Macdonald and Haysham off the mark as Puritans retain cup

Mike Ford’s side beat neighbours Easington Sports 3-0 at the Banbury Plant Hire Community Stadium to start their pre-season build-up on a positive note.

Their UHLSport Hellenic League visitors competed well for the opening half an hour but United quickly established a two-goal cushion before the break. Ryan Macdonald got his first goal for the club and new signing Pablo Haysham quickly doubled United’s advantage.

Shortly after the restart Charlie Wise scored United’s third goal and from then on the second half was a low key affair with Sports never really looking like getting back in the game. Their only real threat throughout the 90 minutes came late on when Joe Eyre’s long range effort just went wide of the far post.

Ford said: “That was the most comfortable we’ve ever been in this fixture, they’ve always been close games in the past. They made it difficult for us in the first half until we got two quick goals and the game ran out of steam in the second half.

“As a first opportunity to get the team playing how we want them to that was a good start for us. We’ve worked in training on how we want to play but this was out our first test against a side which was going to try and stop us playing that way.”