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Injury Saga Continues
Wednesday Nov 09 2005 00:00
Banbury’s injury saga seems to go on and on, and it wasn’t helped by Wayne Blossom’s late arrival, forcing Kevin Brock to include the unfit Chris Jackson at centre-half. With Darren Pond, Andy Baird, John Gardner, Les Robinson and Stuart Bridges all out injured, great credit has to be heaped on the fighting qualities of the squad, in a game that was ruined by the strong wind, blowing from corner to corner throughout the entire proceedings.The referee set his stall out early, and penalised Gloucester consistently in the first-half for continual fouling, a ploy which ruined any chance that they had of getting any dominance out of the game. Unfortunately, the strong wind at the backs of United caused the ball to be overhit frequently, and the closest Banbury got to scoring in the first-half was in the 12th minute when fit-again Tommy Kinch, playing more as a wing-back, sent a cross over from the left which found Ady Fuller who played inside to Jody McKay. He slipped the ball to Ollie Stanbridge, but his first-time shot went just wide.Banbury defended well, and reduced Gloucester’s goal attempts to long range efforts, but in the 33rd minute The Tigers took the lead when Tom Webb took control of a United clearance and smashed a 25-yard volley past the unsighted Simon Tricker.Gloucester went close to increasing their lead in the 41st minute when Tricker brought off a marvellous save from Luke Corbett. Although United had the winds at their backs for the first-half, they went in at half-time knowing that they had to increase the tempo after the break, not having a shot on target in the whole of the first 45 minutes.In the 56th minute, United cursed the state of the Gloucester pitch when a brilliant Stanbridge cross was met by Matty Gooderick, whose header went wide of Matt Bath in the Tiger’s goal, only to get bogged down in the goalmouth mud, allowing Bath to tip the ball round the post.Banbury’s deserved equaliser arrived in the 58th minute, with the best move of the game. Stanbridge, George Redknap and Fuller combined well on the right before Fuller crossed to McKay. He nodded the ball down into the path of Paul Lamb who notched his 5th goal of the season, when he knocked the ball home from eight yards.Blossom at last took to the field with 25 minutes to go, in place of Gooderick, to try his hand up front, as United pushed for the winner, but a combination of tiredness, the strong wind, and some dogged resistance from Gloucester ensured that the points were shared.With so many ‘big guns’ missing, United still played with determination and guts, and consolidated their fifth place in the League table. With Pond and Gardner looking like long-term absentees, Baird can’t come back soon enough.
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