Pitching In Southern League Premier Division Central
The Victoria Ground
Saturday 3rd February 2024

Brakes completed the league double over struggling Bromsgrove Sporting with second half strikes from Jack Edwards and skipper Adam Walker added to Cally Stewart’s first half stoppage time penalty. 

The hosts looked like a team now without a win in six games; bereft of attacking ideas and they barely troubled Callum Hawkins all afternoon, with the Brakes keeper a virtual spectator. They clearly missed midfield dynamo Conor Tee, who had been outstanding in the reverse fixture back in September. 

However, despite several efforts on the home goal in the opening 45 minutes, Leamington looked short on a spark at times themselves. Edwards could have bagged himself a hat trick in the opening 8 minutes, as he sent a close range header from Dan Meredith’s right wing free kick into the arms of Rouslers keeper Oliver Taylor after just 52 seconds. He then connected with Henry Landers’ left wing corner, sending a volley just wide, before connecting with another Meredith free kick, which was comfortable for the keeper. 

Both sides were surrendering possession with alarming regularity in the opening exchanges as they battled for superiority. Meredith was seeing plenty of the ball down the right as he marauded forward at every opportunity, and just before the half hour he sent in another ball from the right which was headed at Taylor by Tyrone Barnett. 

Barnett attempted to knock a left wing cross from Will Shorrock back for Landers, but the Bromsgrove defence got there just ahead of him to clear. 

Brakes were given the opportunity to send plenty of dead ball deliveries into the box, and from another one from the left Edwards rose above Aaron Roberts to nod down for Shorrock, whose shot was blocked, but play was stopped as Roberts was treated for a knock to his face. 

Leamington were doing the bulk of the attacking, but it was often the final pass which let them down. However, right on the stroke of half time the persistence of Cally Stewart saw him bundled over from behind by a combination of Aksum White and David Solademi, both of whom seemed to be blaming the other as the young striker picked himself up to drive the resulting penalty low to Taylor’s left. For a split second it appeared that the keeper had saved it, only for the ball to ricochet under his body into the net to give Brakes a slender half time lead. 

Walker put his laces through a powerful low drive moments after the restart which whistled wide of the right hand post, while Referee Luke Scott finally grew tired of persistent fouls from the hosts and brandished a yellow card at Luke Rowe for one too many. 

As he approaches 400 games in the Gold and Black, Jack Edwards can look back on some memorable goals in almost 10 years at the club, but his 50th minute goal here will surely be up there with them, as he spotted that Taylor had strayed from his line and lifted a delightful free kick over the backpeddaling goalkeeper from just inside his own half that dropped down into the net to the delight of the travelling support. 

Shorrock’s left wing corner dropped inches the wrong side of the far post, while Vladimiro Granjal Martins Pais had Bromsgrove’s first serious effort at goal as the ball fell for him to the right of goal, but his shot was high and wide. 

Billy Shaw curled another strike wide from a good angle, before heading Ayomide Lekuti’s cross wide. Hawkins then had his first serious piece of work to do, as he claimed a dangerous looking corner in his six yard box. 

Leamington were seeing this contest out relatively comfortably, and their skipper put the seal on things in added time, ending a fine team move by bending a precise strike around Taylor into the corner. 

Speaking to Brian Halford after the game, Paul Holleran said ‘I was very happy with the performance, after being very disappointed with our performance in the second half last week. We’ve had a bit of a sort out this week, refreshed people’s minds about one or two things. This is a really difficult place to come; their manager has got a really young, energetic team - results here will tell you that. We’ve had to defend well. 

‘We probably made that game look a lot more comfortable than it really was. We’ve tinkered with the shape a bit, put another attacker on the pitch because we thought that could cause problems. That’s as good an away performance from us as any this season really.’ 

On Jack Edwards’ astonishing free kick for the second goal, the manager said ‘He has done that a couple of times over the years. I thought the keeper had it at first, but it’s got a bit of dip on it at the end. It’s a brilliant individual moment, a bit of magic.’ 

‘How good was the third goal? From a team perspective, moving it around, on a difficult pitch - all pitches are difficult at the moment. That pleased me more than anything, from a team point of view.’ 

Edwards also spoke to BBC CWR afterwards: ‘To be fair, I’ve scored some alright goals previously, but Theo was standing on the ball, telling me not to shoot, Quayn’s was telling me not to shoot, and I thought, why not? The keeper was stood on his 18 yard line, it was wind assisted, and I caught it sweetly. Apparently it was top bins but I’ve turned away by that point. I didn’t even see it go in, I just turned away, running around like a headless chicken whilst the gaffer was shouting at me to get back in position!’

Attendance: 648

Bromsgrove Sporting: Oliver Taylor, Aksum White, Ayomide Lekuti, Luke Rowe, Aaron Roberts, David Solademi, Billy Shaw, Keanu Cooper, Prince Henry (16 Kieron Berry, 65), Tristan Dunkley (14 Shaquille Leachman-Whittingham, 72), Vladimiro Granjal Martins Pais. 

Subs not used: 12 Ben O’Hanlon, 15 Jack Newall. 

Leamington: Callum Hawkins, Dan Meredith, Josh Quaynor, Ewan Williams, Jack Edwards, Theo Streete, Henry Landers (12 Joe Clarke, 84) , Adam Walker ©, Cally Stewart (15 Dom Brown-Hill, 90+5), Tyrone Barnett, Will Shorrock (14 Jiah Medrano, 88). 

Subs not used: 16 Rob Evans, 17 Connor Taylor.

Referee: Mr Luke Scott

Assistant Referees: Mr Darrell Horner & Mr Ryan Grandison

Brakes Man of the Match: Jack Edwards.