Whing determined to see Puritans hit back in two tough away games

The Puritans missed out on a third first-round proper appearance in as many years after they were beaten 2-1 at Southern League Premier South side Bracknell Town in the fourth qualifying round last weekend.

But there’s little time to dwell on a rare setback as Banbury prepare for two tough away games in the Vanarama National League North over the next week.

The third-placed Puritans head to Spennymoor Town on Saturday before a midweek trip to current leaders King’s Lynn Town next Tuesday night.

And while Whing believes his newly-promoted side have done “remarkably well” so far, he is excited by the prospect of them getting even better in the weeks ahead.

“We are third in the league and we have a game in hand on the team in second,” the Banbury boss said.

“I believe that with the last few performances we should have won our games and be top of the league, especially with the amount of chances we created in the last two games we have drawn.

“But it’s been an unbelievable start and no-one would have put us where we are now at the start of the season. We probably would have been written off as being in the bottom half.

“We have done remarkably well but if you know me as a person, our staff and players then you’ll know that nothing is ever good enough. We want to keep getting better.

“There’s so much to work on, which is exciting for us because there’s so much more improvement to come from us.

“Our away form has got to get better. It was outstanding last season and we have to get back to that.

“We have two really tough away games coming up. We have to find a way.

“It can’t be pretty football all the time. Sometimes you have to dig results out and that’s what we did last season.

“We did it well at the start of this season and we need to get back to that.”