Vanarama National League North
Your Co-op Community Stadium 
Wednesday 1st January 2025

Brakes kicked off the New Year with a battling victory over Hereford at Your Co-op Community Stadium. Dan Turner’s first goal back in Leamington colours was cancelled out by a fine strike from Lawson D’ath within a minute of the restart, but Henry Landers fired Leamington back in front. Paul Holleran’s men were also indebted to Callum Hawkins, who produced a hat trick of fantastic saves, including one from a penalty, to help his side to the three points. 

There was one change to the eleven which started at Brackley on Boxing Day, with Rob Evans absent from the squad after limping off injured late on. Theo Streete replaced him. 

It did not take long for Hawkins to produce his first save of 2025, and it was a pretty astonishing one as he displayed lightning quick reactions to divert the ball over his crossbar as Jason Cowley headed Andy Williams’ knock on from a right wing cross towards goal. Sammy Robinson headed the resulting corner kick high over the bar. 

The visitors would threaten again in the opening five minutes, Williams and Cowley combining again at speed, but Hawkins stood his ground and claimed Cowley’s attempted chip. 

Leamington had not started this game with anything like the kind of intensity that they had shown against Curzon Ashton. Their first real foray forward saw a free kick from midway through the Hereford half played straight into the arms of Bulls keeper Tom Donaghy, while a free kick for the visitors saw a tame header drop into Hawkins’ arms. 

The early chances counted for little however, as Brakes moved ahead on ten minutes when Turner stole in at the far post to meet a long ball forward from a free kick that bypassed retreating defenders to send a header looping past Donaghy into the net. 

A disgruntled away supporter launched his drink in the direction of the Leamington players as they celebrated Turner’s first goal since returning to the club on loan from Chester last month. 

The Leamington bench were up in arms as Cally Stewart and Kyle Howkins tangled on the edge of the box, but nothing was given. 

Jack Edwards saw a header saved from a corner, captain Adam Walker following up with a first time drive that flew over the bar, but the goal had certainly given Leamington fresh impetus, and they began to get about their visitors and unsettle their flow after what had been a confident start. 

Hawkins saved another effort at his goal from Alex Babos, but the momentum had clearly swung from one side to the other. The visitors were now conceding unnecessary free kicks and putting themselves under pressure, with Brakes not really making the most of some situations, though they were prevented from doing so when great persistence from Stewart won the ball back and set Dan Meredith scampering away, but he was chopped down by Lewis Hudson as he prepared to move into the Hereford half, the Bulls skipper receiving the first booking of the afternoon for his troubles. 

Landers’ low ball in from the right was inches from the in-rushing Turner, before Meredith was sent hurtling into space by another astute pass from Stewart; his low drive fizzing past the left hand post. 

Stewart broke up another Hereford attack inside his own half, and received the ball back, advancing towards goal before curling a low drive just wide. The young striker was proving to be a real nuisance to the Hereford defence, and came in for some rough treatment on more than one occasion as they tried to nullify his threat. They left him free to meet a free kick in from the right by Landers, but Stewart directed his diving header just the wrong side of the upright. 

Very little had been seen of Hereford as an attacking force since the goal, which was surprising given their bright start, and manager Paul Caddis was in constant dialogue with Fourth Official Simon Kavanagh, questioning why certain decisions had been made. His players appeared to want too much time on the ball at times, and the likes of Stewart and Walker were simply not prepared to allow them that, with Walker dispossessing Robinson as another Bulls attack broke down. 

Brakes barely had time to settle as the second half commenced before they had been pegged back; D’ath crashing a powerful low drive under the dive of Hawkins into the bottom left hand corner. Exactly the response they would have been looking for, and the momentum began to shift again as the sizeable travelling support cranked up the volume. 

Howkins directed a header over the bar from a corner, while Hawkins was forced to punch a dangerous left wing cross clear and then field another shot from Cowley as the visitors continued to have the better of things. 

But again, Leamington stunned their visitors by taking the lead. This time it was Landers, who was the beneficiary of more good work from Meredith on the right, who found his team mate inside the box, and Landers dug out a low strike into the far corner for his fourth goal of the season. 

The visitors immediately felt they had a shot for a penalty at the other end, but the fall from the Hereford player was a little theatrical, and there was very little protest on or off the pitch. 

Hawkins produced his second tremendous save of the afternoon as he leapt to his right to beat away a thunderous strike from Ryan Bartley, and Brakes defended the resulting corner. 

Substitute Dylan Mitchell placed a shot over the crossbar as Hereford looked for a way back into the game with time ticking into the final ten minutes, but with Streete as imperious as ever at the back directing operations, Leamington were up for the challenge. 

Hawkins held another shot, from Jaiden White as Hereford pressed, but they looked to be running out of time as the game entered five additional minutes, only for Referee Neil Pratt to award a penalty as a fierce shot struck the arm of Josh Quaynor. There was quite a delay prior to the taking of the spot kick, which may or may not have unsettled Bulls substitute White, but he was denied by another fantastic save from Hawkins, who launched himself to his right to pummel the ball away from his goal. 

Stewart had the ball in the net as Leamington countered, but was denied by an offside flag. However, a third goal was not required, as Brakes saw out the remaining moments to get their 2025 off to a flying start. 

‘I thought they started the game really well, Hereford, and their system got on top of us in the early stages, but to be fair I thought our first half performance was excellent after that, from probably ten to forty five minutes,’ said the manager after the game. 

‘We had to get the ball wide to get the overload, which we did, especially down the right hand side. The two wide men did really well. They always want to get chalk on their boots, they want to get in one v one situations and get crosses in, but the two boys today; how we’ve dealt with Hereford’s system effectively today or tried to deal with it effectively, was the two wide men really sacrificing themselves and becoming inverted tens when we didn’t have the ball, try and get the blocks in and play from there. We did it really well in the first half and probably deserved the lead; maybe could have had another goal. 

‘Like the first half, we’ve started the second half poorly; they were really on the front foot. It’s a great goal from the kid, and you’re then thinking which way is this going to go, but we dug in, got through those fifteen minutes and we always knew that if we could get our front three involved in the game and the full backs stepping into play and that sort of came down that right hand side, it was an overload again. It was about trying to get distance on their passes and bypass the diamond, which we did, and it was a great finish from Henry. He’s having a really strong period at the moment. The game levelled out a bit then and they threw everything at us. The Referee’s had a strong game. I thought Josh was close to the boy, but it did strike his arm. 

‘A couple of weeks ago at Spennymoor, when Callum Hawkins was down in the dumps I said to him in the dressing room you can count your mistakes on one hand, and I know for a fact you’ll save us again on more than one occasion like you already have over the last eighteen months, and he has done again today. It’s not just the save - the ball went out for a throw in, so he’s fisted it away from all the danger. 

‘I think for our performance in the first half, and patches in the second, and for our counter attacking play, 

I think we just about deserved it today. It was great to see Dan Turner back on the scoresheet - I think that will do him the world of good. After a strong start from them it was good that we got the goal. In the second half you wouldn’t know which way the game was going to go. The system they had is very strong structurally, very strong centrally, and you could see that in the game we struggled at times. There’s an overload in there you see, but we got the overload in the wide areas. Our goals have come from those overloads, and there’s has come from their overload in the middle of the park. Just to get over the line with a 2-1 was great, two home wins over Christmas is fantastic.’  

Attendance: 1,140 (502 Hereford) 

Leamington: 1 Callum Hawkins, 2 Dan Meredith, 3 Josh Quaynor, 5 Theo Streete, 7 Henry Landers, 8 Adam Walker ©, 9 Callum Stewart, 10 Jack Edwards (21 Joe Clarke, 87), 14 George Ward, 17 Ewan Williams, 23 Dan Turner (11 Tim Berridge, 87). 

Subs not used: 16 Jiah Medrano, 19 Ant Lynn, 22 Joel Shambrook. 

Hereford: 31 Tom Donaghy, 3 Lewis Hudson ©, 4 Tate Campbell (21 Dylan Mitchell, 75), 5 Matt Preston (17 Adam Rooney, 90+ 2), 6 Lawson D’ath, 8 Alex Babos, 9 Jason Cowley, 10 Andy Williams (16 Ahkeem Rose, 70), 27 Sammy Robinson (11 Jaiden White, 75), 28 Kyle Howkins, 30 Ryan Bartley. 

Subs not used: 22 Declan McGlynn. 

Referee: Mr Neil Pratt

Assistant Referees: Mr Martin Beard & Mr Reece Davies

Fourth Official: Mr Simon Kavanagh

Brakes Man of the Match: Callum Hawkins.