Report

By Paul Edwards

Brakes welcomed Suffolk side Leiston on their first visit to this corner of Warwickshire for the first ever meeting of these two clubs. The visitors may have been sitting in 18th position prior to kick off, but had generally been up and around the play off positions since being switched to the Southern League in 2018, and their second half display here indicated that their present position is clearly a false one.

On the anniversary of his 14th year in charge at the club, Paul Holleran unsurprisingly opted to stick with the same eleven players who started against Kettering on Tuesday evening.

Brakes didn’t start with quite the same tempo as they had done in the previous game, but they still bossed the early stages, and opened the scoring on 13 minutes with a beautiful strike from Jack Lane, who arrived right on cue at the far post to meet Cally Stewart’s right wing centre with a cushioned volley that gave keeper Sam Donkin no chance.

Josh Quaynor drove a free kick just wide before Stewart sent a low strike the same way. The Leamington number 9 had to be a little more mindful with his challenges after receiving a rather harsh yellow card with the game in its infancy. Lane also went into the notebook, while Leiston centre back Adam Bailey-Dennis was furious at being pulled up for a 50-50 challenge with Adam Walker in the centre circle, and also had his name taken.

As the game passed the half hour mark the visitors, who had been unable to make their mark going forward, were beginning to come back into the game; Theo Streete being required to make a timely intervention on the edge of the Leamington box to prevent a potential strike at goal.

Brakes pushed upfield swiftly, and Henry Landers was played up the right in a foot race with left back Seb Dunbar, getting a shot in from a tight angle but striking the outside of the post. He then sent a glancing header into the arms of Donkin from Quaynor’s recycled ball in from the left.

The home crowd were stunned into silence two minutes before the half time whistle however, when the visitors levelled things up with their first shot of the afternoon. A soft free kick was awarded some 20 yards out in a central position, and Chris Casement curled it beautifully beyond the diving Callum Hawkins into the top left hand corner; a fine strike.

Leamington looked to begin the second half as they had done the first, but were met with a Leiston side that looked far more confident and composed after their equaliser. Albie Armin stuck a low drive that was always curving away from goal as the Blues capitalised again on the ball failing to stick as it was played up to Tyrone Barnett, winning possession back and driving forward from it.

This was a different game now as the temperature in the Warwickshire countryside dropped sharply; with Leiston seeing far more of the ball, and Jamar Loza turned to fire wide from another attack, with Leamington players claiming he had handled in the process.

With Barnett knocking the ball down from a right wing cross, Landers saw his shot blocked. He then saw a glorious opportunity go begging when Donkin sliced his clearance straight to substitute Jack Edwards, who found Landers with time and space on the edge of the box, but he dragged his shot well wide.

Ross Crane saw his attempted shot well blocked by Streete as Leamington scrambled to get the ball away following a corner, and the home side were indebted to Lane for being well placed to clear off the line as Crane’s low left wing cross was controlled by George Quantrell at the far post before his shot was chested down and thumped clear by the Brakes goalscorer.

Substitute Will Shorrock was sent flying by Casement as he accelerated down the left to try and instigate a Leamington attack, and when he played the resulting free kick into the box Lane was left unmarked to power a header down towards goal, but the offside flag was raised.

The game was more stretched than at any point going into the closing stages, becoming a more end to end affair, but neither side were able to find that bit of quality to nick that all important second goal. Frustrating as it is, a draw was probably the right result, as although Leamington were the better side in the first half, Leiston certainly showed why they have done so well over the last few seasons in this most competitive of divisions. The draw takes Brakes’ unbeaten streak to five matches, with a trip to Suffolk to face AFC Sudbury next Saturday.

The manager was very complimentary towards the opposition after the game, having clearly dismissed their lowly league position as he was aware of how good they were. ‘I think they had a few issues at the start of the season, but they’ve got one or two people back and their recent performances have been good. They play their system very well, and obviously there were periods in the game where we did struggle with it, because you really need to be really leggy to deal with it.

‘Obviously we wanted to use the width to stretch them, but we could have been out of sight in the first half hour, with the two or three chances. They’ve had the lion's share of possession, and they’ve played well, but what we did do well in the early stages of the game was get it out of the middle of the park, get a good pass into wide areas. We’ve had a lot of 1 v 1’s - Henry’s had a good chance, Callum’s had a good chance.

‘For the second Saturday in a row we’ve been done by a wonderful free kick; and then to be fair they had the upper hand in the game then. That’s why we’ve tried to change from the bench, to get a grip of the deep lying midfield player. I felt then in the last 15 minutes we’ve got a grip of the game then. We’ve had another good chance through Henry, but that final ball or final cross hasn’t quite been there today.

‘When you look at the game overall it’s about right. We probably had the better chances but they had more of the ball, and from our point of view, probably for about 70 minutes we’ve looked like we could be struggling a bit today so what pleased me was, we tinkered and we changed and we went again then, and got back in the game again. It’s one of those days where I don’t think we’ve played particularly well; we’ve come against one of the best sides we’ve played this year I think - really well organised, good people on and off the pitch - I was impressed with them. I watched them once last year and I thought they’d win the league to be honest.

‘You have to take a step back I think sometimes. We’ve had a few players not quite at it today, and there are one or two reasons for that as well; and we’ve got a point against a good side. If we were more clinical we win the game, but they’re a tough side to beat so it’s a good point today. We’ve had three tough games, three heavy pitches; it’s taken a bit out of the legs, but we haven’t been beaten, and we’ve got five points. We’ve probably deserved a bit more, but that’s where we are, it keeps the scoreboard ticking over, and it’s just trying to make sure we keep that unbeaten run going. It’s days like today where we’ve lacked a bit of quality, we’ve still made sure we have come away with something.’

Attendance: 417

Leamington: Callum Hawkins, Dan Meredith, Josh Quaynor, Joe Clarke (12 Jack Edwards, 67), Theo Streete, Jack Lane, Henry Landers (16 Junior English, 86) Adam Walker, Callum Stewart, Tyrone Barnett (14 Will Shorrock, 71), Ewan Williams.

Subs not used: 15 Jiah Medrano, 17 Zach Taylor.

Leiston: 1 Sam Donkin, 2 Wyatt Hill, 3 Sebastian Dunbar, 18 Ryan Jarvis (12 Jack Manley, 90), 5 Adam Bailey-Dennis, 6 Chris Casement, 7 Ross Crane, 8 Zac Dronfield (14 Finlay Corrigan, 77), 9 George Quantrell, 10 Albie Armin, 11 Jamar Loza.

Subs not used: 15 Joseph Marsden, 17 Eddie Jackson, 20 Kieran Higgs.

Referee: Mr Stuart Kyle

Assistant Referees: Phoebe Horner & Ka Ho Wong

Brakes Man of the Match: Jack Lane.