Vanarama National League North
Nethermoor Park
Saturday 7th March 2020

Goals either side of half time provided the catalyst for Guiseley to go on and record a comfortable win over Leamington, as their recent mini revival came to a halt at Nethermoor Park.

With half time approaching Brakes looked to be heading in level but a last gasp goal from Andrai Jones proved to be the turning point, and they finished the afternoon well beaten.

Paul Holleran made two changes from the side which started Tuesday’s creditable draw against title chasing King’s Lynn Town, Jake Weaver stepping back into the number one position while Kaiman Anderson replaced Dexter Walters.

There was an early setbback for Leamington when they lost the services of James Mace inside the opening ten minutes. Jack Lane miscued his attempted shot from the first corner of the afternoon and the home side broke out swiftly. Mace’s challenge held them up temporarily but he collapsed to the turf clutching his knee. After being looked at by physio Pete Denham he was able to walk from the pitch unaided but was immediately replaced by Dan Meredith. The manager reported afterwards that they believed he had twisted his knee, but it was too early to determine whether he had sustained any ligament damage or not.

Jake Weaver made the first save of the afternoon when he held the ball at close range as Chris Sang directed it towards goal from Guiseley’s opening corner of the afternoon.

The closest Brakes came during the half was from a corner won by a inventive piece of play on the right from Anderson, who backheeled the ball over his head to beat Brad Nicholson, Lions skipper Hamza Bencherif putting the ball behind. From the flag kick Jack Storer rose well to head just over the bar.

Nicholson intercepted a pass out of defence to swing a left wing cross in for Gabriel Johnson to direct a header well wide of the target.

The game continued to be very stop start, the home fans becoming irate as Nicholson and Andrai Jones both went into the Referees’ notebook while other challenges went unpunished, something which seemed to annoy Storer, who was perhaps fortunate not join them as tempers began to flare a little before half time.

A sturdy enough defensive dispaly was ruined right on half time however when Jones rose bravely in front of Weaver to meet Johnson’s swirling first time ball in from the left, taking a clattering from the goalkeeper for his trouble. Weaver was incandesant with his defenders, clearly believing they should have dealt with the cross.

Although the team emerged early from the dressing room they began the second half like they were still in there, and paid the ultimate price five minutes in as former Brakes midfielder Kaine Felix scored a stylish second for the hosts. Prince Ekpolo drove down the right wing before feeding Felix to drive a powerful shot across Weaver into the far corner of the net.

Leamington struggled to shake themsleves out of their pedestrian start to the second half, Guiseley looking threatening every time they regained possession. Weaver did well to cut out a low cross towards Felix from Sang as the hosts broke quickly down the right from a Leamington corner.

Just past the hour mark Leamington forged their best efforts on goal of the afternoon. Anderson played Parker in for a fierce low drive which was saved by the legs of Brad Wade. The Guiseley keeper was beaten moments later however when the same two players combined again, but this time Parker’s shot struck the post.

Brakes picked up three cautions as they began to become frustrated, and skipper Edwards spurned a chance that summed up their afternoon as with the goal apparently at his mercy as he rose at the far post to meet Joe Clarke’s free kick only to head horribly wide.

Weaver kept the score down as Felix got past Martin, who being on a yellow card wisely opted not to try and challenge the Guiseley man, who tore towards goal and tried to clip the ball past the keeper, only to be denied by an outstretched glove.

Reiss McNally made an important block to deny Parker as he looked to despatch a knock down from Edwards from Meredith’s cross, and late on substitute Connor Taylor cut in from the right only to hit a shot on target that lacked the power to trouble Wade.

Guiseley hammered the final nail in added time as Jamie Spencer won and scored a penalty, sending Weaver the wrong way to complete a miserable afternoon for Leamington.

Paul Holleran’s Reaction

Obviously we’re very disappointed with the result. It was a lively pitch, the wind was blowing, it was a bit like playing at our place. Not much happened in the first half, we looked nice and solid and then we’re 48 minutes into the half - we’ve probably had at least two chances to clear our lines and we haven’t. It’s a decent ball in and I think we’ve come out of our box a bit slowly, but it’s a ball we should have dealt with and we’re 1-0 down probably slightly against the run of play, and then it’s taken us five minutes to get going in the second half and to be honest, certainly in the middle of the park, we looked leggy. There was periods of the game today where they just had more energy than us. Don’t get me wrong, we had spells, we had moments, we had several chances to get one back. It was never going to be a spectacle with the conditions today but you defend better either side of half time and you never know what might happen. It’s disappointing after two encouraging performances. We just looked a bit flat.’

Attendance: 584

Guiseley: Brad Wade, Reiss McNally, Brad Nicholson, Andrai Jones, Hamza Bencherif ©, Prince Ekpolo, Kaine Felix, George Cantrill, Chris Sang (17 Scott Smith, 68), Aram Soleman (16 Jamie Spencer, 79), Gabriel Johnson.

Subs not used: 12 Harry Sheppeard, 14 Paul Clayton, 15 Kennedy Digie..

Leamington: Jake Weaver, Josh Martin, Stephan Morley, Joe Clarke (12 Callum Gittings, 81), James Mace (14 Dan Meredith, 8), Jack Lane, Kaiman Anderson, Callum Maycock (15 Connor Taylor, 82), Jack Storer, Jack Edwards ©, Joe Parker.

Subs not used: 16 Junior English, 17 Dexter Walters.

Referee: Mr Jonny Martin

Assistant Referees: Mr Martin Conroy & Mr Craig Chatten

Brakes Man of the Match: Joe Parker.