ARCHIVE: Banbury United v Ashford Town. Doc Martens Division 1 East. 2002-3 season.

BANBURY UNITED    3       ASHFORD TOWN      0

From Your Milton Keynes Correspondent

I was breaking new ground with this game, as I’d never been to Banbury before – this is strange, considering that the place is pretty close to home. I’m indebted to Allan Wilson for the information that we haven’t won at Banbury United since the 1969-70 season, although I can well remember most of the players who were in the team that day. Great names from my childhood, such as Bill Dodge, Bob Harrop, The Great Peter Sillett, David Crush, Bobby Laverick, Gordon Burden. Laverick and Crush scored the goals – most likely from crosses by Gordon Burden on the left wing - and both Burden and Peter Sillett went on to become managers of Ashford Town.

Back to the present, though, and it’s nice to report that this was certainly the Match of the Day in the Doc Martens Eastern Division – 4^th against 5^th, with all the other teams at the top playing teams from the bottom half of the table. It’s such a pleasant change from reporting on relegation scraps !  And all the signs before the game were that this was likely to be a close one, both teams having an identical record so far – seven wins, two draws and three defeats – with Banbury shading 4^th place on goal difference. Everything to play for as well, of course – it looks a very open division this year, with Stamford, in 9^th, only three points behind the leaders.

No doubt about who the Banbury danger man was going to be – Norman Sylla. In spite of the silly name, he has scored a lorra lorra goals !  So far this season, before today’s game, he’d knocked in 20 goals in 16 games, including 19 in the last 11. In fact, he’s only failed to score in one of those last 11 games, which gives us some idea of why his team is riding high at the moment.

After a pleasant hour’s drive through Bucks & Oxon hunting country, we arrived at the ground, which is dead easy to find, being more or less on the same site as the railway station – very handy for the Railway Boys, no doubt. (At the time, of course, I didn’t know that it would later take me 20 minutes to leave the ground, because of the traffic on the A422 !)  Like many of the grounds in our division, The Spencer Stadium is situated on the very edge of town, looking out onto open countryside on two sides, and hemmed in by warehouses, and various industrial bits & pieces associated with the railway, on the other two. It looks a “proper” footy ground, though, with terracing behind both goals – well covered at one end – and a sizeable red stand (with green seats !) on one side. Strangely, this stand is entirely situated in one half of the pitch, so we squeezed up as far as we could at one end, in order to get as near as possible to the half-way line. This stand became fairly full by the time the game kicked off.

The team news was that, in the continued absence of Matt Bower, Ian Gibbs was once again the team captain – he was joined in central defence by young Jay Westwood, with Peter Mortley on the bench. Stuart White (suspended) and Jeff Ross were other notable absentees, with Adrian Stone (nursing a slight injury) also named as a substitute. There was to be a first sight of Billy Taylor, a new signing for the Club, having had a year as a young pro with Millwall. A short, stocky defender, Billy lined up on the left side of a four-man midfield, with Simon Elliott on the right and Sam Saunders and Ian Ross in the middle. So it was back to 4-4-2, with Dave Hassett and Lee McRobert leading the attack, with the recently successful 4-3-3 formation probably being shelved because of Adrianho’s lack of peak fitness (but who knows ?). With James Gardner still out injured, it was Martin Anderson and Aaron O’Leary in the full-back positions – and, as usual, I leave the most important man ‘til last : John Whitehouse, in goal.

It was a bright, but fairly breezy, day, and the pitch was flat and even, but with a number of bare patches. Fears that the pitch might be a little bumpy were raised when, in the opening few seconds, Aaron O’Leary sliced a pass into the grassy bank with the willows on the far side, but, to be fair to the groundsman, this miskick was to be fairly typical of what our boys were to serve up during the next 90 minutes.

Both teams started brightly, both in terms of playing good, purposeful football, and in terms of the kit they were wearing. Banbury were dressed a bit like Watford – yellow and red halved shirts, with red shorts and red socks. Added to the Kermit green that our lads wear nowadays, the whole scene was rather offensive to the eye, but let’s stick to the important business of the football.

After eight minutes, another major theme for the game was established, when the referee awarded us a free-kick for a foul on Simon Elliott that was never a foul in a million years !  This was the first of a whole series of fairly random decisions made by the ref, with what seemed like a free-kicks lottery running throughout the game. Sam Saunders, very much the driving-force in midfield today, took the resulting kick, and a flick-on was nodded behind for an Ashford corner.

This corner was obviously something that had been planned in training, which is always a very positive thing to see, even if the move doesn’t come off. O’Leary played the ball in to Simon Elliott, coming in short to the edge of the area, who laid the ball back to Sam Saunders. Sammy, using a completely different angle, crossed the ball into the box, but the ball was headed clear, on this occasion.

After 12 minutes, there had still been no clear-cut chance to either side, but the home side suffered a major reverse when their skipper, Jon Corbett, limped off with a hamstring injury, to be replaced by Mark Essex.

After the bright start, the game then went into something of a lull. With not a great deal happening on the pitch, we had to content ourselves with watching De Sade eating a pie, but the game suddenly burst into life after 22 minutes. A long ball was lofted into the Ashford half. Jay Westwood, running back towards his own goal had to deal with the bouncing ball, and, not to put too fine a point on it, he made a right Horlicks of it. Instead of shielding the ball, or putting his foot through it, or passing the ball back to the ‘keeper, he went for the wrong option of trying to head the ball back to John Whitehouse. He was far too far out to attempt such a header, and he merely helped the ball into the path of …….. guess who ?  Surpise, Surprise !!  It’s Sylla !!  The out-rushing Whitehouse had no chance as the ball was expertly lobbed over his head. It’s one of those slow-motion situations where you see the ball heading for the empty net, and just hope that it will go wide, or bounce over the top, or something. Unfortunately for the boys, Sylla was never going to miss, in the form that he’s in at the moment, and the cheer from the large gathering of noisy fans behind the goal told the story !  Incredibly, Sylla had now scored for the 8^th consecutive match.

So the deadlock had been broken, thanks to a considerable defensive howler from young Jay.

Five minutes later, there was a very similar incident at the other end, with a Banbury defender failing to properly deal with a difficult, bouncing ball over his shoulder. This time the ball fell to Dave Hassett in the penalty area, but, as he turned to try to create a shooting chance for himself, he trod on the ball, and the chance came to nothing.

Immediately, Banbury turned defence into attack, with a long ball into the Ashford half for Sylla to chase, but, this time, John Whitehouse came out quickly to snuff out the danger.

After half an hour, the rather portly Simon Tricker, in the Banbury goal, still hadn’t been tested, but The Greens had their best chance of the half just a minute later. A cross from a free-kick out on the left, awarded for a foul on Sam Saunders, was allowed to bounce by the home defence, and found its way to Dave Hassett at the far post. Unfortunately, the bounce was a little high for the Duracell, who could only loop a header tamely over the bar.

The story of the half for Ashford – and for the whole game, come to think of it – was one of too many individual errors. Misplaced passes, unforced losses of control, crosses sliced straight to the ‘keeper etc.. On the stroke of half-time, Martin Anderson tried a shot from long range which sailed high into the warehouses behind the goal, which rather summed up the team’s performance.

The interval brought the news that the day’s attendance was 402, easily their biggest home crowd of the season, fully vindicating a Banbury fan visiting our web-site in mid-week, who said that they were “expecting about 400”. They were a noisy lot, as well, and it was quite unusual, at this level, to hear singing from the terraces behind the goal. (All fairly mindless, low-IQ stuff, you understand, but at least it created an atmosphere). The other important piece of news during half-time was that I’d missed second prize on the raffle by two numbers, so I was hoping for something to cheer me up in the second half.

The second period started with Tim Thorogood having made one change of personnel – young Paul Hallett was on in a one-for-one swap on the right side of midfield with Simon Elliott. As Simon comes from the Alan Smith School of Getting Stuck In, I reckon that this change was likely to have been due to him having taken a knock in the first half. Nevertheless, Hallett looked quite impressive, and did a good job during the 45 minutes that he was on the pitch. He also looked like Sam Saunders’s twin, being of similar height and build, and having the same hair-cut.

The bad news is that Ashford continued with the slices and misplaced passes. What was worse is that it was the two players who are normally most reliable – Ian Ross and Aaron O’Leary – who led the way with the individual errors. In fairness, though, Aaron generally didn’t have too bad a game, and his influence on the team continues to grow, but Rossy had a game that he’ll probably want to forget.

Something at last clicked into place in the 50^th minute, when, in a slick move, the Duracell flicked a ball through for Lee McRobert – Lee Mac latched onto the ball, but he sliced his snatched, left-foot shot well wide. A minute later, Ashford broke away again, with McRobert wide on the left, but his attempted cross was sliced behind for another goal-kick. Two minutes after that, we had a free-kick near the corner flag after a foul on Billy Taylor, but Ian Ross floated the kick harmlessly behind the goal.

Error after error after error. The boys were trying to play football, building from the back, with the defenders usually passing short, as opposed to hoofing the ball aimlessly upfield. There was never a time when Banbury actually dominated, and I’m sure that our lads had just as much possession, but service to the front two was very poor, and the Banbury ‘keeper was standing around in his slippers.

Hope resurfaced after 71 minutes, when a late tackle on Lee McRobert gave us a free-kick on the edge of the area. Sammy Saunders and Aaron O’Leary stood over the ball, so it was obvious that they were planning to repeat Aaron’s goal against Newport the previous Saturday. As then, Sammy tapped the ball sideways, but, this time, the Ox blasted over.

Whilst this had been going on, Adrian Stone had been warming up on the touchline – with nothing happening for Ashford, getting Stoney on had to be the right decision. However, in an appalling piece of timing, just as Tim and Gary were beckoning to Adrianho to get his tracksuit off, Banbury striker George Redknap picked the ball up on the angle of the Ashford penalty area; he cut inside, beating two green-shirted defenders, and hit a low drive hard into the net. If the first goal had been the result of a defensive gaff, this was certainly a good goal, and the boys could have had no complaints at going two behind.

With Banbury celebrating, Tim Thorogood had plenty of time to make the substitution – Adrianho coming on for the hard-working Sam Saunders – with 16 minutes to go.

Adrian had to wait until the 79th minute before he had his first chance. Aaron O’Leary pumped a long ball forward from the centre circle, which the substitute latched onto, but he scuffed his shot so much that it can hardly be counted as a “shot on target”. Almost immediately, the ball was coming back in the opposite direction, the counter-attack ending when Jay Westwood clattered Banbury’s Redknap, earning the team’s first yellow card of the match.

With ten minutes to go, the home side’s victory was sealed with a moment of brilliance from Norman Sylla – you’ll notice that I’ve stopped taking the piss out of his name, now !  He picked up a long ball down the right flank, controlling it nicely on his thigh. He got to the by-line, in a great position to cross the ball, but, instead, he deftly chipped the ‘keeper – John Whitehouse, at full stretch, just got a finger tip to it, but the ball hit the base of the far post and bounced into the net. It was a brilliant goal, from what was clearly the one player on the field with real class. His goal-scoring sequence in the last 12 matches now reads : 4,1,3,0,1,1,1,1,1,4,2,2. That’s some record !  It would be unfair to describe our hosts today as a “one-man team”, as they’re a pretty solid-looking outfit – although certainly nothing special – but it would be fair to say that Norman Sylla has transformed them from mid-table journeymen to a team that’s challenging at the top.

With 90 minutes just about up, it looked like The Main Man was on for his hat-trick, when he used his pace to get to a through-pass ahead of three Ashford defenders. This time, though, I have to say that we got lucky !  With his man clearly the wrong side of him, Jay Westwood brought Sylla down just outside the box, and, being on a yellow card, really should have been sent off. In the event, we had a favourable result from the Refereeing Lotto, and the man in black didn’t even give a free-kick !

To give our boys credit, even though it was well beyond a hopeless cause, they still continued to try to play decent football, and, strangely, the game ended in a flurry of Ashford corners. From the first of these, one minute into injury time, Ian Gibbs headed past the ‘keeper, but the ball was headed off the line – this was Ashford’s first, and only, shot on target in the match. The follow-up corner was cleared by the Banbury defence. Three minutes into injury time, Paul Hallett put in a dangerous-looking cross to the near post, but a Banbury defender was there to put the ball behind before Dave Hassett could nip in for a consolation goal. Lee McRobert had a shot blocked from this corner, and just as Ashford took their fourth corner in just about as many minutes, the referee blew for full-time.

3-0 the score, then, and this was a huge result for Banbury, the three points further strengthening their challenge at the top. A thoroughly bad day at the office for our boys, I’m afraid. Certainly our worst result of the season so far, and, although I don’t see them that often, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was also their worst performance. Let’s hope for something better against Fisher, on Monday night.