Report

Vanarama National League North
MGroup Stadium
Saturday 8th February 2025

Wins away from home in the National League North have been few and far between for Leamington in recent years, so when one comes along you can forgive the supporters for celebrating it wholeheartedly. Oxford climbed above Brakes in the table in midweek after doing what Paul Holleran’s men were unable to do last Saturday in beating Marine, but Dan Turner’s late winner here ensured that this could be a pivotal afternoon in the season for the boys in Gold and Black. 

The sizeable travelling support certainly played their part in this second victory on the road of the season so far. It is sometimes clichéd to state that they barely stopped for breath all afternoon, but on this occasion, save for a brief pause after the home side’s equaliser, the Brakes fans were very loud and proud throughout. 

With an appeal against skipper Adam Walker’s red card having been rejected on the morning of the game the skipper sat out the first of a three game suspension, but nevertheless travelled to support his team mates. Joe Clarke captained the side in his absence. Dan Meredith returned from his own three game ban, while Tim Berridge and Owen Farmer also started, the latter making his full league debut. Jack Edwards and Theo Streete dropped to the bench.  

Leamington set out their stall early on in this game and looked to push forward at their hosts whenever possible. An early free kick came to nothing, while Oxford saw a shot on the turn blocked. Farmer was played towards the penalty area by a good ball from Berridge out on the touchline, and was unceremoniously sent crashing to the turf right on the edge of the penalty area, but Referee Gareth Thomas waved any claims for even a free kick away. 

Henry Landers was presented with the first clear opportunity of the game when Berridge split the Oxford defence on the right with another good ball. The former Oxford man’s low driven effort was saved by the legs of keeper Kai McKenzie-Lyle; the ball going out for a corner on the right which Ewan Williams rose highest at the far post to head just over the crossbar. 

Turner was just unable to take advantage of a glorious chance to open the scoring when Berridge slid the ball through the centre inside the Oxford penalty area, but he could only get the slightest of touches to the ball, and it ran through to McKenzie-Lyle. 

Andre Burley sent a low strike fizzing across the Leamington goalmouth as Oxford began to show signs of life. Out of the blue they were then awarded a penalty just past the half hour. Corie Andrews was played into a shooting position by the head of Josh Parker, and Callum Hawkins was adjudged to have brought him down as the striker evaded the challenge of Rob Evans and went to round the Brakes keeper. 

After what appeared to be a brief discussion between Parker and Andrews about who should take responsibility from the spot, the latter stepped up but saw his effort well saved by Hawkins. 

Williams headed another corner just wide of the target, while Hawkins denied Andrews for a second time when the big striker was played in on goal, superbly getting a foot to the ball before it was eventually bundled behind by the striker under pressure from Josh Quaynor.

There was a brief flashpoint just before half time as Landers went up for an aerial ball inside the box with McKenzie-Lyle, with some brief handbags before both players were booked. 

Leamington came out with a similar intensity to the start of the game, and found themselves in front within five minutes of the restart. Landers took a short corner on the left, received the ball back from Turner, and sent in a delightful cross-cum-shot that bounced in front McKenzie-Lyle into the net, before setting off to celebrate with his team mates and the delighted supporters behind the goal. 

Farmer dragged a low effort across goal and wide, while after an Oxford effort was well blocked inside the box, Turner engineered a decent chance for himself after a neat diagonal ball out to the left from midfield by Edwards. Turner cut inside two defenders and drove low towards the near post, but the keeper was down smartly to hold the shot, with Farmer lurking to pounce on any loose ball. 

Some slick passing and movement saw the hosts draw level on 74 minutes, with substitute Zac McEachran driving a low strike into the bottom left hand corner. 

The hosts almost took the lead in bizarre fashion when Josh Ashby’s strike from the edge of the box that looked to be travelling well wide took a huge deflection off Burley, but mercifully the ball ended up safely in the arms of Hawkins.

The travelling support cranked the volume back up to rally their team to one last push, and the winner came with six minutes of normal time remaining. After Evans’ long throw into the box was half cleared and collected by Meredith, he played the ball back for Quaynor to launch back into the Oxford penalty area from halfway. It was met by the head of Edwards and picked up by Williams, who drove wide and then sent the ball low back into the six yard box from the right, where Turner attempted a cheeky backheeled finish that was blocked by a combination of McKenzie-Lyle and Burley, but Turner snaffled up the rebound to the utter jubilation of all who had travelled down the M40. 

Brakes saw out the remaining minutes to complete a first league double over their hosts, and their first of the season. 

Speaking to Brian Halford of BBC CWR after the game, the manager felt his sides’ front foot approach went a long way to earning the points. ‘We’ve probably gone with a bit more of an attacking system today, which is brave here because they’re a possession based side, but we’ve got players sort of understanding the 4-4-2 system we played - players changing position when they needed to, the wide men changing their starting positions when they needed to. We had some good control, some really good chances in the first half. I’m baffled with why we haven’t had a penalty again this week. We’ve had to rely on Callum to pull off a penalty save which, I think I won’t say anything on that one either! 

‘It was a great goal from Henry. Because we were coming here, and because the surface is good, we were sort of bringing our short corners back in today. Sadly at home with the pitch we can’t at the moment so it was great to be able to do that. What you sort of do with that is you put two or three under the bar, you suck them in with that, and then you allow for that short one with Clarkey (Joe Clarke) and then you’re looking for him to have a cross-shot. He was brilliant today, Henry Landers, absolutely on another level. 

‘Their goal, I didn’t see coming. It was a good strike from the boy. I think in the build up another Referee might have given a foul on Ewan Williams, but we didn’t get it again. And then you see, from a team that has had it tough on the road this year - most of it’s probably been our own doing, but we’ve certainly taken the brunt of some difficult decisions. The character we showed to keep going - I was delighted for Dan Turner - he worked hard today. It was a great flicky kind of finish I think, I’m not sure. 

‘Oxford are good here. They throw the odd result in which is a bit strange, but they played the best non league side in the country here last week, and deserved to beat them, Forest Green, so for us to come here and deserve the victory - it wasn’t a backs to the wall job at all. We looked a threat all afternoon; Callum has had very little to do. We dug in when we had to, there was a lot of grit, determination and a lot of quality too, so I’m absolutely delighted with it. 

Landers was also pleased with the result in his home town. ‘We knew coming here, on a different surface was going to be hard, but we dug in and got the win. 

‘At half time we talked about putting more balls into the box, so we caught them out with a short corner and it was a cross-shot! The penalty save from Callum - he’s done that before, and we just trusted him and it set us up perfectly for the second half. 

‘The way we reacted after the equaliser just shows the character. When your away form is like ours has been it is easy for heads to go down when you concede, and maybe go under, but from the starting eleven to the people that have come off the bench, everybody gave 100%, and to get that second goal - it’s a feeling that we want to keep. 

‘We’ve got a lot of Saturday - Tuesdays now, and games that we want and need to win, so having that three points now, we’re going in full of confidence.’ 

Attendance: 512

Oxford City: 1 Kai McKenzie-Lyle, Andre Burley, 3 Chi Ezennolim, 4 Josh Ashby, 5 Jalen Jones, 7 Lewis Coyle, 8 Reece Fleet ©, 9 Corie Andrews, 14 Josh Parker (16 Alfie Potter, 46), 15 Tom Scott (10 Zac McEachran, 54), 29 Aaron Drewe. 

Subs not used: 17 Freddy Wilcox, 18 Phil Croker, 22 Jayden Carbon. 

Leamington: 1 Callum Hawkins, 2 Dan Meredith, 3 Josh Quaynor, 6 Rob Evans, 14 George Ward, 24 Owen Farmer (12 Will Shorrock, 75), 17 Ewan Williams, 21 Joe Clarke ©, 7 Henry Landers, 11 Tim Berridge (10 Jack Edwards, 61), 23 Dan Turner (19 Ant Lynn, 90). 

Subs not used: 5 Theo Streete, 16 Jiah Medrano,. 

Referee: Mr Gareth Thomas

Assistant Referees: Mr Sean Jenkins & Mr Isaac Blakey

Fourth Official: Mr Catalin Tanase

Brakes Man of the Match: Henry Landers.