• Sat. Nov 9th, 2024

Oxford City beat Banbury United in pre-season friendly

Byoxfordnewspaper

Jul 23, 2023

OXFORD City won 3-2 at Banbury United as the Oxfordshire sides met in pre-season.

All the goals came during a pulsating first half at Spencer Stadium.

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A trialist gave the Puritans the lead after 10 minutes when he took advantage of a loose ball and slotted past Chris Haigh, however the Hoops levelled when Josh Parker expertly took down Josh Ashby’s pass and lobbed Jack Harding.

With 26 minutes on the clock, the hosts regained the lead when another trialist capitalised on an error in the City backline and rounded Haigh to score.

Just after the half hour mark, Ashby levelled matters again after Parker outmuscled his marker and slid the ball across the box for the midfielder.

Three minutes later, the Hoops went ahead for the first time when Parker caught Harding off his line and finished with aplomb.

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After the game, City head coach Ross Jenkins told the club’s YouTube channel: “I thought we were terrible, the boys know it. Our standards are so much better than that.

“Yes we won, but I don’t care about the score. Our performance levels weren’t good enough.

“I actually think it might wake us up, and the boys need it because that wasn’t good enough.

“It’s the first time this pre-season that I’ve been really disappointed.”

Puritans boss Mark Jones added: “I thought it was an exciting game and for the neutral, it was probably a good one.

“It was a great workout for us, we’re disappointed we conceded some silly goals but I think we looked dangerous going forward, we just need to tighten up a little bit at the back.”

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