Whing excited for Banbury's season opener

The Andy Whing era officially gets under way this weekend as Banbury United start their Pitching In Southern League Premier Central campaign.

Four months have passed since the former Oxford United replaced Mike Ford as Puritans boss.

And, after a summer of recruitment and a busy pre-season, Whing is now ready for his first competitive game at the helm.

Banbury face a tough-looking opening-day test at Royston Town, who were flying high in the table when the previous season came to a shuddering halt due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

But Whing insists his main focus is on his own team as he bids to get off to a winning start.

“I am massively looking forward to it,” the Puritans boss said.

“Obviously it’s my first competitive game in charge and it’s been a long time coming. I joined in May and four months later we have finally got the first competitive fixture.

“We have had a really good pre-season, we feel like we are in a good place and our recruitment has been good so we are just looking forward to getting back on the pitch now.

“We have massive respect for Royston, they’re a good team. I have had a couple of reports on them so we will go into it knowing a little bit about them.

“But I think we just have to concentrate on ourselves and how we play and how we can go and win a game of football.”

Banbury will be straight back into action on Tuesday night after they were handed a home tie with Northern Premier League Division One South East Division side Carlton Town.

That will set the tone for a busy first few weeks of the season.

And Whing added: “With our recruitment we have tried to get a squad together which is capable of playing Saturday-Tuesday-Saturday-Tuesday and we will use that squad.

“We feel that whoever we bring in won’t downgrade the team at all and we are still hopeful that we can make a couple of signings before the weekend.

“We are pleased we have a home draw in the FA Cup but it will be tough against a team out of the Northern League.”