Rushall Olympic 1-2 Banbury United - Report

Rushall Olympic got off to the perfect possible start when Rackeem Reid opened the scoring after only five minutes. Tom Thorley picked up the ball in the midfield before playing a defence splitting through ball into Ben Usher-Shipway on the right hand side of the penalty area. Shipway squared the ball into the near post and after a huge scramble, Reid poked the ball into the back of the net despite being on the floor. The lead didn’t last long though as Jack Stevens scored only minutes later. A through ball found Chris Wreh who beat his man to go one-on-one with Tom Palmer, a last ditch tackle however took the ball off of Wreh; unfortunately though it fell in the path of Jack Stevens who curled the ball past Palmer and into the top corner.

As the game carried on both teams showed reasons why they were the top two in the league, Callum Coyle linked up well with Alex Moore to try and slide in Jourdain Masidi in a dangerous position however the pass was too heavy. Ben Usher-Shipway then nearly found the head of Rahkeem Reid in a dangerous position before Banbury nearly pulled themselves ahead on the stroke of half-time. Chris Wreh danced past multiple Rushall players before shooting over the top of the crossbar.

After the break, both teams sensed the chance to pick up three points however the game was interrupted due to objects being thrown on the pitch. Despite Rushall looking threatening on the break, the league leaders pulled themselves ahead before the hour mark. A long throw wasn’t cleared by The Pics as it fell to Chris Wreh who volleyed the ball home from around the penalty spot on the turn to haunt his former club. Despite going behind, The Pics carried on brightly and could’ve got themselves level on different occasions one of which being substitute Tyler Lyttle who fired just wide of the post in the final minutes.