Vanarama National League North
Your Co-op Community Stadium
Saturday 2nd April 2022

With a tired squad shorn of key players slipping to their third consecutive 1-0 defeat in the National League North you could be forgiven for thinking that the season cannot end quickly enough for Leamington.

There are still several games to go, many scheduled in a short space of time as the 2021/22 campaign enters its final month, but the fact that recent games have been decided by such fine margins shows that Paul Holleran’s side are still battling hard for the points available to them.

With the unfortunate news in the week that Kelsey Mooney has become the latest in a string of Brakes players to suffer an ACL injury over the last few years, it was hoped that Dan Turner might have recovered to fill the void in attack, but he was still not quite ready to return, so the evergreen Junior English took the striker’s role in the starting eleven. After missing the trip to York, Steph Morley was fit enough to return.

There was a minute’s applause before kick off for Tom Rankin, the former Brakes player who sadly passed away in the week aged just 26.

Visitors Darlington arrived in Warwickshire with their tails up and in pursuit of a place in the play offs having enjoyed a recent surge up the table. They only required a single goal from this contest to go level on points with Southport; meaning that the chase for places in the end of season lottery is well and truly hotting up.

It is fair to say that this game was never in any danger of reaching boiling point, although the Brakes support did become a little irate at what appeared to be a couple of harsh bookings in the second half, but that was about as rowdy as it got.

The visitors began the game brightly; Kevin Dos Santos firing an early chance well over the bar, while Junior Mondal turned sharply but could only shoot straight at Callum Hawkins in the Leamington goal.

Jack Edwards’ header from Joe Parker’s right wing cross was the only effort on goal Brakes could muster in a disappointing first 45 minutes. They came to life slightly before half time when a dangerous Parker cross was headed behind, and then English got in behind the Quakers defence thanks to a loose back pass, but with nobody quick enough to get up and support him the chance was quickly gone.

Mercifully there was more in the way of entertainment in the second half. Leamington attacked straight from the restart, and Edwards found some space inside the box on the right to fire towards the near post from a tight angle, but keeper Tommy Taylor got down well to block.

Darlington countered from this and a dangerous looking cross from the left was headed away from goal.

Mondal came close when his well struck half volley bounced past the upright, but he was the man who broke the deadlock on 55 minutes when he was played in by a smart pass from Jack Lambert to finish neatly past Hawkins.

Parker was doing his best to supply the ball from wide positions, and spun a cross into the box that Taylor claimed under his crossbar.

The Darlo keeper was well beaten when Dan Meredith tried his luck from fully 30 yards, but his rocket of a strike cannonned back off the bar.

Morley fired a free kick over the bar after Joe Clarke had been fouled just outside the box, while Adam Walker crashed a powerful effort just over as Darlington struggled to clear their lines.

Jack Lane had the final chance of the afternoon in the closing stages as he tried to direct a low header inside the far post but unfortunately he was only able to find the side netting.

 ‘The goal was one of the few moments of quality in the game I think,’ said Paul Holleran afterwards. ‘I think structurally that was one of the few moments where we left the middle of the park. Their front four do really well - I think Lambert has come off their left hand side; spun, and dragged us around a little bit. It was a good quality ball and a good finish. That moment was a good moment for them - a good goal. I think if we could go back to that moment now, one of our three midfield players needs to be in that area, or when we go in with Lambert we need to go tighter really, but the execution was excellent from them, on this surface, to be fair. 

‘I thought the first half belonged to Darlington - I think the conditions favoured them, probably. We got a grip of the game in the last ten-fifteen minutes of the first half and started to find our way into it; against a good side. Second half we couldn’t have done a lot more. Listen, it’s obvious we need to be better in the final third. It’s one of those days where you hope that something might drop.

‘On a day when their bit of quality has hit the net our bit of quality has hit the bar. The players give so much, as a group. We’ve got plenty of excuses if you want excuses, but they’re such an honest bunch and they’ve gone toe to toe today, and were probably the better side for long periods second half, and deserved something out of the game, but at the moment, similar to at Farsley really, we’re not getting what we deserve. The players' levels and character is unquestionable. Hopefully during the run in we can start turning some of these gritty performances into points.’

Addressing the tribute prior to kick off for former player Tom Rankin, Paul said ‘There was an impeccable minute’s applause from Darlington and Leamington fans today for Tom Rankin. Tom linked up with us four or five seasons ago; did pre season and started the season with us. He’s somebody that I have kept in touch with a bit, because he had that effect on you. He was a good kid, and had a good grounding. You always get those players that come along over the years, that have very supportive families. Even though Tom was only with us for a short time his father Bobby, who was a good player himself, was there all through pre season. Tom was only young at the time - he had just come back from America. He had a little spell with us and I arranged for him to link up with Bromsgrove after that.

‘The news filtered through last weekend about Tom’s passing. I had only spoken to him a couple of weeks before. We caught up about a number of things, one being Charlie Williams because he had been on loan at Redditch, so we had a bit of a catch up. I’d been and watched Tom a couple of times at Redditch, so when the news filtered through, it was devastating really. I knew from his time with us what a close unit his family was. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and close friends. Knowing a lot of people at Redditch and Bromsgrove, I know how much it has shaken them.

‘At times like this I think people need to take a step back and make sure that their families and friends are ok. It’s a difficult moment.’

Attendance: 573

Leamington: Callum Hawkins, Dan Meredith, Stephan Morley, Joe Clarke (12 Callum Gittings, 82), James Mace, Jack Lane, Joe Parker (14 Charlie Williams, 78), Adam Walker, Junior English, Jack Edwards ©, Devon Kelly-Evans.

Subs not used: GK Jake Weaver, 15 Melis Bushaj, 16 Connor Taylor.

Darlington: 1 Tommy Taylor, 7 Ben Hedley, 26 Callum Griffiths (3 ? Smith, 90), 12 Danny Ellis, 20 Jake Lawler, 30 Danny Rose ( 23 Alex Purver, 33), 16 Adriano Moke, 19 Kevin Dos Santos, 10 Junior Mondal, 17 Jack Lambert (45 Nathan Lowe, 71), 18 Jake Cassidy .

Subs not used: 6 Alex Storey,29 Dominic McHale.

Referee: Mr Jamie O’Connor

Assistant Referees: Mr Harry Tarrant & Mr Niall Smith

Brakes Man of the Match: Adam Walker.