Banbury Vets beat former European Champions in the cup

After the heroics of the last round, which saw Banbury play well to beat Rugby 4-0, a solitary 11 players (due to illness and injury) travelled in Reading not totally full of hope and expectation of making it through to the next round.

Banbury, who now progress to the last 32, which will be played at the end of January, began the half slowly with Reading’s midfield dominating in the early stages but it was Banbury who created the first real opportunity with Chud Foreman getting on the end of a 30 yard pass by Jimmy Clement, but his deflection drifted wide of the near post.

A few minutes later, Foreman was at in again when a great team passing move saw Ade Simons in space and his space put Foreman through on goal, and despite showing composure to round the keeper his week shot failed to hit the target.

At the other end Banbury now had to withstand some pressure with Rhys Joyce (former GB player and European Champion) starting to pull the strings in the midfield but despite Reading’s dominance of the ball they only created one opportunity during this passage of play that Phil Smith, Banbury’s keeper, cooly deflected wide of the post.

Banbury’s best spell came in the second quarter, with Banbury creating a number of good opportunities, Welsh International, Dave Clarke, had a short corner routine well saved but in the end Banbury’s dominance at this stage allowed them to score from their third short, Stuart Armstrong’s drag flick giving the Reading keeper no chance.

As the second quarter wore on Reading began to click and from a short corner of their own, they equalised through Barney Dawes, his strike nestling into the corner of the goal past post man Simon West. Despite this set back Banbury continued to play the better hockey and from some sustained pressure Clarke created some space in the ‘D’ and his pinpoint cross found Craig Irvine sliding in at the far post to calmy deflect the ball to give Banbury, just before half time, the lead once more.

The third quarter saw Banbury play their best hockey of the game and they were able to thwart every potential reading attack, with Guy Sambrook and Charlie Murphy putting in some strong tackles. At the other end Foreman’s pass/shot was somehow missed by the sliding Clark and James Clement had an air shot when clean through on goal.

The last quarter saw Banbury’s fitness levels drop and Reading had total control of the last 17 minutes. Banbury did not help themselves with Foreman (twice), Clark and Simons all being sin-binned and for 90 seconds Banbury played with 8 players but captain Neil Sollis was resolute in defence. Banbury did get back to the full quota and despite Reading replacing their keeper with an outfield player Banbury managed to withstand the Reading onslaught.