Sports ease past Town

On a bitterly cold and windy afternoon in North Banbury, Town matched second placed Easington Sports for a hour before being punished for mistakes.

From the kick off, Sports applied pressure on the Town defence looking to get the ball forward quickly at every opportunity and playing at a high tempo that kept the visitors pinned in their own half with forwards James McMahon and Steve Howkins lively. However, the closest the hosts came to scoring was when Dan Smith did well to tip a deflected shot off Gary Smith over the cross bar.

It was not until the twenty fifth minute that Town created their first clear cut opportunity. Jordan Goddard did well to keep the ball in play on the Easington goal line before passing into the penalty area. However, none of the Town players had anticipated the ball being kept alive and failed to take the rare opportunity presented to them to pressure the host’s goal.

A minute late Gary Smith again deflected a shot, this time into the path of Andrew Stripper who shot wide. This was followed by Howkins shooting wide as Town continued to withhold the home attack. The best Woodley could muster in the remainder of the goal less half was Ben Gonzalez and Dave Stevens both shooting wide from distance.

The second half saw Town start with greater tempo and paying in Sports half which resulted in Steven Campbell getting a shot but which wide and the same outcome coming from a Stevens’ free kick. However, on the hour mark possession was given away on the half way line that resulted in McMahon lobbing Dan Smith from distance that gave Town’s keeper no opportunity to prevent the goal.

The lead was nearly doubled two minutes later when a high ball was parried by Dan Smith and cleared of his own goal line by Gary Smith. The second goal came seventy minutes when the ball was played into Town’s penalty area and Craig Robinson lost his static marker to drive past Dan Smith. Smith was then quickly called upon to make another save from a corner.

Town responded with Stevens having a shot but it was blocked on the Sports goal line by his own player Steven Campbell before being cleared to safety. Sports won the game in the eighty third minute when Town failed to clear a long free kick that allowed substitute Robinson to score his second.

Woodley had a late flourish that saw Lemar Maycock hit the side netting and substitute Max Brown fire over the bar in stoppage time but come the final whistle Easington’s overall performance saw them to a deserved win.

D, Smith, Malone (Downes), Molloy (Brown), Kemp, G, Smith, Gonzalez, Maycock, Blackwood, Campbell (Wareing), Stevens), Goddard