Stourbridge 3 Banbury United 2

...a place in the next round of the F A Trophy.

Stourbridge had the better of a stop-start first period and they certainly started in confident mood, despite missing two key figures in king-pin centre-half Nathan Bennett and attacker Ben Billingham. In the 6th minute Drew Canavan worked a one-two with Luke Benbow before standing up a cross from the right-hand side of the box for Benbow to attack, but his header bounced down and over the crossbar. Four minutes later though the Glassboys forged ahead. Benbow combined with Ryan Rowe on the edge of the box with Rowe sweeping the ball through to George Washbourne on the left. He provided a teasing low cross that was only partially cut out by Tom Ryan with the ball running to Rowe who placed his finish wide of Leigh Bedwell in the Banbury goal and into the far bottom corner of the net. Banbury sought an immediate reply and Kyle Fraser-Allen wasn’t too far away with a first-time shot from the edge of the box. The game settled down after that, but Stourbridge had to make a change on 22 minutes with Roly Agbor replacing the injured Rowe. The Glassboys sub played a part in their next good chance on 40 minutes as Agbor pushed the ball through for Benbow to use his pace through the right-channel area. Benbow checked inside on to his left-foot, but saw his low shot blocked by Bedwell. On the stroke of half-time Stourbridge pushed again with a ball from Jamie Oliver finding Sean Geddes. He rolled a pass into Benbow who advanced through the left channel area, however he struck his low shot straight at Bedwell.

Banbury made two changes at the break and adopted a more adventurous approach. Taking the game to the Glassboys they applied some early pressure after the re-start with sub Anderson Pinto curling a 20-yard shot over Dean Coleman’s crossbar and in the 48th minute they drew level when a testing low cross from the left by Dominic Lawless was only parried out by the diving Coleman to the feet of Adeyinka Talabi who turned the ball home from six yards out. Banbury threatened again two minutes later as Kynan Isaac played a pass into the run of Scott Bridges, however he pushed his shot from the right-hand side of the box wide of the far post. The Glassboys gradually worked their way back into the game with Washbourne delivering a 54th minute cross from the left towards the far back edge of the box where Leon Broadhurst collected the ball before shooting into the side-netting. Five minutes later Stourbridge re-gained the lead with a superbly worked and well-taken goal. Geddes clipped a ball into Benbow and his first-time back-flick set up Agbor who hit a sweetly struck shot beyond Bedwell with the outside of his boot from the edge of the box. The hosts subsequently made two further changes with Kayelden Brown and Andre Francis coming on for Dean Bennett and Washbourne, however with twelve minutes left Banbury grabbed an equaliser out of nowhere with Lawless seizing on a loose ball and wrapping his foot around it to curl a delightful shot from around 25 yards out inside Coleman’s left-hand upright. The buoyant visitors pushed for a winner and four minutes later Bridges fed Talabi who lined up Isaac for a low shot that took a deflection and rolled against Coleman’s left-hand post before being cleared. Gary Hackett's men responded on 86 minutes with Drake feeding Agbor who turned past his marker and accelerated to the left-hand by-line before pulling the ball back to Brown, but he drilled over the bar from six yards. Banbury returned on to the attack with a drive from Fraser-Allen being deflected past Coleman’s left-hand post and then moments later Coleman made a tip-over save from Pinto’s rising shot. Just when a replay looked inevitable though, Stourbridge snatched a last gasp winner with Geddes threading a pass into the run of Brown and he rounded Bedwell and kept his nerve to tuck away the ball and give the Glassboys a narrow victory.