Ford must get his message across for the double-header

Banbury United face an Evo-Stik Southern League double-header this weekend, Saturday’s trip to mid-table Biggleswade Town is followed by a rare home Boxing Day fixture against basement boys Dunstable Town.

The Puritans have tightened up in recent games and Ford knows they must adopt a similar approach to both games if they are to take maximum points.

Ford said: “For most of this season we’ve been guilty of giving goals away immediately after we’ve taken the lead. That hasn’t been the case in recent weeks because we’ve addressed it but we don’t want it to creep back in.

“We made errors against Weymouth which cost us but in both games, against Royston and on Saturday, we produced good performances. We need to carry that level of performance into these two games over the Christmas period.”

But Ford will have to do without Tom Bradbury for a long period due to an ankle injury sustained when scoring the opener at Oxford City Nomads in midweek. New signing Nuno Felix also had to come off in Tuesday’s Oxon Senior Cup tie and will miss both games.

Jack Self misses Saturday’s trip to Biggleswade but will be available for Tuesday’s clash with Dunstable.

Looking back on Tuesday’s success, Ford added: “It was obviously very one-sided but it was better than training and gave us the chance to bed-in some of the things we’ve been working on in recent weeks.”