Ford delighted to see Puritans taste home success again

Banbury United boss Mike Ford was delighted to see his side get back to winning ways at the Banbury Plant Hire Community Stadium.
Banbury United's Conor McDonagh takes on Royston Town's Sam CorcoranBanbury United's Conor McDonagh takes on Royston Town's Sam Corcoran
Banbury United's Conor McDonagh takes on Royston Town's Sam Corcoran

The Puritans recorded their first Evo-Stik Southern League success on home soil since late August as they beat Royston Town 3-0 on Saturday. Second half goals from Conor McDonagh, who had earlier missed a penalty, Leam Howards and substitute Jefferson Louis earned United all three premier division points.

Ford said: “I felt in some games we didn’t show enough respect to the opposition and I’ve had to get stuck into the players a halftime. That wasn’t the case against Royston, we’ve turned over a side who have been doing very well recently.

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“If we had scored the penalty I felt we would have edged the first half. I told the players at halftime not to feel sorry for themselves because of that, to go out and get the first goal of the game and make sure it was the winner.

“That’s what they did and I felt we had real togetherness about us. It’s all very well having players playing well but today we had good players doing it and that was the difference.

“Having missed the penalty in the first half, we then had a couple cleared off the line in the second half and I felt it might have been one of those days. But the players kept plugging away and got their rewards, that was the hardest we’ve worked for a long time.

“I wanted to keep faith with the players who travelled to Merthyr in midweek as much as I could. In the end I had to make three changes I didn’t really want to make but the players who came in all did very well.

“We produced a real performance and the players made the right decisions out there.”