Thank you to Barry Worsley for this match report.

Banbury started the better of the two sides and they had three chances in the opening eight minutes that saw George Ball’s effort saved by Breeden, and a header from Nico Jones and another near post effort from Ball were dealt with. Ex-Puritan Glenn Walker should have done better with a wayward header in the 11th minute, and Ferguson was causing problems for the Spalding back line. Although the game was now only 20 minutes old, both management teams had to be spoken to by the referee.

In the 21st minute, somewhat against the run of play, the home side saw a header come down and hit the top of the crossbar, but to be fair, Jack Harding had the situation well covered. Banbury had the ball in the net in the 27th minute, following a free-kick but the goal was disallowed for an offside decision, just after Breeden was yellow carded for kicking the ball away. However, in the 30th minute and much against the run of play, the Tulips took the lead when the giant striker Bartosz Cybulski scuffed a shot goalwards which took a wicked deflection and bobbled into the net, wrong-footing Harding in the process.

United went in at the interval wondering how they were a goal behind, but a couple of changes at half-time looked as though things would get a bit luckier for the Puritans as the second-half kicked off.

Banbury were now in almost complete control with some great approach play, and Spalding could hardly get control of the ball. But if Banbury couldn’t get any shots away from their attacking dominance then the Tulips didn’t need to do anything more, after all they were a goal in front.

Banbury went even further in charge in the 75th minute when Spalding’s Lamine Sherif picked up a second yellow card and therefore the inevitable red for handball, which must have pleased his manager no end. Two cards in nineteen minutes. Now with a man advantage, surely Banbury must get something out of the game? But chances from Yaw Ofosu, Ball and Claudio Dias all came to nothing.

Finally, just to put the icing on the cake, a harmless looking scuffed shot from substitute Abduramane Sano Sani took a wicked deflection off Nico Jones to wrong-foot Harding and dribble into the net, in the 4th minute of time-added-on to confirm the points for Spalding.

Spalding United :- Tony Breeden, Connor Brown, Glenn Walker (captain), Kieron Dawes, Sam Cartwright, Sam Warburton, Lamine Sherif, Kyle Barker, Bartosz Cybulski (85 mins. Tyler Winters), Connor Tomlinson (62 mins. Abduramane Sano Sani), Lewis Hilliard (86 mins. Callum Chettle) Subs (not used) Jake West, Joseph Nyahwema

Banbury United :- Jack Harding, Tai Fleming, Alex Prosser, Yaw Ofosu, Nico Jones, Harry Reilly, Connor Ferguson (46 mins. Claudio Dias), Jaanai Gordon, AJ George, George Ball, Gift Mussa (46 mins. Kgosietsile Ntlhe). Subs (not used) Tom Cartwright, Charlie Donaldson, Prince Henry.

Attendance – 440