Just one more win for Banbury United to seal league title

Banbury United manager Andy Whing is interviewed after their win at Lowestoft PICTURE BY JULIE HAWKINS

One more win will see Banbury United crowned champions of the Southern League Premier Central Division.

And their first chance to celebrate comes on Saturday, if they can beat midtable Tamworth at the Banbury Plant Hire Community Stadium.

Last weekend Andy Whing’s side overcame bottom club Lowestoft Town 3-1, with a successful trip to the seaside.

Morgan Roberts scored just before the half hour, with an own goal making it 2-0 at half time.

Chris Wreh - third in the division’s scoring list with 18 goals so far - made sure of the points in the 66th minute before the seasiders scored a consolation with a quarter-of-an-hour to go.

“It was a really good win,” said Whing. “The first half was the best we have played for a while and our attacking play was some of the best we have seen all season. My only criticism was that we weren’t four or five up by half time.

“We’ve been starting slowly in recent weeks, but on Saturday we started really quickly and dominated, which was fantastic and we fully deserved the win.”

The victory sees the Puritans with a 20-point lead at the top of the table (89 points from 35 games) although Coalville on 69 still have a couple of extra games to play.

Banbury have one hand on the league trophy, but need two more points from their last five games to secure it.

“Tamworth will be a really tough game,” said Whing. “I’m sure they’ll want to spoil our day, like any team would.

“They have a new manager and coaching staff, big budget and are ambitious, but we are massively looking forward to it. Hopefully if we can win that will seal the title and obviously we would love to do it on Saturday and celebrate in front of the home fans.

“The lads are so level headed and are taking it all in their stride. Even when we haven’t played well we have managed to dig out results.

“We’ve not been great at home recently but this is a big incentive to produce a good home performance.”

At the game the club will be paying tribute to long term supporter Andrew Steele who died at the weekend after a short illness.

Andrew was a popular regular on the terraces attending with his sons Liam and Matt, who plays for Banbury’s Academy team, and mum Linda.

“Hopefully we can win the league for him and his family,” added Whing.