LeamingtonFC.co.uk

I’ve been asked to summarise the past 12 months at Leamington Football Club in our annual New Year message. We’ve had our highs and lows this year starting with wins against Chorley and Kettering in January, the latter putting us through to the Round of Sixteen of the FA Trophy for the second season in a row. However, due to rising Covid-19 cases in the country, the league season was curtailed and we only had one game left – an FA Trophy loss to Hereford, the last game we would play until July. Sam Osborne was sold to Fylde in January for an undisclosed fee, and we are set to meet Ozzy for the first time since he left in our league fixture in a couple of weeks!

July rolled around and we were playing pre-season friendlies again. With the likes of Kelsey Mooney and Kieran Cook added to the Brakes squad, a challenging pre-season played out. Wins against Walsall u18 and a West Brom XI were matched with draws against League Two Forest Green Rovers and Hednesford Town whilst we lost to Worcester, Coventry u18s, Rushall and Solihull Moors. Pre-season went out of the window though as we got our season started – two weeks late due to a Covid outbreak – with a big win over Spennymoor Town. Two days later we lost to Brackley and fell at the hands of Curzon the weekend after, but that started a run of games that would put us 4th in the league in November, something unheard of for a Leamington side in the National League North.

Fantastic home wins over Boston, Gateshead, Farsley Celtic and York added to crucial draws on the road and an away win at Blyth Spartans – Devon Kelly-Evans and Joe Clarke scoring the two goals of the year in that one fixture - put the Brakes in real nosebleed territory, despite being knocked out of both the FA Cup and the FA Trophy to fellow National League North sides.

As we close the year, Brakes are still only three points off the play off positions – despite not winning any of their last 8 with a large injury crisis at the club with multiple players out for long durations. Brakes are also through to the Quarter Finals of the Birmingham Senior Cup as we look to defend our trophy, and will face Tamworth in the new year.

Before I close out, I’d just like to point out the success of our social media over the past year. Our twitter is agonisingly close to 13,000 followers whilst our Instagram is edging close to 7,000. And save a word for our TikTok at 62,000 followers! Nick, Matt, Shaun and Scott continue to impress over on the YouTube side of things – consistently churning out the best highlights package in the league, I am in awe of the production, especially in comparison to other clubs at our level and above – especially with the rubbish standardisation of EFL highlights now – let’s hope the National League never drop to those low levels(!), and can only give Nick and team the highest praise. Press Officer, our statto, Paul Edwards has been the man behind most of the match reports and co-ordinating our announcements this season, whilst putting together a spreadsheet of all of our results since 1933 when we were founded and the work he puts in behind the scenes cannot go unnoticed!

Of course I’ll tend to lean towards thanking our media staff, but I cannot forget everyone else at the club who puts in their time and efforts on matchdays and throughout the week – so raise a glass to our volunteers as you welcome the new year in. They are all amazing people and we couldn’t be the club we are without them. As this is the first year of a board member not writing our New Year message, I would like to put on record our thanks for their efforts in what has been an immensely hard year, from season curtailments to sorting the streaming to online ticketing and everything that goes on behind the scenes.

Wishing you and your family a healthy and prosperous 2022, let’s make more special memories with Hollers and the squad next year.

Max Passantino
On behalf of everyone at Leamington Football Club

We've delved into the spreadsheet to find out that Brakes have only played four games on this day in the past, and have failed to win a game having drawn two and lost two! Check out those four games below...

1933: Leamington YMCA 2-2 Lockheed
Warwick & District League

1950: Nuneaton Borough 1-0 Lockheed
Birmingham Combination
Lineup: Derek Spencer, Fred Keeble, Cedric Bennett, Walter Soden, Les Latham, Ken Hawker, Hughie Morrow, Jack Kirkaldie, Derek Bennett, Frank Grimwood, Doug Kerry

1967: Lockheed 1-1 Goole Town
Midland Counties League
Lineup: Smethurst, Detchon, Kelsey, Tedds, Lawton, Hancocks, Salmon, Derek, Vest, Hall, Elliott
Substitute: Hulme
Goalscorer: Hall 43’ (pen)

1978: AP 1-3 Barnet
Southern Premier League
Lineup: Dulleston, Stacey, Sutheran, Jones, Kilkelly, Boot, Taylor, Gorman, Vincent, Gardner, Keeley
Substitute: Houston
Goalscorer: Vincent
Attendance: 301