​Banbury HC can’t make late pressure count as leaders win

Banbury hold on to seventh place in the league with only three games to go in the England Hockey Midlands Conference League, but it was a familiar story of too little too late as Banbury conceded a three-goal lead before finally waking up in the final quarter.

Banbury got off to a cracking start with Josh Nunneley, James Long and George Brooker combining in the first minute only to see the chance go wide and Jordi Groenewald shooting wide in the fourth. Visiting keeper Alastair Cooke made a double save, Banbury’s Kit Lamb also on hand to deny the visitors.

With Banbury down to ten men the visitors took advantage of the extra player and broke down their left to create a simple tap in from close range for Chris Wardle to take a lead.

In the second quarter Banbury were again down to ten men and saw Connor Roberts limp off injured, the visitors pressuring the disjointed hosts with Elliott Hibell scoring from a penalty corner and Cameron Cooke adding a third with a tap in.

A great break down the right finished with Long lofting an aerial pass to Brooker whose shot brought a fantastic save from Cooke.

Banbury saved their best until last with a final quarter performance almost unrecognisable from the first half and the visitors resorting to increasingly desperate defending leading to three yellow card suspensions.

Man of the Match Roberts was able to deflect a ball high past the visiting keeper to reduce the deficit with 15 minutes to go, then Nunneley crashed a drag flick past Cooke with nine minutes remaining.

With the visitors imploding to have two players sin binned at the same time in the last five minutes, more chances were created but with Cooke on outstanding form they were unable to convert.

Manager Steve Brooker said: “It feels like Groundhog Day recently, playing really well especially in the final quarter, running good teams hard and coming away with no points.

"Next week we are away to bottom side Bedford and have the chance to pretty much secure our future at this level for next season but we cannot be at all complacent and need to extend our outstanding final quarter performances into earlier parts of the game.”