Banbury United boss feels FA Cup win aided club's momentum

A 2-0 win at home to Dorchester Town set up a trip to Melksham Town in the second qualifying round, Yaw Ofusu and George Ball with goals in each half to secure the win.

And Hollyhead was relieved to get through what he said was always going to be a very tough tie.

He told Puritans Radio: “It’s a good win for many reasons. It helps us keep the momentum that we’ve been trying to gather, and obviously there’s something special about the FA Cup.

"It was pleasing to get the early goal with the captain in the right place at the right time, then at 1-0 as a coach on the losing side you always feel that you’re still in the game, so there was a need for us to get that second goal.

"I thought we were quite controlled in the first-half without really having that finishing point, then in the second-half I felt Dorchester came out really well in the first ten minutes and we stopped doing what had been so successful in the first-half.

"But credit to the players for recognising that and wrestling back the initiative.

"It was a tough draw because people probably don’t know too much about Dorchester, although we had them watched three times. The bonus was being at home but we knew there wouldn’t be many tougher teams we could have faced at this stage.”​

United now prepare for an early season top-of-the-table battle as the Puritans, sitting in third spot with three wins from their first five games, welcome Stamford who are unbeaten having won four and drawn one of their matches so far. Fifth-placed Halesowen then visit four days later.

Hollyhead added: “We are six competitive games in and this is very early stages but we now have two very big games over the next week and having no replay means we can have two training sessions which are so precious at this level, so we have to make the most of them.”