Report
Pitching In Southern League Premier Division Central
Your Co-op Community Stadium
Saturday 28th October 2023
A betting man would have most likely put money on this clash ending in stalemate before kick off, and so it proved, with two sides still finding their feet at a new level taking a point to keep them up and around the pack still chasing Mickleover at the top of the Southern League Central Division.
The visitors will probably feel aggrieved at not having seen the game out however, as they were comfortably dealing with whatever Leamington threw at them until the award of a 79th minute penalty saw the scoreline evened up.
Paul Holleran stuck with an unchanged starting eleven from Tuesday’s victory over Stourbridge, with visiting manager Kevin Wilkin following suit after the Bucks defeat of Alvechurch.
Telford opened the scoring on 11 minutes when Dan Meredith’s heavy touch inside his own penalty area, and Byron Moore pounced to slam a low first time drive beyond the diving Callum Hawkins into the far corner.
Meredith almost played his team into trouble again in what was an incredibly scrappy opening to the game when his loose pass was collected by Montel Gibson, whose attempted strike at goal hit the arm of Jack Lane, who was rather harshly booked, to give Telford a free kick in a dangerous position central to goal just outside the box, but Reece Styche struck it just wide.
Sam Whittall picked up the ball just inside the Leamington half as birthday boy Tyrone Barnett’s audacious attempt to control a clearance went wrong, and the Bucks’ recent signing from Rushall powered through the middle to thump a shot well over the bar.
Brakes were simply unable to build up a sustained spell on the ball, which was treated like a hot potato as it spent very little time with either side.
There were futile screams from the home bench as Barnett appeared to be pulled back as he tried to win the ball from a free kick at the far post inside the Telford area, but there were none from the player as he picked himself up and carried on.
Leamington were starting to win free kicks inside the visitors half now, and Nathan Fox picked up a booking for a foul on Barnett midway through the Telford half, but the dead ball came to nothing.
Remi Walker, son of former Brakes defender Simon, was the standout player for the visitors, and set up another opportunity as he danced past a couple of challenges before finding Styche, whose powerful drive took the slightest touch on the way through to whistle past the far post for a corner, which was eventually helped onto the roof of the net by a Telford man.
In a game that had hardly seen a bad challenge up to this point, Josh Quaynor received a booking for conceding another free kick.
The left back registered Leamington’s first effort on goal a few minutes before half time as he picked up possession from a loose ball into the middle some 25 yards from goal, taking a touch before unleashing a piledriver that was met with a flying save from Brandon Hall.
Barnett saw his header cleared off the line by Ellis Myles before the clearance out of defence saw Ricardo Dinanga tearing through on goal with just Hawkins to beat, but he dragged a fine chance for Telford to go in two goals ahead wide of the far post. Before the half time whistle there were further efforts for Gibson, who turned to lift a shot high over the bar, and Dinanga, who sent a low strike into the arms of Hawkins.
There was a lively start to the second half, with Brakes no doubt having received a rocket from the manager for a rather lacklustre opening 45 minutes. They saw a shot blocked before Telford forced a good save from Hawkins from Styche’s shot. Orrin Pendley then headed just wide from a recycled right wing corner.
Gibson levelled up the yellow card count at 2-2 when he did no more than use his arms to try and make space for himself as he battled for the ball with Lane and Theo Streete on the edge of the box.
A loose header back towards goal almost presented Gibson with another opportunity, but after twisting and turning his shot was well blocked before it could reach goal.
The game had opened up in the second half but Leamington still seemed to be lacking some kind of spark. However, they were handed the chance to get back into the game with little over ten minutes remaining when Whittall was rather harshly adjudged to have fouled Cally Stewart in the box, almost on the touchine. The young striker had done superbly to get himself between ball and man, but it was the kind of decision that would have infuriated either sets of supporters.
Stewart picked himself up to send Hall the wrong way from 12 yards to bag his fifth goal of the season and set up a rousing finale.
A soft corner conceded by Telford saw Ewan Williams rise highest to power a header just wide, and the closing stages were frantic, as both sides tried to hang on to what they had whilst attempting to forge that one final chance that might lead to a late winner, but the game petered out into the inevitable draw between these two sides - the fifth in the last six meetings in Warwickshire.
Attendance: 628
Leamington: Callum Hawkins, Dan Meredith, Josh Quaynor, Ewan Williams (16 Junior English 90), Theo Streete, Jack Lane, Henry Landers, Adam Walker, Jack Edwards (15 Will Shorrock, 73), Tyrone Barnett (12 Joe Clarke, 73), Callum Stewart.
Subs not used: 14 Jiah Medrano, 17 Dan Baldwin.
AFC Telford United: 1 Brandon Hall, 2 Ellis Myles-Tebbutt, 3 Nathan Fox, 4 Jordan Piggott, 5 Orrin Pendley, 6 Sam Whittall, 7 Ricardo Dinanga, 9 Montel Gibson, 10 Remi Walker, 11 Byron Moore,18 Reece Styche (14 Ty Webster, 78).
Subs not used: 12 Jared Hodgkiss, 15 Steffan Jones, 16 Tre Mitford, 8 George Forsyth.
Referee: Mr Elliott Hardell
Assistant Referees: Mr Ian Butler & Mr Matthew Broadhurst
Brakes Man of the Match: Adam Walker.
