Vanarama National League North
Victory Park
Tuesday 12th January 2021

After losing their top scorer and talisman part way through the season for the second year running, Brakes fans could have been forgiven for wondering what life after Sam Osborne was going to be like. They needn’t have worried. A maiden goal in Leamington colours for Taylor Allen along with a debut goal off the substitutes bench for Dan Turner little over 24 hours after signing for the club earned a battling away win at the Victory Park home of Chorley.

There was certainly no evidence of any hangover from Saturday’s latest slaying against Derby County, as despite going behind early on Jamie Vermiglio’s side fought back to largely boss the first half, but the interval gave Paul Holleran the chance to get his views across, and Brakes emerged a different animal, giving their opponents less time on the ball, pushing forward far more than they had done in the opening 45 minutes, edging their way to a fine three points on the road.

The hosts forced the opening shot of the evening within thirty seconds of the first blast of Referee Richard Aspinall’s whistle, a smart move allowing Andy Owens to drive a low 20 yarder into the arms of Jake Weaver.

The confidence in the passing of the home side was evident in the opening exchanges but they were rocked back on their heels as Leamington opened the scoring with their first attack of the game on six minutes. Kaiman Anderson chased a high ball forward into space down the left, picking up possession and driving towards the box. His initial cross found Danny Waldron, and Matt Urwin did well to block his shot at the near post, but Anderson delivered his next touch into the centre, where Allen was lurking to tuck the ball home from close range, the Forest Green Rovers loanee’s first goal for the club.

The home side levelled things up on seventeen minutes with what was a disappointing goal to concede from a Brakes perspective. Ollie Shenton’s strike from just outside the box was well struck, but Weaver was unable to prevent it from entering the net.

This clearly galvanised the Magpies once more, and they began to dominate possession; with a clearly frustrated Paul Holleran frantically screaming instructions to his players as they looked to contain them.

Chorley moved the ball around very quickly with precise passing, and Lewis Reilly was able to exchange passes with Elliot Newvby, turn and fire in a strike that Weaver held well.

The manager clearly had much he wanted to get across to his players at half time, and the result was a far more even contest, Leamington getting about their hosts far more and giving them far more to think about.

Good pressing from Simeon Maye saw him rob a defender mid-way through the Chorley half and slide a pass forward for Allen to run on to, the youngsters’ shot had the sting taken out of it however and proved straightforward for Urwin. Anderson then headed wide as Edwards nodded a free kick on to him inside the penalty area.

Dan Turner was introduced for his debut with little over 15 minutes remaining, and quickly got involved, beating his man on the left before driving a shot across goal.

The new boy did not waste any time in making a further contribution, winning a penalty with nine minutes remaining by doing superbly to get goal side of Adam Henley, who brought him down. Having won the opportunity, Turner stepped up to drill powerfully beyond the dive of Urwin into the net.

The former Port Vale youngster showed plenty in his brief appearance to suggest that he is more than capable of making a big contribution to this Leamington team, taking on and beating his man down the right before exchanging passes with Edwards and setting up Allen, who drove his shot over the bar.

Chorley had barely threatened Weaver’s goal in the second half but had two chances to snatch something from the game late on. Substitute Sean Miller was just unable to get a telling touch as the ball reached him at the far post with the Brakes defence at sixes and sevens, before fellow sub Arlen Birch set up Newby for a powerful shot that Weaver get right behind but still required Josh Martin to clear away from goal as the ball squirmed towards the line.

Brakes intelligently saw out time on what had been a tetchy and at times scrappy second half to celebrate a win that extends their presence in the top half of the National League North.

Manager’s Reaction

‘If you’re coming to Chorley on a Tuesday night any time over the last decade you’ve got to be strong, well organised. We’ve had some great battles with Chorley over the years, and they’ve usually come out on top at their place. We sort of knew what was coming, but while I certainly wouldn’t knock our work ethic I think there was an element of us not being smart enough in the first half. They were a lot smarter than us; their system got on top of the game but we hung in there, got some good blocks in, worked hard. I thought in the second half we got a lot more compact throughout the game, managed to get to their midfield players, and take their deep lying midfielder out of the game a bit, and then we started to stretch them, we started to get the ball wide, and started to stretch them, and the game has spun around a little bit.

‘Our work ethic was fantastic. We’ve defended our box well. I’d probably say Chorley are the best side from dead balls in the division in terms of how they mix it up, their movement and the different rotations to set plays that they’ve got - I thought we concentrated well and did well with that. There were some fantastic individual performances. You probably couldn’t write it could you really - we’ve managed to help a young lad’s dreams come true by helping him back into professional football, then we’ve picked up another young lad that has got the right credentials to do well, and I think we all saw in the twenty minutes he was on that he gives us a different dimension, and I think possibly, as hard working and as organised as we were, we probably just lacked that little bit of something that he added when he came on.

‘He’s had a similar journey to a lot of lads we’ve had here, and it shows a lot of character and belief because you can get a few knocks along the way. We’re really looking forward to working with Dan. It’s a great start for him, but that’s all it is. It’s great Tuesday night for us again against a really really good side. You’ve got to enjoy the moment - one defeat in 15 games is a fantastic effort. The players and staff deserve massive credit because this is a really tough league to do that in.’

Chorley: 1 Matt Urwin, 3 Harvey Smith (20 Sewa Marah, 87), 5 Scot Leather ©, 6 Lewis Baines (2 Arlen Birch, 82), 8 Mike Calveley, 10 Lewis Reilly, 11 Elliot Newby, 12 Will Tomlinson, 13 Ollie Shenton (7 Sean Miller, 82), 14 Adam Henley, 18 Andy Owens.

Subs not used: 4 Andy Halls, 9 Harry Cardwell.

Leamington: Jake Weaver, Josh Martin, Stephan Morley, Joe Clarke, Kyle Morrison, Jack Lane, Taylor Allen, Simeon Maye (14 Callum Gittings, 90), Kaiman Anderson (15 Dan Turner, 73), Jack Edwards ©, Danny Waldron (12 Dan Meredith, 89).

Subs not used: 16 Connor Taylor, 17 Junior English.

Referee: Mr Richard Aspinall

Assistant Referees: Mr Luis Griffiths & Mr Abid Hussain

Brakes Man of the Match: Kyle Morrison.

Photos: Stefan Willougby