Banbury 1 Reds 0

Last night's injury time winner was a bitter pill to swallow as we were probably good for a point. A very careless free kick at the end when we should have been playing keep ball and running down the clock cost us, think it was Howell with the mistake. Hickman and Coleman were again outstanding, Blenkinsopp always looked dangerous, and Jones played as well as I've seen him this season. I worry about our attacking options, Harris looks out of his depth and Robinson didn't really look too interested when he came on. I also think we are developing in to a very physical team, especially in the middle of the park (which isn't a bad thing) but are perhaps lacking a bit of skill and guile. All in all though a decent performance and I think we can definately make a push for at least the playoffs.

Can't really argue with a lot of what you say, Sid. I thought Harris generally held the ball up well in the first half, although it's difficult to do that all the time when we keep resorting to hoofball, and it takes so long to get other players up in support of him and Blenkinsopp. To be fair to Redditch, I was there reporting for the Advertiser last night, and speaking to the Banbury local reporter in the press area, he was saying that he expects a lot of teams to play aerial/route one football at Banbury this season as they try to negate the hard and bobbly nature of the pitch. We saw countless instances in the first half of players miscontrolling the ball because of the uneven bounce, and their keeper nearly got into trouble many times because he felt compelled to control backpasses as he couldn't trust the run of the ball were he to clear it first time.

As for Anthony Robinson, when I was giving marks out of ten, I came to his name and couldn't remember anything that he did in the game after coming on at half time. So I gave him a six purely because I couldn't remember him making any major errors, even if he didn't appear to contribute much to our attack - and to be fair, we weren't providing much service to the front runners so I felt it would have been harsh to penalise him for that.

Hickman, Coleman and Blenkinsopp - yep, all had really good games, I gave Blenks the MOM as I thought he shaded it on energy and so nearly put us in front just after the break but really any of them could have got it.

And sometimes the luck just goes against you. To lose a centre-half to an injury received in injury time, in a clash of heads with a team mate, when all your subs have been used, is just one of those things that can't be controlled. Yes, we should have played out time without conceding, but these things happen - there was a deflection on the goal, although it wasn't a massive one and the shot was certainly already on target and may well have gone in anyway, as I think Coleman was unsighted.

One question for those behind the goal - how close was Blenkinsopp's lob, in the cold light of day? I was the better part of 100 yards away and looking at it from an unhelpful angle; anyone genuinely think it was over the line?

I was standing right behind the middle of the goal watching the match through the net and that ball definitely crossed the line! This doesn't detract from the fact it was a rather disappointing performance topped off by footballing suicide committed with that injury time free kick.
The fact I felt so disappointed is a positive thing though because it means I expected them to get a result last night! Last season I expected nothing from any of the matches and usually nothing is what I got so it felt good to see the Reds as a unit who are capable of winning matches away from home. So on that note, onwards and upwards.


UP THE REDS!!!!!!

The ball touched the p*ss*ng net!!!

Even the keeper started punching the floor in frustration that he couldn't keep it out, but when he looked up and seen that play had continued he started rolling around pretending to be injured to disguise it

i was also behind the goal and i for one thought that the banbury goalkeeper did wellto keep the ball out,i dont think it went over the line as when the keeper got to it the ball seemed to be under the crossbar and that for me is not in and certainly not touching the net.

I was also behind the net, the ref didn't give a goal so there is no possibility that it could have crossed the line.