Report provided by KC Press Secretary Martin Easton.....
Banbury’s away following swelled the crowd to create a good atmosphere for a match which on paper always looked likely to be a closely contested encounter and so it proved with nothing to separate the sides until midway through the second half but KC’s solid home form eventually prevailed with a third win out of four which saw them leapfrog their visitors and consolidate their mid table position.
Banbury’s backs looked lively from the opening whistle but a thumping tackle by lock Matt Bennett and a raking touch kick by Andy McLellan to establish early field position showed that KC’s meant business under their new management team and with five minutes played flyhalf Chris Pinner knocked over a routine penalty to give them a 3-0 lead.The visitors’ restart went straight into touch and the scrumback on halfway saw KC’s regain possession and win a penalty which they kicked to the corner.The lineout drive was stopped illegally,resulting in a yellow card for Banbury’s hooker,and Kidder again put the penalty into touch.They seemed sure to score with another forwards drive but were penalised for getting in front of the ball carrier and the visitors were able to clear their lines.
With their forwards rampant in the loose,KC’s were putting together some fine passages of play but were just not clinical enough and could not make their dominance count,letting themselves down with knock ons,forward passes,unforced errors and a missed penalty.Banbury’s threes were seeing very little of the ball but when they had it they looked dangerous,particularly on the counter attack,and only a marginal forward pass denied their No 14 an almost certain try.They did,however, level the scores five minutes before the break with a penalty when Kidder were penalised for coming in from the side at a ruck.
Having had so much territory in the first half with nothing to show for it,there was a feeling that KC’s chance may have gone and this was compounded when they threw everything at the visitors for the first ten minutes of the second period but still could not break through,a string of penalties against them adding to their frustration.They were almost made to pay when Banbury launched their best attack of the match from deep,cutting through KC’s midfield to take play right up to the corner flag where they set up camp but they too could not get over the whitewash and also missed a penalty chance.Crucially,KC’s weathered this storm and were soon back threatening Banbury’s line.A clear chance of a try was squandered with a forward pass and even when a great eight man shove won a five metre scrum against the head they still could not capitalise.Another drive was then held up on the line but the pressure was now relentless and the dam was breached at last midway through the half with two scores in as many minutes.First,No 8 Layton Wilkinson smashed his way over from a five metre scrum and then a chip kick by McLellan bounced kindly into the arms of centre Nick Martin who fed replacement left wing Scott Lovell and he scored with his first touch of the ball.Pinner converted both tries to open up a 17-3 gap which Banbury quickly reduced with a twice taken penalty but this was to be KC’s day and although he missed a second penalty chance Pinner made amends when he picked up a loose ball to stroll under the posts and he again added the extras to round off a good day for the home side.