Steve Slaughter served Banbury United both on and off the field for many years.
Originating from Bethnal Green in London, his family moved to Bicester, Oxfordshire before settling in Banbury.
He won Mid-Oxon and Oxfordshire County Schools honours as a player and upon leaving school, he signed for Oxford United.
He then had a short spell with Brighton & Hove Albion before he was signed by Brian Stone for his adopted home-town club Banbury in 1976.
He became a first-team regular under Stone but fell out of favour when former Scottish international Hugh Curran had his short spell in charge of the Puritans in 1979 and Slaughter was loaned to Witney Town.
He returned to the Banbury side at the end of the 79/80 season and was the club`s joint-top scorer with Mark Boyland.
When his playing days finished after a series of injuries, he decided to move into physiotherapy and sports massage.
After receiving my qualifications, he applied for a position with Sunderland in the Premier League in 2002 and worked under the management of former England player Peter Reid and alongside player-coach Niall Quinn, who went on to become chairman.
On returning to Banbury, he decided to start his own sports injury and massage clinic and returned to United as its physio.
Mark Boyland was widely regarded as one of the best forwards in non-League football in the mid-1980s and early 90s.
He began at Oxford City before joining Banbury United ahead of the 1979/80 season.
His goalscoring ability shone through and it came as little surprise when he left the then-struggling Southern Midland Division side to sign for high-flying Southern Premier Division outfit Cheltenham Town in 1984.
The Swindon-born frontman joined Cheltenham when boss John Murphy, fought off competition from Witney Town and AP Leamington to sign him.
The self-employed kitchen fitter went on to hit 31 in all competitions as the Robins won the Southern League championship and reached the Southern League Cup final in his first season.
In the Alliance Premier League, Boyland top-scored for the Robins during 1985/86 and 1986/87 as Cheltenham established themselves among the leading non-League sides in the country.
He forged a fruitful partnership with Brett Angell at the start of 1987/88 that took the club to its first appearance in the FA Cup First Round for 13 years, but not long afterwards Cheltenham accepted a £10,000 offer from Wycombe Wanderers for his signature.
After a year at Wycombe and six months with Aylesbury United, Boyland returned to Cheltenham, by this time managed by Jim Barron, in March 1989.
The following season he was part of an expensively assembled team including Andy Gray that under-achieved in the Conference and FA Trophy.
Boyland spent a month on loan at Buckingham Town but returned for the closing weeks of the season and missed a penalty in the final game that would have given him a 100th goal for the club.
At the end of the season Boyland departed for two seasons at VS Rugby in the Southern League.
He returned for a third spell at Cheltenham following the club's relegation back to the Southern League in 1992 and finally scored his 100th goal in a 2-2 draw against Weymouth but with Jimmy Smith and Jason Eaton leading the line, Boyland departed for the last time to join Tamworth in the Southern League Midland Division.
Boyland netted 101 goals across three spells with the Robins between 1984 and 1992, making a total of 225 starts and 16 substitute appearances.
He moved to Cirencester Town and continuing to play local football in Oxfordshire well into his 40s.
Boyland enjoyed a spell as manager of Hook Norton in the Hellenic League during the late 2000s and was more recently assistant to former Cheltenham team-mate Paul Collicutt's at Evesham United in Southern League Division One West.
Kevin Wilson made 42 international appearances for Northern Ireland between 1987 and 1995 during his time with Derby County and Ipswich Town.
He had actually started his career with Banbury in the Southern League North before being signed by Derby for £20,000 in 1979.
He went on to make over 600 League appearances and score 149 goals before embarking on a managerial career with Northampton Town, Bedford Town and Aylesbury United in the Isthmian League Premier Division, Kettering Town in both the Isthmian Premier and Conference North and Corby Town in the Southern Premier Division in 2007/08.
More recently he has been in charge of Ilkeston and Nuneaton Town.
Team photo showing Steve Slaughter, Mark Boyland and Kevin Wilson
Back Row (Left to Right); Andy Glass, Richard Ell, John Hawkes, Aidan Kearns, Steve Slaughter, Alan Hyatt, Richard Jarvis, Mark Boyland, Steve Knox, Harry Smillie (Trainer).
Front Row (Left to Right): David Woodland, Terry Falkner, Kevin Wilson, Phil Lines, Derek Evans, Dave Matthews, Martin Allen.
Centre forward Tony Jacques first joined Banbury United in the summer of 1965 from Gloucester City.
Prior to joining Gloucester, he had made 7 Football League appearances for Oxford United and been on the books at Hereford United.
In his first season with the Puritans, he scored 30 league goals as they finished third in the West Midlands (Regional) League enough, along with off-the-field improvements, to gain election to the Southern League.
He would go on to spearhead Banbury’s attack in their first two seasons of Southern League football before leaving in the summer of 1968 for Premier Division Nuneaton Borough, for what was then a record fee between Southern League clubs of £2,500.
He netted over 100 goals in three seasons at Manor Park before moving on to Kettering Town where he was part of the team that won the Southern League Division One North championship under his former Oxford United team-mate Ron Atkinson in 1971/72, being the top scorer with 38 goals.
He was, however, surprisingly released by Atkinson at the end of that campaign and he returned to Banbury in the summer of 1972 and played for United for four more seasons before retiring, scoring enough goals in his total of seven seasons with Banbury to make him the club’s all-time leading goalscorer with 223 goals from 337 appearances.
Cyril Beavon was a full back who started out as a junior with Wolverhampton Wanderers before moving to Headington United (later renamed Oxford United) in January 1959.
He made 162 appearances for the Oxford club whilst they were in the Southern League and went on to make 273 appearances for them after they had been elected to the Football League.
He then joined Banbury United prior to the start of the 1969/70 season and would also stay with the club until the end of the following season.
He made over 100 appearances for the Puritans, skippering the team, in his two years at the club and was part of the side that forced a replay against non-League giants Hereford United in the final sixteen of the inaugural FA Trophy in season 1970/71.
He later managed Bicester Town in the Hellenic League.
He passed away in December 2017 at the age of 80.
Stewart Rennie was considered one of the best goalkeepers in the Southern League in the late 1960s and early 70s.
He was with Balliol Boys Club in Oxford as a teenager and had trials for the National Association of Boys Clubs' international side, and with Sheffield Wednesday when he was 17.
But he signed for Isthmian League side Oxford City before moving to the northern part of the county to join Banbury.
After spending several seasons with the Puritans, Rennie moved to Witney Town, who had just come up to the Southern League after winning the Hellenic League for three successive seasons.
Following his spell with the Blanketmen, Rennie finished off his playing days with Hellenic Leaguers Chipping Norton Town, who he signed for in 1976.
He died in September 2002 at the early age of 56.
Tony Foster was a team-mate of Rennie`s at Banbury, joining the club in the summer of 1969.
He had made a big impression at the Spencer Stadium that previous season when his then club Brentwood Town came to Banbury and his pace down the left caused havoc.
After two seasons as United’s leading goalscorer, Foster left to join then-West Midlands (Regional) League side Tamworth for the start of season 1971/72 and was appointed as the Lambs player-manager in January 1972 but lasted only until May 1972.
Foster returned to Banbury as a player for the start of season 1972/73, at that point teaming up with the also returning to the club Tony Jacques to form a lethal and legendary strike force.
The two seasons in which the two Tony’s teamed up saw the club reach the FA Cup First Round, playing Barnet in season 1972/73, before taking Northampton Town to a replay in 1973/74.
Season 1972/73 saw United score 60 Southern League goals with Foster getting 23 of them and Jacques 16 and the following season saw the club score 69 league goals, Jacques scoring 21 and Foster, up to when he left the club in March 1974, notching 17.
That partnership was broken when Foster moved out of the area and he subsequently joined Basingstoke Town in March 1974.
Foster scored 140 goals in 223 appearances in all competitions for Banbury, putting him in third place in the all-time goalscorers list, behind only Jacques and Jody McKay.
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