his marker
86 - Harry header from a corner straight into the keepers hands
87 - Following a succession of corners Archie hit a half volley towards goal that was well blocked on the goal line.
88 - Dan fires an effort into the side netting from just outside the six yard box.

The final meaningful effort came in the 89th minute. Jack done very well to beat his man at pace on the right wing, he cut into the penalty area and blasted his effort at goal, it beat the keeper all ends up but cannoned back off the bar.

The lads left to contemplate how they failed to take anything from a match they controlled for much of. Spurned chances, marginal decisions and poor decision making cost us, leaving a sense of frustration at the final whistle.
The performances so far this season though have been good, and the wins are just around the corner for what is a side with a lot of new faces, who are gelling all the time.

Next weekend we play our first home fixture against Kineton Sports.

Full Time
Walsall Wood U18 1 Banbury Utd U18 0
MOTM - Brooklyn Da Silva Lobato