Pitching In Southern League Premier Division
The Zeeco Stadium
Saturday 4th November 2023

Brakes returned from a soggy afternoon in Lincolnshire feeling as though they had lost rather than taken a point from a game that they looked to have taken charge of when Henry Landers fired them two goals in front with twenty minutes remaining, but Stamford remained unbowed, and their two substitutes hauled them level inside the final ten minutes.

Heavy rain overnight and during the morning had left officials at the Zeeco Stadium unconcerned, with a 9am pitch inspection deeming the surface to be playable, which proved to be the case despite the rain returning in the second half.

With Jack Edwards missing due to accumulating five bookings, Joe Clarke stepped back into the starting eleven.

The home side started the better of the two in the opening ten minutes, forcing Callum Hawkins into action when a neat exchange of passes between Lee Shaw and Tom Siddons saw the latter crash in a decent strike which was met by an equally good save from the Leamington keeper.

There were half hearted appeals for a penalty on Brakes’ first foray forward, when Dan Meredith accelerated into the Stamford penalty area and was leant on by the covering Tendai Chitiza, but Referee Elliott Kaye was unmoved.

Another shout for a spot kick came more from the travelling support than the pitch, when Tyrone Barnett went down as he challenged Daniels’ keeper Michael Duggan for the ball after he had spilled a shot from Cally Stewart, who had cut in from the left.

Josh Quaynor’s left wing cross looped just past the angle of crossbar and far post as Leamington grew into the game, but Hawkins was forced into another save when Bill Bennett’s centre was met by a looping header from Siddons that was held by the goalkeeper.

Henry Landers won a free kick within striking distance of goal that took a wicked deflection off Bennett to spin over the bar. When the ball was played back in from the corner , Barnett forced a save from Duggan as he rose highest to head towards goal, before clashing heads with Theo Streete as the ball was played back in.

Landers was fouled just past half way, a challenge for which Bennett was later cautioned, but in the meantime the Referee allowed play to continue, and Barnett strode onto the ball before thumping a powerful low drive inches past the post.

With the two sides level at the break after a pretty even first half there was little indication of what was to come as the game resumed. Landers dragged a shot across goal and wide early on, before Hawkins pulled off a fantastic save from a piledriver of a strike from Chitiza to keep the score level.

The opening goal arrived on 65 minutes, courtesy of a superb ball in from the left by Quaynor which was met by the head of Barnett, who rose above his marker to firmly plant the ball past a flailing Duggan into the roof of the net.

Five minutes later it was two. Stewart chased the ball down the left, playing it infield to Adam Waker, who in turn found Landers, who darted in and fired low past Duggan, who was unable to keep the ball out despite getting a hand to it.

With the rain falling again and conditions worsening, this game was far from over, and so it proved. With ten minutes remaining Brakes conceded a dangerous free kick in a central position within firing range of goal. Bartle, who had stepped off the bench thirteen minutes earlier, stepped up and curled an absolute beauty of a strike into the top corner to halve the deficit.

The same player rammed a shot into the side netting as Stamford surged forward in waves with the bit between their teeth.

The hosts believed they had a late shout for a spot kick when Chitiza went down, but he was booked. Leamington held on by their fingertips during five minutes of additional time to leave with a point which will feel like a defeat given the manner of how the game finished, but Stamford will argue that they deserved something from the game, and given the ferocity of their late comeback it is hard to disagree.

Paul Holleran admitted that it felt like two points dropped afterwards, saying ‘Despite the conditions it was a really good game, but the most frustrating thing for me was that it was probably as good an away performance from us for a long long long time. They looked strong and we had to weather the stormy periods but we looked really dangerous, we should have had a penalty before half time; and then we scored two great goals. The mistake isn’t the two goals that they scored, the mistake is that when they’ve gone to that really narrow formation and pushed more players up top, it’s front foot football, it’s gung ho and they’re going to create more chances, but we have had the ball umpteen times in good areas of the pitch, and I just think possibly, with some of the youth in the team, it’s knowing how to manage the ball. Because they’re playing such a high line, we need to keep the ball around their back four, create some more chances, but we gave it away cheaply.

‘At 2-0, the free kick… you could have had five goalkeepers in there and they wouldn’t have saved it. After that I think we could have just done with a little bit more know how to get over the line.

‘Considering the conditions and how heavy the pitch was, there were still a lot of pluses to take from the afternoon, and I’m not going to let a poor end to the game take away from that, but it is definitely two points dropped. I think if we were better, and had a little bit more know how we could have killed the game off at 2-0, but fair play to them as well. We’ve done that in the past. They were brave; a little bit of magic got them back in it and then they kept plugging away, so credit to them.’

Attendance: 357

Stamford: Michael Duggan, Joe Burgess (15 Oliver Brown-Hill, 20), Bill Bennett (12 Connor Bartle, 67), Michael Armstrong, Ashton Offler, James Blunden, Tendal Chitiza, Robert Morgan, Tom Siddons, Harry Vince, Lee Shaw (17 Jack Duffy, 65).

Subs not used: 14 Will Glennon, 16 Tremayne Charles.

Leamington: Callum Hawkins, Dan Meredith, Josh Quaynor, Joe Clarke, Theo Streete, Jack Lane, Henry Landers,  Adam Walker ©, Callum Stewart (14 Will Shorrock, 86), Tyrone Barnett, Ewan Williams.

Subs not used: 12 Jiah Medrano, GK Ethan Pheasey, 15 Junior English, 16 Zac Taylor.

Referee: Mr Elliott Kaye

Assistant Referees: Mr Tolga Yildizlefe & Mr Clifford Mills

Brakes Man of the Match: Joe Clarke.