Ford delighted with players' response on a memorable day

It turned out to be a good day all round for Banbury United, on and off the field, and manager Mike Ford was delighted with the way his side went about their business against Larkhall Athletic.
Ricky Johnson completes his hat-trick with a header against Larkhall AthleticRicky Johnson completes his hat-trick with a header against Larkhall Athletic
Ricky Johnson completes his hat-trick with a header against Larkhall Athletic

Saturday’s 5-0 victory was the fourth time this season that the Puritans have hit five or more goals in an Evo-Stik Southern League game and this time it was in front of some of yesterday’s heroes at Spencer Stadium.

Ford said: “It’s all well and good raising the profile of the club for a day like Saturday but it’s then down to the players to deliver and they did. Full credit to the players because they’ve had some reminders of what is expected of them and they were very good on Saturday.

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“We’ve beaten a really good side at home in front of a decent crowd. Ricky Johnson’s got four goals again and he’s now the second highest scorer in the league and we’ve hit five goals so it was a good day for us.

“I said to coach Mike Byrne on Thursday that I wanted Saturday’s game won by the hour mark then I could give some players a rest and that’s just what we did.

“We got a dream start, scoring inside two minutes. But we got a bit ragged in the first half because we were chasing goals and we gave the ball away too much.

“We dealt with any pressure Larkhall put on us in the second half and we kept our shape much better than we did in the first half.”