Banbury Win Early Christmas `Six-Pointer`

Tuesday night saw one of the biggest games of the season so far in the Pitching In Southern League Premier Division Central as third-placed Peterborough Sports hosted leaders Banbury United at the Bee Arena.

And in front of the biggest league crowd of the season, 415, the Puritans extended their advantage at the top to five points after a 3-2 win.

Andy Whing`s visitors looked very impressive as they raced into a 2-0 lead inside the opening 16 minutes.

Morgan Roberts gave Banbury an 8th minute lead with a close-range finish.

And then 8 minutes later, top scorer Chris Wreh forced his way through the Turbines defence to make it 2-0.

However, the hosts got themselves back into the game in the 21st minute when a cross from Josh Moreman was converted at the far post by Dion Sembie-Ferris.

Just 3 minutes later, Banbury`s Jack Stevens was brought down in the area but Roberts missed the resulting penalty.

But the Puritans did manage to restore their two-goal advantage in the 34th minute when Jordan Williams headed past Sports` keeper Paul White from a corner.

It got worse for Sports though in the 88th minute when Lewis Hilliard was shown a straight red card.

Strangely though, that seemed to work against Banbury as in the 3rd minute of stoppage time, Dan Jarvis reduced the deficit to one with a direct free-kick and Jimmy Dean`s side pushed hard in the final few seconds looking for a leveller which never came.