Banbury united had their 4th consecutive home game in the space of 10 days when they hosted the most northern side in the league - Blyth Spartans. This was a massive game for both teams for the same reason desperately needing points on the board in the business end of the season to battle of relegation, to retain there National League North status. In this short report I will be stating the reasons why the Banbury faithful are going home happy with a point against a 22nd place team at home and explaining the possible outcome for the rest of the season.
Prior to kick off, Banbury sat 3 positions and 4 points above the relegation zone, whereas blyth despite having a massive away win at champions elect flyde on Tuesday night, sat in 22nd place, 2 points adrift of saftey. Blyth knew when making the 502 mile round trip, that coming away with less than 3 points will be detrimental for them in the run in. This meant it was important for Banbury if you can’t win it, do not lose it. Blyth hopes of survival shot up in the 28th minute when Jay Williams was sent off with a last man back tackle as this gave the Spartans an opportunity to capitalise with a player extra for just over an hour of play. However, what happened next are some of the big reasons why the point on the board is a big contributor to why we will stay up.
1) Kept Blyth At Arms Length
Firstly, with the game ending a draw Blyth did not utilise their extra man advantage (well I should say 12, as once again the ref was woeful). This meant we are still maintaining a 5 point gap over Blyth with two games in hand putting us in pole position for the end of the season run in. Secondly, not only did this point maintain our 5 point gap over 22nd place Spartans but we also steered ourselves a point further away from the relegation zone due to leamington suffering 2-0 defeat away at Alfreton.
2) Andy Whing's Management
Secondly, after the red card, it was evident to see again that we have one of the best football managers outside of the football league pyramid. He executed the changed game plan exquisitely stifling any of the Spartans attacks. This shows the quality of how good Andy Whing’s in game management and tactical nouse is to ensure we come away with a point as a bare minimum despite not being an able to change the personnel due to players on the bench carrying knocks. This proves we need to back Andy further next season as he has the ability to change games yet we haven't supplied him the resources of always meeting a full bench this season. However, Not only does Andy and his staff deserve the praise but also the players too, as to a man they was excellent showing a true dogged, hard working, spirted and passionate performance putting their bodies on the line for the badge. Banbury players Performed the low block perfectly limiting blyth to run out of ideas to try and beat the defence. This leads me on to point number 3 nicely.
3) The togetherness of the players.
The players resilience of putting a tough run behind them where we shipped goals with ease at times, has now turned a corner and despite multiple changes to our defence across the 4 games at home we have came away with 3 clean sheets including stopping the 3rd top goal-scorers in the league, Darlington, hitting the net. Not only this, despite not winning we are showing we are hard to beat and are slowly picking up the points thus giving us a solid foundation to build on in the last 7 cup finals of the season. The performance showed togetherness and fight, plus seeing the players delighted/buzzing at the end, was a positive sight on the Townend as they really did earn every ounce of that point therefore they deserve all the plaudits after a real tough period at the club where we suffered 4 losses in a row.
4) A Point Gained
By the time 5pm rolled around we gained ourself a point further away from the relegation as the teams below us did not pick up the results they was looking for.
Kettering Town 1-1 Scarborough
Farsley Celtic 0-1 Kiddiminster Harriers
Alfreton 2-0 Leamington
Below is a graphic showing that we are in the best position to swerve relegation due to our games in hand and our total points per game we have achieved this season.
Our fixtures for the last 7 games:
Tuesday 4th: Southport v Banbury
Friday 7th April: Gloucester V Banbury
Monday 10th April: Banbury v Peterborough
Saturday 15th April: Bradford PA v Banbury
Tuesday 18th April: Banbury V Alfreton
Saturday 22nd April: Banbury v Spennymore
Saturday: April 29th Scarborough V Banbury
From the reverse fixtures the puritans culminated a total of 10 points, so even taking half that points tally should see us safe.
Summary
Overall, this draw was a massive step in securing our status in the National league north and it’s looking realistically that 50 points should see us safe as that would require leamington and blyth to get atleast 8 points out of 15 in the final 5 game’s remaining. We still have 21 points remaining therefore earning 3 to 5 points is a very achieveable target thus be enough to see us through so these please players can leave another legacy on the club by achieving our highest ever league postion in the football pyramid. To conclude, keep the support, keep the noise and keep the faith as WE’RE THE RED AND GOLD ARMY.
Thank you for reading.
Up The Puritans
Spencer Reds
❤️💛
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