Report

Vanarama National League North
Phillips 66 Community Stadium
Saturday 14th September 2019

Just two games into September and the relative joys of August seem little more than a distant memory as Brakes crashed to a second heavy defeat in succession, but the outcome of this contest could have had a different look had they been able to take advantage of a positive start to the afternoon with a first half display that Paul Holleran said was up there with the best in his time at the club.

It was a difficult one to fathom after they had started the afternoon in such bright fashion, but ultimately newly promoted Farsley Celtic are bubbling along nicely and executed what by full time was a thoroughly professional away performance, and were deserved victors.

Holleran was able to name largely the same squad from the previous Saturday’s afternoon to forget at Altrincham, the only alterations seeing Jamie Hood slot into central defence while Jack Lane moved to the left, Cieron Keane dropping to the bench where Tom James was also named for the first time this season, though unfortunately Jordan Murphy was unavailable due to injury and Junior English was ruled out through illness.

What was most evident in the early stages was that Leamington looked to have shaken off their hangover from the Alty defeat, as both sides set out their stall to attack.

Kaiman Anderson was unfortunate not to open the scoring twice as the opening five minutes or so produced a plethora of chances. Josh March got in behind the visiting defence on the right and drove the ball into the six yard box, Anderson turning well and digging out the shot, only for keeper Kyle Trenerry to save, the ball cleared off the line from the follow up. He was then the beneficiary of more good work by March on the right, Anderson denied by Trenerry once more before Tom Allen broke from his own box and covered almost the length of the pitch to help engineer a chance for Luke Parkin, whose well struck effort was well saved by the left hand of Jake Weaver. The goalkeeper saved twice more from the corner as Allen powered in a header and James Spencer smashed the loose ball straight at him.

After a brief break in play as a player from either side went down with a head injury Leamington were back on the front foot once more, a slick move ending with March centering for Edwards to find the net with a first time effort, only to be denied by an offside flag.

It was certainly a very open contest but Brakes were cranking up the heat on their visitors, Dunabr winning a right wing corner from which Edwards thumped a header towards goal only to be denied by a fantastic fingertip save from Trenerry to help the ball onto the crossbar.. The midfield general went close again as Anderson laid the ball back to him on the edge of the box, his powerful drive deflected over the bar.

Ben Atkinson drove a cross-shot wide of the far post but Leamington were so so close once more as Edwards headed March clean through, the striker outpacing his marker before beating Trenerry with his low shot but also the upright, from which to the goalkeepers bemusement a corner was awarded.

Brakes may well have been frustrated that they hadn’t been able to convert their pressure into goals but there was no doubting that this Farsley side presented a big threat of their own when moving forward, and the Leamington defence were kept fully on their toes as the visitors looked to capitalise, and they did just that eight minutes before half time as Holleran’s side found themselves behind at home for the first time this season.

Good play down the right from Jordan Richards saw the ball played in low to Tyler Walton, who in turn found Spencer to drive the ball low beyond Weaver into the net for the opening goal of the afternoon.

There would no doubt have been frustration in the dressing room at half time but Leamington came out determined to remedy the situation, Dunbar forcing a save from Trenerry as he managed to get a shot away in a congested penalty area. George Carline drove the ball back in powerfully and it just evaded Anderson at the far post. Jack Edwards also found the arms of the goalkeeper as Brakes won the ball just inside the Farsley half and drove forward once more.

They found themselves two goals down ten minutes into the second half however as they failed to get the ball clear from their penalty area and Adam Clayton stuck out a boot to divert Allen’s shot into the bottom corner with Weaver stranded on the other side of his goal.

It was almost three when Luke Walton cut out James Mace’s pass on the edge of his own penalty area and fed Spencer for a shot that Weaver did superbly to block with his outstretched leg.

Holleran had thrown on Ravi Shamsi with over half an hour remaining, and his attempted high cross into the box was helped onto the bar by Trenerry, a goal kick being awarded.

The game was out of reach for Leamington with little over fifteen minutes remaining when Spencer played substitute Nathan Cartman, who had been on the pitch less than three minutes, through on goal, and he calmly rolled the ball past the advancing Weaver.

Frustration reigned around the ground for those in Gold and Black, Shamsi firing across goal with no support forthcoming, but there was to be no consolation for Leamington on an afternoon that had started with such promise.

Attendance: 465

Leamington: Jake Weaver, George Carline, Jack Lane, Joe Clarke, Jamie Hood ©, James Mace, Kieran Dunbar (14 Cieron Keane, 65), Callum Gittings, Josh March, Jack Edwards (15 Gift Mussa, 70), Kaiman Anderson (12 Ravi Shamsi, 57).

Subs not used: 16 Connor Taylor, 17 Tom James

Farsley Celtic: Kyle Trennery, Jordan Richards, Thomas Allen, Jack Higgins (14 William Hayhurst, 72), Daniel Ellis ©, Adam Clayton, Ben Atkinson, Christopher Atkinson, James Spencer, Luke Parkin (12 Nathan Cartman, 72), Tyler Walton (15 Isaac Baldwin, 84).

Subs not used: 13 Elliott Wynne, 16 Mark Bett.

Referee: Mr Dale Baines

Assistant Referees: Mr Mark Ryder & Mr Mark Billingham

Brakes Man of the Match: Joe Clarke.

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Paul Holleran’s Reaction

‘You’ve probably seen two sides of it - you’ve seen a first half performance that resembled what we’ve been trying to do in training this week to get a reaction from Altrincham and it was really crisp and smooth. I wouldn’t like to say - we’ve probably had five, six golden opportunities, and there’s some really good goalkeeping in there and a bit of woodwork in there, but when you’re playing a team like Farsley with the quality they’ve got, you know that in those spells you’ve to punish them because goals change games. They change the whole mindset, the mental state of the game, the emotional state of the game, and if you don’t take those chances you let them off the hook, and then towards the end of the first half I think we got a little carried away because we were so on top in terms of possession…. we’ve committed so many men forward in that situation where I think Gitto is in the corner, it was a poor cross in and their keeper was alive and alert and they’ve gone bang - bang, two balls, both with distance, with pace and with quality and they’ve torn us wide open, so I think we can do better there in terms of slowing it down a little bit and our shape. So to come in 1-0 down after probably one of the most positive 45 minutes here in my time or in a long time at the club, was disappointing, and the second half I think you’ve seen a side full of experience and quality, they’ve been let off the hook, and they took full advantage of it.

‘I think when we look back at the three goals the fact that their goalkeeper’s got it and it’s in our net ten seconds later, the fact that for the second goal we’re that deep, we’ve cleared our lines we’re not getting in… their nine has absolutely ran us ragged today. We’re at sixes and sevens, it’s a poor goal. And then the third goal we’re stepping up for an offside that we shouldn’t be doing - we don’t do that. It was the easy thing to do, the lazy thing to do. It could have been offside to be fair but the decision hasn’t gone our way, but when you’re that far away from your goal you just track the runner, it’s that simple. So we’ve made poor decisions, emotionally it’s probably affected us. We’ve had a tough week after last Saturday, Connor’s ACL, Jordan Murphy is probably out for six to eight weeks, we lost Junior on Thursday night with an illness. It’s been a testing week for us and I think to be fair to the players they really came out and responded from last weeks result and really got on the front foot, and if we’d taken 50 percent of our decent chances we’d be having a different conversation now. The reality is we haven’t done that and Farsley are good enough and clinical enough to finish us, and in the end they were worthy winners. So yes, it could have been a completely different day, but this is what this league does to you. At the present moment in time, this last seven days, this league is asking a lot questions of us. I’ve just said to the players - individually and collectively it’s asking questions of us, and we’ve got to find the answers. Obviously losing a couple of players we’ve got to look at that, but individually we’ve got to do better. I’m sure we will, but yeah, it was a strange day. To play so well in the early periods of the game and to create so many chances and have nothing to show for it is disappointing, but this is where we are and it’s happened for a reason. We weren’t good enough in their box, and we weren’t good enough in our box to be bluntly honest.’