MARKETMEN PICK UP POINT ON PENULTIMATE AWAY GAME OF 2025

Needham Market picked up a point on the road, after a goalless draw at 12th placed Banbury United.

Luke Ingram and Max Appauh started in the changes to Saturday's home defeat to Quorn, with Jake Dye injured, with the point enough to see Needham remain in fourth.

Both sides went into the game off the back of a defeat last weekend, with each side having spells on top - with the Marketmen containing their hosts well first half before arguably dominating after the restart.

A early foul 30-yards out on the right (2') led to an early yellow card for Ollie Saunders but Banbury curled it over (3').

Alex Worley (12') drove into space but fired just wide of the bottom far, right-hand, corner from distance, ahead of the Puritans' (19') volleying a right wing cross, free at the back post, just wide of the top right-hand corner from 6-yards out.

Needham however had a great chance a minute later, Ryan Miles was thread through down the left-hand side to cut it back to Myles Cowling arriving in the area but was dispossessed just before he could shoot.

Kyle Hammond's (21') free-kick, after a booking for Connor Ferguson who recklessly brought down Lambe, was caught by the keeper at the far post, before the hosts skewed a shot from range wide of the top near corner (26').

A brilliant sliding block from Keiran Morphew (30') denied a ferocious strike in the area, with James Bradbrook on hand to parry a dangerous ball ahead of his left-hand post behind with a man lurking.

Ryan Miles however (44') was released by a great dink over the full-back to race down and smash an inviting ball into the six yard box but for the keeper to gather the ball.

Banbury (59') blazed a 25-yard strike over, as Needham (66') created the first real major opportunity of the afternoon.

A brilliant ball slipped Max Appauh through down the left-hand side whose brilliant low right angled strike was kicked away by the outstretched foot of goalkeeper Harding.

Appauh meanwhile (70') broke down the left-hand side before seeing his ferocious cross blocked behind, who then drew a yellow card challenge from the Alexander Prosser.

Kyle Hammond's (74') resulting left wing free-kick from distance was poked towards goal by Ingram at close range only for Harding to gather in his six yard box.

Myles Cowling (76') drove into space after winning the ball back superbly, only to curl just wide of the bottom far corner from just outside the area, as Needham remained the better side, since the half-hour mark.

Myles Cowling (83') saw appeals for a pull on his shirt in the area waved away, as Luke Ingram made way for Seth Chambers.

Ollie Saunders was however sent off for a controversial second yellow (90'), having been adjudged to have handled the ball.

Dan Morphew returned from injury, coming off the bench for Appauh as a result, as Needham went close to finding a late winner.

Myles Cowling (94') drove forward, feeding Tommy Smith on the left-hand side whose great low ball found Seth Chambers whose shot was deflected wide.

Needham return to Bloomfields for our last home game of 2025, against second placed Harborough Town (3pm).

Assistant Manager Nathan Munson said, "I think happy, certainly with the performance. I thought it was a really good battling performance. The commitment, the endeavour, the desire to work for the clean sheet were all there in abundance, so that was really pleasing. I think when you come away, you just hope that you're going to get on the end of something at the other end, and that hasn't happened for us, but it was a really good performance, a really gritty performance. Tom and I said to the lads beforehand that we know that we can play teams off the park. Everybody, all the other managers have recognised that we're a very good footballing team, but it's important that we do the other side as well, and I think we did that really well today throughout the 100 minutes.

First half, they had lots of entries into the box, I don't think they really threatened, but that required us to defend the ball into the box quite a lot, and we didn't really get on the front foot enough. They were pressing quite high, and we probably weren't able to hit areas as much as we wanted, so we just changed a few things. Tom had a chat with them at half-time, and we just changed a few things, I think they definitely worked to the extent that we were much more on the front foot second half. We were able to get the ball down and move it, and we looked much more likely and have created some good opportunities.

Reflecting on last week and returning to Bloomfields next week, Munson added, "we lost a football match, that's what happens. Our home form is still probably the best in the league, so if you look at the match, then we created a hatful of chances, didn't take any. They created three chances and took them, and in football you just get those games occasionally, and we got our one last week. I don't think it was a reflection of the play to lose by the extent we did last week, but we had to own that, which we've done. We turned up today, we got that part, we got that half of the game 100 per cent right, because we got the clean sheet, we just weren't able to get on the other end, but we created moments, particularly in the second half. I can think of Max where the goalkeepers made a good save, Mylo we've spoken about, we've got Seth in the last minute. We had a few good balls across the box that we nearly got the end of things, so we were much more threatening. Banbury are good at home, to be fair to them. They're a good side, they're a solid side, physical side. They don't give you an inch, so to come here and work as hard as we did to get the point, it's a valuable point and we'll add that to our tally and we're very pleased.

They (Harborough) have clearly invested heavily this season to get through the league. I'd put them up there with Spalding as one of the two teams that we didn't really lay a glove on so far this season, so we'll be desperate to put that right. I think they were unfortunate in the Trophy today against a strong Carlisle side, so they'll be now looking to get back on league action and start to build up and close that gap on Spalding. They're a good side, there's no doubt about that. They've got options, they've got a strong bench, squad. Even with a few out, they still bring quality players at step three in, so they've got some real depth. We'll have to assess where we're at. We had to shuffle the pack a little bit today, but we've got a free week, so we hope to get them back and then we hope to be competitive at home because that's important to us and the way we play, to pick up our points at home, so we hope to give the fans a little bit of Christmas cheer."