Vanarama National League North
Your Co-op Community Stadium
Saturday 8th October 2022

By Paul Edwards 

Brakes welcomed Alfreton Town to Harbury Lane as they bid to get back to winning ways in the National League North.

Stephan Morley made his first start of the season in the only change to the starting eleven, with Louis Hall moving further up the pitch and Devon Kelly-Evans dropping to the bench.

This being a clash between two of the more physical and direct sides in the division, it was never likely to be easy on the eye, but as always with teams managed by Paul Holleran and Billy Heath a full bloodied contest with both sides giving 100% was always guaranteed.

Brakes conceded the first corner of the afternoon two minutes in from a long throw by Adam Lund, attempting a training ground routine move short to Danny Preston, whose attempted cross was put behind.

The early momentum was all with the visitors, another long throw from Lund was met by a first time effort from Dwayne Wiley that never troubled Callum Hawkins.

There was concern among the home support when Tom Hewlett went down after a heavy looking collision in the centre circle. He continued after treatment from Pete Denham, but having soldiered on after receiving more treatment later on he was finally forced off five minutes before half time to be replaced by Connor Taylor. The striker, who took a seat in the stand with his family in the second half, said that he had overstretched his hamstring slightly going in for the challenge, but felt he would be ok with a week until the next game.

Hall was able to stretch his legs down the left just before the quarter hour, his low cross leading to a brief scramble before the ball was cleared, but moments later Leamington were gifted the lead thanks to a moment that Reds keeper George Willis will want to forget. He appeared the have the situation under control, but inexplicably allowed the ball a little too far away from his body, giving Ben Usher-Shipway the opportunity to pick up the ball and put the keeper on his backside before getting as close as he could to goal and slotting home his first for the club despite the attentions of a defender on the line.

Bailey Hobson, so often Brakes’ nemesis last season with four goals in three games, displayed some neat footwork on the edge of the box before sending a rising drive over the crossbar as Alfreton attempted to hit back immediately.

The propelled missiles from Lund kept coming, keeping Leamington fully on their toes in their own penalty area. Towards half time another from close to the touchline on the left was flicked on by Matt Rhead to Dom Smith, who chested it towards goal, with Simeon Maye clearing his lines.

Leamington somehow reached half time with two bookings despite there not having been a bad challenge in the game. Perhaps unsurprisingly it was the wily experienced campaigner Rhead who was the opposing player involved on both occasions, as Jack Lane and Adam Walker were the unfortunate players who had their names taken. Walkers’ caution led to a free kick in a dangerous looking position on the edge of the box, but when the initial kick struck the defensive wall an attempted shot from the loose ball dribbled tamely through to Hawkins.

The striker evidently said something out of turn in added time as his name was also taken by Referee Darren Rogers, which brought applause and loud cheers of derision from the Brakes support.

Louis Hall’s left wing cross drifted just over the bar in the early moments of the second half, but Alfreton were level on 52 minutes when Wiley crashed in a first time strike from 20 yards that flew past Hawkins before he had chance to move.

The momentum was clearly with the visitors now, and Dayle Southwell almost scored with practically his first touch of the game when he connected with a low left wing cross from Danny Preston only to be denied by a fabulous one handed save from Hawkins at the expense of a corner, which Rhead glanced wide.

Hall and Jack Edwards smashed heads when going for an aerial ball some 25 yards from the Alfreton goal; the defender coming off worse and requiring a head bandage before being substituted as a precaution.

With twenty minutes remaining the game swung firmly in the visitors favour. Wills saved a tremendous first time drive from Edwards from distance before the visitors broke forward, and when Morley’s attempted header clear struck Hobson, who ran in and drove low beyond Hawkins to put Alfreton in front.

Within 60 seconds Leamington lost Edwards to a straight red card as the Referee adjudged he had used an elbow on Wiley as the two players rose for the ball.

He was followed for an early shower by Rhead six minutes later after the striker left Morley in a heap. The striker clearly did not agree with the decision as he hurled the captain’s armband to the turf.

Substitute Joe Clarke ballooned a shot into the field behind the North Bank as Leamington searched for a leveller, but they were being frustrated at every turn, with play being broken up by regular stoppages.

Their misery was compounded when the Referee brandished a second yellow, then a red card for Lane during the seven minutes of added time for apparently blocking the taking of a goal kick.

The manager struggled to hide his disappointment after the game, saying ‘It was a bitterly disappointing second half, similar to last week really. We didn’t back up a good first half performance and in the end we’ve been naive, structurally poor and have displayed poor discipline as well. It’s probably the first time in a long long time that I can say that the group have let themselves down, they’ve let us down and they’ve let the club and the supporters down in the second half. There’s no getting away from it, it was an ill disciplined weak performance.

‘Alfreton are a very good side at this level and they’re very effective. They’ve got various ways of playing. It’s very important that you have to defend your box well. We’ve done that in the first half but we let them back in the game from a long throw, so we’re bitterly disappointed with the first goal because we haven’t shown enough determination or reaction in our box. They’re playing keep ball in our box. And it’s another mistake on our second goal. In the first half we won our fair share of individual battles, duels and areas. That’s what you have to do against Alfreton. It was competitive - I was hoping we’d go on a bit but sadly we’ve gone the other way.

‘What they do, Alfreton, is they build pressure by constantly putting the ball into your box. Matt Rhead is very cute with the way he stops you trying to make contact with the ball - he’s absolutely ran the game today. There've been some really good performances here this year but I’m not looking forward to watching that one back. With the two red cards as well it hasn’t been a good couple of weeks for us.

‘It’s a relentless division. Every game is tough and asks a lot of questions of you, and we haven’t found enough answers today. I’m not going to go on about the Referee or their tactics. Our structure, our shape, our naivety in the second half is bitterly disappointing. We’ve got to regroup. We’ve got a tough run of games coming up now and we’ve just got to get going again.’

Attendance: 523

Leamington: Callum Hawkins, Dan Meredith, Stephan Morley, Simeon Maye (14 Joe Clarke, 81), Theo Streete, Jack Lane, Ben Usher-Shipway, Adam Walker, Tom Hewlett (16 Connor Taylor, 40), Jack Edwards ©, Louis Hall (12 Devon Kelly-Evans, 67).

Subs not used: 15 Kieran Cook, 17 James Mace.

Alfreton Town: George Willis, Josh Clackstone, George Cantrill, Ahmed Salam (15 Dayle Southwell, 53), Dom Smith, Dwayne Wiley (12 Luke Ward ,77), Fraser Preston, Adam Lund, Matt Rhead ©, Danny Preston, Bailey Hobson.

Subs not used: 14 Conor Branson, 16 Lewis Whitham, 17 Jake Askew.

Referee: Mr Darren Rogers

Assistant Referees: Mr Branon Scaife & Mr Tarrant

Brakes Man of the Match: Ben Usher-Shipway.