Today’s match was a thrilling match for the spectator; a great game between two teams both determined to win, end to end football with plenty of chances.
The game started well for Vikings with an early individual goal from Sam who ran with the ball from the Viking half, up the right wing and scored with a great finish to make it 1-0 after 4 minutes. Banbury didn’t waste any time responding scoring a goal back within a minute to bring the scores level at 1-1. We played with much more determination this week, Banbury are a good side but we kept the pressure on. Within the next 10 minutes Luke put two chances just wide, one being a great header from a corner. Adam also had a chance - a powerful shot that got deflected out by a defender for another corner.
On 15 minutes, Banbury tore through our midfield and created an excellent chance but their final shot hit the post. We responded to this attack very well by creating a great opportunity through good passing, Sam had his shot saved (well) by the keeper but Luke was there to slot away the rebound. 2-1 to Vikings. Both teams continued to battle, Vikings were awarded a free kick just outside their box, a well taken free kick which was confidently cleared by their defence. This was quickly followed by a free kick to Banbury just outside our box. this ricocheted against the cross bar to much relief in the Vikings camp. We battled on; Connor put in a great shift on the right as did Tom in defence who, in the closing minutes of the first half, hit a perfect 30yd pass to Jamie, who had great fun running a few rings around their defenders… but the third goal would not come. HT 2-1
As expected, Banbury came out fighting in the second half and got an equalising goal back very early on to bring the score to 2-2. Iwan had another great game in goal making some brilliant saves and showed some excellent decision making. Unfortunately on 50 minutes one of his saves took a little bit too much of the player and Banbury were awarded a penalty. Iwan stood there with his Grobbelaar legs a’wobbling, their number 11 stepped up and hit a blistering ball but Iwan got his hand to it to make an excellent save! We took full advantage of Banbury’s disappointment and put in a great counter-attack with Sam & Oscar pairing up really well cutting through their midfield… Sam hit a great shot but their goalie also made a great save, however he didn’t keep hold of it and Oscar leapt on the chance to score an easy third goal to make it 3-2 to Vikings. We were back in the lead but did not settle for that, within a few minutes Sam had another chance go just wide and Ollie continued to battle in the midfield. Banbury had not let their heads go down and also battled away, Iwan made some excellent saves but eventually, with some great play by their number 9, scored their equaliser. 3-3
With just a few minutes left of the match it could have gone either way, we had two good chances in this period; a great volley from Adam that just went wide and another excellent corner from Lewis that Charlie headed just wide. The final score was 3-3, a fair result. Both teams battled and either could have won the game in the closing minutes.
Well done boys!
Cheers
Jon
