Davis glad to reach final but Brock disappointed with performance

Banbury United manager Paul Davis was relieved to see his side let-off the hook by Ardley United and was pleased to reach the Oxon Senior Cup final.

The Puritans would have had the tie in the bag in normal time had they taken a fraction of the chances that came their way and Davis said: “We should have had the tie won by halftime, we could have had three or four goals. The only reason the tie went to extra-time is because we didn’t take our chances.

“Ardley hung on but we’ve had five or six clear-cut chances in the second half as well with several players all guilty of not taking them.

“Credit to Ardley late on, they bombarded our goal. The penalty got them back in the game and the second equaliser arrived when they threw bodies into our box and anything can happen then.

“But we did well to get back in it after going behind in extra-time so all credit to the players for doing that.”

Ardley boss Kevin Brock had no complaints about the outcome but was disappointed in his side’s performance.

He said: “We were really poor for the first half an hour of the tie. Banbury could have been three or four goals up in the first half so I was satisfied to come in just 1-0 down at halftime.

“Banbury have got some talented players, especially going forward, and they played really well. We gradually got into the game but it was a case of getting the ball from back to front more quickly.

“It was frustrating that we didn’t see the game out once we got in front in extra-time because I felt Banbury were looking tired. If we could have got to halftime in extra-time I think we could have held on.”