Report
Isuzu FA Trophy Second Round
Your Co-op Community Stadium
Saturday 16th November 2024
After another short lived stay in the FA Cup this season Brakes will be hoping for a more extended run in the FA Trophy. On a mild November afternoon this all National League North tie against King’s Lynn Town was the first of four successive home games that could really shape the way their season pans out.
Paul Holleran made a single change from the defeat at Chorley, bringing in Will Shorrock in place of Ant Lynn.
Brakes caught practically the whole crowd out before they had settled down in their positions to watch the game. Within 13 seconds of the kick off Cally Stewart found himself played through on goal by a superb header from Joe Doyle Charles which dropped over the head of skipper Josh Coulson as the Linnets made a complete hash of their kick off, in part due to a hard press by the striker, and Leamington’s top scorer confidently drilled a low strike past keeper Paul Jones to get his side off to the perfect start. Incredibly this is not quite the quickest goal ever scored at the New Windmill Ground. That accolade still belongs to Jon Adams, who netted just one second earlier than Cally in a Midland Alliance win over Westfields in September 2006.
Rob Evans hammered in a shot from distance out on the right that wasn’t too far wide, while the visitors won a free kick just outside the box that was fired into the arms of Callum Hawkins, making his 100th appearance for the club.
Incredibly, after snatching one early goal, Leamington then went and bagged themselves a second; Jack Edwards rising to meet a ball into the box from the left with the perfect back-header that drifted beyond Jones into the far corner, giving Brakes a tidy grip on the game with only eight minutes played.
The relatively bright but cloudy skies over the stadium quickly turned leaden and the steady rain intensified, leaving those supporters standing out in the open scurrying for cover.
The two early goals clearly gave Leamington huge confidence to knock the ball around calmly, and another two efforts on the King’s Lynn goal were blocked.
The visitors looked as though the long haul from Norfolk had left them a little leg weary, making unforced errors and generally struggling to make any headway at all going forward; being well marshalled by the Brakes defence.
Stewart cut inside his marker in the penalty area after collecting a pinpoint ball forward from Theo Streete, and felt his attempt at goal had struck an arm, but Referee Jake Allsopp was well placed to decide otherwise.
The second half did not get off to quite as rapid a start as the first, but Henry Landers picked up possession just inside the Lynn half and set off towards the penalty area at pace; whipping in an inviting ball that was inches in front of Stewart at the far post. Theo Streete then had to be alert to hook the ball back to Hawkins with prolific marksman Jonny Margetts lurking behind him ready to pounce.
With the rain having abated and darkness beginning to fall, the visitors began the second half in far more lively fashion, and had their clearest sight of goal yet when Ross Crane got in on the left, but his low shot was blocked by the outstretched leg of Hawkins
Crane then left Streete and Dan Meredith on their backsides as he did very well to hook the ball in from the left to Margetts, who only had Hawkins to beat inside the six yard box but slammed a first time strike into the advertising boards behind the goal.
Leamington broke quickly down the left from another King’s Lynn attack, Adam Walker picking up possession and striding towards the penalty area before his rather weak looking ball towards goal was spilled behind by Jones for a corner.
Another ball was poked away from goal as King’s Lynn attacked from the right this time, and they won a free kick out on the right touchline, but Finlay Barnes’ ball in was headed wide by substitute Kyle McFadden.
Josh Hmami sent a low right wing centre whistling across the face of goal, with nobody in blue and yellow stripes able to get a telling touch, but the same player was on hand in the next phase of play as he looped a superb effort over Hawkins from just inside the box on the right with the outside of his left boot to make the final ten minutes or so more interesting.
Stewart did superbly inside the box almost finding substitute Lynn with his cross, but play was becoming stretched now with time ebbing away, and the ball was swiftly up the other end, with the Brakes defence putting their bodies on the line to protect Hawkins’ goal, with Streete in particular a colossus. He marshalled the defence superbly throughout, and Leamington saw out five additional minutes to squeeze into Round Three.
‘It was a quick start,’ said the manager after the game. ‘I think every team wants to do that. We’re a goal up inside seconds, and then two up within minutes, and we carried that on for the first twenty five minutes or so; we were really really good, but King’s Lynn are a good side, we know that, and they gradually found a way back into the game. It was pretty much even then, either side of half time, but we’ve had to dig deep then, towards the end because they’ve become very expansive. It’s cup football, and they’re quite happy to play three at the back and really stretch the three; overload in wide areas. They’ve got some really good technical players.
‘We've had to patch a couple up today, and we’ve got a couple I didn’t really want to risk with Tuesday and Saturday coming up. We were probably lacking a couple of options centrally today. But we found a way, dug deep and got some good blocks in at the end. On the whole, I think we just about deserved to win it, probably because of the first half hour. It was quite a good cup game wasn’t it towards the end? I think the game really changed, because in the first half we were on the front foot and asking a lot of questions, could have gone further ahead; and then in the second half it was them asking all the questions. They came out and pushed us back, and it was more about their quality really. We ran out of legs a bit, but there were some good individual performances, and on the whole it’s a really good day for us.
‘It’s a tough few weeks for us really, with the number of games we’ve got coming up. We’ve got a few knocks and niggles; Ewan wasn’t quite fit and Jiah was missing today (cup tied having played in the competition for Barwell) and George wasn’t quite right. You’re just trying to manage the minutes the best you can, and obviously the way the game went in the second half it was a real cup tie, and I was standing there hoping we could have taken the sting out of the game so it might have been a little bit less on our legs maybe. We’ve got to roll up our sleeves and keep it going. They’re good games to play in. At the end of the day it’s a tough schedule, but it’s the opportunity to go up against former Football League clubs here in the next few weeks. It’s a good start to a tough schedule, and we look forward to the challenges ahead.
Holleran was glowing in his praise of century making keeper Callum Hawkins. ‘I’m sure he’s probably made more than a hundred important saves! There’s lots of things to like about Callum and his commitment to Leamington, but if you look at last year when he came back from his ACL injury in October and ended up keeping more clean sheets than any other keeper in the league; won the golden glove…
Yes you’ve got to have people in front of you and keep that structure, but individually he’s been a fantastic servant to Leamington and to me, and we’re lucky to have him.
Asked how he felt having reached 15 years service at the club, Paul said: ‘The years are rolling on. I’ve said it before that it was probably never meant to be like this at the start but that’s where it is. There’s been a lot more ups than downs, lots of great moments; trying to grow the club on and off the pitch and being part of the team that does that. Trying to develop young players, trying to make us a National League North side that can hang around and compete, and that’s hard. Still plenty of work to do; certainly not another 15 years worth, I know that, but we’ll keep going for the moment!’
Attendance: 502
Leamington: 1 Callum Hawkins, 2 Dan Meredith, 3 Josh Quaynor, 4 Joe Doyle-Charles (18 Ted Rowe, 77), 5 Theo Streete, 6 Rob Evans, 7 Henry Landers (14 George Ward, 83), 8 Adam Walker ©, 9 Cally Stewart, 10 Jack Edwards, 12 Will Shorrock (19 Anthony Lynn, 68).
Subs not used: 20 Jacob Humphries, 11 Tim Berridge.
King’s Lynn Town: 1 Paul Jones, 23 Dylan Crowe (4 Kyle McFadden, 59), 6 Josh Coulson ©, 15 Tom Wilson, 5 Greg Taylor, 30 Cody Johnson, 11 Josh McCammon, 7 Josh Hmami (32 Theo Williams, 90+4), 20 Finlay Barnes, 14 Ross Crane, 10 Jonny Margetts.
Subs not used: 21 Patrick Boyes, 17 Fin Wheatley, 8 Tommy Hughes.
Referee: Mr Jake Allsopp
Assistant Referees: Mr Alex Rolfe & Mr Adam McAnoy
Fourth Official: Mr Kieran Forrest.
Brakes Man of the Match: Theo Streete.
