MAKING a mockery of their home form, Frome Town again proved what a good away side they are as they won 4-3 at league leaders Banbury Utd, who had won five out of five prior to this game.
Goals from George Miller, Darren Jefferies and two from man of the match Jon Davies led to a 4-1 lead before Banbury scored two late goals to make it a nail biting final few minutes.
With Sam Teale absent, George Miller took over at centre half alongside Marcus Mapstone and the influential Mitchell Page was on the bench indicating a possible knock from a previous match.
Frome took the lead in the 4th after early pressure from Banbury had seen a header sail just over the bar, but then Davies went on a storming run into box to bring a good save from Jack Harding, Jake Jackson latched onto the rebound only for Harding to save his shot, but the keeper was powerless to prevent George Miller scoring as he drove the ball home.
Banbury had the ball in the net in the 15th only for it to be ruled out by an offside flag, and as the game became an end to end affair, Jackson almost made it 2-0 to Frome in the 18th as his snapshot flew over the bar from six yards, Jefferson Louis was denied by the feet of Kyle Phillips in the 20th and again Phillips denied him in the 22nd as Banbury produced a flowing move from the back.
Just as it looked like Banbury would get an equaliser, Frome made it 2-0 as Davies produced a perfect cross from the left that allowed Darren Jefferies to control, go round a defender and hit a shot that flew into the net with Harding just getting a touch to the ball.
Banbury got one back in the 37th as a gap opened up in the Frome defence and some neat interchange play allowed Banbury’s left back Tom Bradbury to score with relative ease, and as the game progressed towards half time, Davies came in for some special attention that brought a couple of yellow cards as the home side tried to find a way to stop him running the game in midfield.
But the tactics didn’t work, and Davies made the score 3-1 himself in the 49th as Jackson set him up to score low into the corner and this set up a period where Banbury started to press hard but were struggling to carve out any clear cut chances, until the 65th when Ravi Shamsi went on a great run and produced a very good shot that hit the post.
With Frome soaking up a lot of pressure now, the away fans were in dreamland in the 72nd as Davies capped a fine match with a superb right foot curler into the far top corner to make it 4-1, and with Jefferies and Kris Miller going close for Frome and Banbury bringing two good saves from Phillips the match was nowhere near over.
Banbury pulled it back to 4-2 in the 88th as Louis headed in a right wing cross and a 90th minute effort from substitute Leam Howards made it 4-3 to Frome, but despite a nail biting 5 minutes of injury time, Frome held out for a famous away victory.
Frome will be in action in the 2nd Qualifying Round of the FA Cup on Saturday 16th September at Tavistock.
Jon Davies was awarded the H&B Tyres Man of the Match Award and when he is on top form, as he was today, he is without doubt one of the best players in the Southern Premier League. Crowd: 453 Entertainment Value: 5/5
