Report

What a difference a week makes in football. What was talked about as a potentially season defining seven days for Brakes ended with a win and two very disappointing defeats, as a well drilled and confident Peterborough Sports outfit enjoyed their first visit to this corner of Warwickshire as they earned a deserved and comfortable win against a lacklustre Leamington.

Paul Holleran reverted back to the eleven that had started the in the FA Trophy against Bishops Stortford the previous Saturday, while welcoming back loanee Charlie Williams to the squad. New loan signing Liam Cross also took his place on the substitutes bench.

The visitors saw an early header from the first corner of the afternoon go well wide from Connor Johnson, but other than that there was very little of note until just prior to the half hour mark, when Josh McCammon almost got the wrong side of Jack Lane to latch onto a ball forward, but the centre back did enough to put him off and he scuffed his shot wide.

Brakes got their first sight of goal shortly afterwards when a shot was blocked following a right wing corner. The penalty area was so congested that two follow up efforts stood very little hope of getting through to Peter Crook in the Turbines’ goal, and Rackeem Reid eventually fired well over.

The visitors hit back immediately, and Maniche Sari was just beaten to a through ball by Callum Hawkins. McCammon’s vicious drive five minutes before half time was blocked at source by Theo Streete. Sani’s header was then deflected over the bar from the resulting corner.

Just when it looked like the two sides would go in goalless at the break a moment of quality lit up a gloomy afternoon courtesy of McCammon, who twisted onto his left boot as he received the ball just outside the penalty area before rifling a fine strike beyond the dive of Hawkins.

Brakes emerged with more purpose and forced a couple of early corners, the second of which was whipped just past the far post by Devon Kelly-Evans.

Their task soon became even harder however as the visitors doubled their advantage. Dan Jarvis was afforded time to strike for goal, the ball taking a huge deflection off McCammon to completely wrong foot Hawkins.

Dan Turner saw a shot blocked inside the box as Leamington attempted to hit back, but unlike the visitors they never really looked threatening when going forward. Jarvis was allowed to shoot again as he drove towards goal on the left, but curled his effort wide this time.

Brakes’ best move of the afternoon came from a driving run into unchartered territory by Streete. The ball was then played into the feet of debutant substitute Cross, who cut inside before driving a powerful effort past the left hand post.

As the game moved into its closing stages it began to peter out, with the visitors content to allow Leamington a bit more of the ball, content in the knowledge that they had done the hard work.

The afternoon was summed up as Crook was called upon to make his first save of the afternoon from a well struck low drive from Cross. The Harbury Lane End burst into a chorus of ‘We’ve had a shot.’ Meredith cut in from the right soon afterwards to send a shot horribly wide.

The manager paid credit to the visitors afterwards, saying ‘It was disappointing, as all defeats are, but they (Peterborough Sports) have come into the league and they look like an established National League North side. They play with confidence, they’ve got a lot of good players. We knew exactly what sort of game it would be and it was exactly what we thought it would be. The goal in the 44th minute from our point of view was poor. There was one mistake too many, we’ve dived in all over the place on the edge of the box, and in a cagey game where there was not a lot in it you’ve just got to come in and hope for a period in the second half. There’s ways to play at different times in the game, and that was not the way to play in the 45th minute, the way we did.

‘The bottom line is, from an attacking point of view we’ve not been good enough. We haven’t got our shots off well enough, we haven’t been good enough in the final third; the ball hasn’t stuck enough; and when we have put three or four superb balls in the box we aren’t anticipating, reacting. It was a disappointing, frustrating day. Being bluntly honest there are too many players today, that have been 5 or 6 out of ten, and our knowhow and game management would probably be less than that, and that’s disappointing, because you’re coming to a stage of the season now, coming into December, where there’s going to be a lot of games like this. I think we looked a bit of a soft touch today; fragile. We got involved in things we didn’t need to get involved in, whereas they’ve just come and done a job. It was a good away performance from them and a disappointing home one from us.’

Attendance: 478

Leamington: Callum Hawkins, Dan Meredith, Louis Hall, Simeon Maye, Theo Streete, Jack Lane, Rackeem Reid (14 Liam Cross, 60), Adam Walker (12 Charlie Williams, 78), Dan Turner, Jack Edwards (15 Junior English, 78), Devon Kelly-Evans.

Subs not used: 16 Connor Taylor, 17 Jack Sang.

Peterborough Sports: 1 Peter Crook, 27 Kayden Williams-Lowe, 2 Isiah Bazeley (16 Daniel Jarvis, 32), 4 Ryan Fryatt, 20 Connor Johnson, 6 Daniel Lawlor ©, 7 Dion Semble-Ferris, 17 Connor Kennedy, 10 Maniche Sani (5 Richard Jones, 90), 17 Connor Kennedy, 20 Connor Johnson, 22 Josh McCammon, 23 Michael Gash (9 Mark Jones, 46), 27 Kayden Williams Lowe.

Subs not used: 11 Jordan Nicholson, 45 Nathan Fox.

Referee: Mr Matthew Scholes

Assistant Referees: Mr Callum Gough & Mr Thomas Dickens

Brakes Man of the Match: Theo Streete.