Vanarama National League North
Your Co-op Community Stadium
Monday 21st April 2025
Leamington welcomed perennial promotion chasers Brackley Town to Harbury Lane for their final home game of the 2024/2025 season. Our Northamptonshire neighbours have enjoyed another fantastic season, and arrived with the best record on the road in the National League North. The visitors’ starting line up contained three former Brakes men in striker Danny Newton - a firm favourite during his time with us, and George Carline, and Zak Lily, who spent time on loan with Brakes earlier in their careers.
There were two changes to the eleven which started at Hereford on Good Friday, with Rob Evans and Jack Edwards replacing Theo Streete and Henry Landers.
Brakes delivered two dangerous balls into the penalty area from the right inside the opening ten minutes, as the visiting support, who had been raucous long before kick off, quietened slightly, no doubt hearing the news that title rivals Kidderminster had taken an early lead at home to Hereford. Owen Farmer’s cross went right across the face of goal, while the second ball in saw Jack Edwards appear to take a shove in the back as he attempted to connect right in front of goal.
Lily’s ball in from the right was met by the head of Connor Hall, but his header was directed straight at Callum Hawkins. The Leamington goal led something of a charmed life as the Brakes defenders struggled to get the ball clear in another Brackley attack, but they virtually handed the visitors the lead on 12 minutes, when apparent miscommunication between Rob Evans and Hawkins saw the former leave Hall’s attempt to play a pass back towards goal inside the box on the left for his goalkeeper, and with Hawkins expecting Evans to clear, the ball rolled almost apologetically into the far corner, to leave the Leamington defence firing accusing looks at each other, while the 400 plus away following exploded into joy.
The momentum was 100% with the visitors, and Evans received the first booking of the afternoon after another mix up between him and Hawkins, but Leamington were at least generally keeping their high flying hosts away from their goal save for two half chances that flew high and wide.
This almost changed just past the half hour however when Hawkins saved Matt Lowe’s goalbound header down at his left hand post. Hall attempted to pick up the loose ball and ended up on the deck, but the Brackley shouts for a penalty were ignored by Referee Darren Rogers.
There were more penalty claims just before half time as Newton appeared to have his legs taken from under him just inside the box, while two more Brackley players were swiftly left on the deck, but again there was no decision forthcoming.
The game had kicked off under leaden skies, but the second half commenced with the ground bathed in sunshine, and a renewed sense of purpose from the home side and their support. Evans curled a free kick over the bar after Shane Byrne had received a yellow card for cynically bringing down Farmer some 25 yards from goal.
More attacking intent had been shown in the opening ten minutes of the second half than in the entire opening forty five minutes, and the Brakes fans were the ones cranking up the volume now in support of their team; Farmer heading wide after a good passage of play. This was more like the Leamington we have been used to seeing this season in home games. Unfortunately it counted for little, as Brackley doubled their lead with their first attack of the second half. An inviting ball played in from the left by Byrne was attacked powerfully by the header of skipper Gareth Dean, the ball nestling in the bottom right hand corner.
It was certainly against the run of play after a one way start to the half, but these are the fine margins in football when teams have something to play for. The stuffing was knocked out of Leamington; Newton’s deflected strike was well saved by Hawkins ahead of Hall, while Tommy O’Sullivan’s free kick curled into the side netting. Newton then met a well struck free kick from O’Sullivan with a thumping header that struck the underside of the crossbar, but if the ball had gone in it would not have counted, as the Assistant Referee’s flag on the near side was raised for offside. The same two players combined from a dead ball on the opposite side as the game entered added time, but Newton’s header was just wide.
The visitors did what was required to take the race for the National League North title to the final game of the season. Brakes for the most part looked jaded and exhausted, as they have done since securing their place in the league for next season, but despite the disappointing end to the season they have done themselves proud at Step 2 once again.
The manager provided a sense of perspective after the game. ‘We’ve had good spells in the game. The first goal was avoidable. I think at the start of the second half, we came out of the blocks, got on the front foot and asked a few questions, got Owen away a few times, got some good crosses into the box. The second goal has killed us really. It was a poor restart from us and we’ve lost a man on the set play.
‘They were the better team, there’s no doubt about that. We huffed and puffed. It’s a shame really because we’ve had some really good spells in the division this year, some good runs, and it’s just a shame now that late on when you were hoping we could just keep the levels up, nick a few results and get the points tally up - we haven’t been able to do it to be honest. I don’t think it’s through a lack of effort. Looking at the bigger picture, we’ve stepped over half the squad up to this level who haven’t played at this level before; we’ve tried to get as much as we can out of the boys that have been with us for a long time - they’ve ran themselves into the ground again all season. We got found out a little bit with probably the depth of the squad in the last five or six weeks of the season. Overall, we finished fifteen/sixteen points behind Needham Market last season. We’ve finished fifteen-sixteen points ahead of them this year. The fact that we have stepped these players up, the fact of how well we’ve competed, how well we’ve done at home this year, we’ve put another player into League One again - there’s lots of plusses, and I certainly don’t want the last month to take away how well the group has done. It’s certainly not a lack of application. I think we’ve been a bit stretched, we’ve made some poor decisions. I think there’s quite a few tired legs and tired minds out there at the moment, and maybe a few weeks ago my kind of targets I set for them were maybe too ambitious, I don’t know. But they’re a super group and they’ve done really well this year. We’ll try and finish with a good performance at Curzon Ashton.’
Attendance: 1,108
Leamington: 1 Callum Hawkins, 2 Dan Meredith, 3 Josh Quaynor, 4 Matt Richards (21 Joe Clarke, 78), 6 Rob Evans, 8 Adam Walker ©, 10 Jack Edwards (12 Will Shorrock, 78), 11 Tim Berridge (19 Ant Lynn, 75), 14 George Ward, 17 Ewan Williams, 24 Owen Farmer.
Subs not used: 5 Theo Streete, 7 Henry Landers.
Brackley Town: 1 Jonny Maxted, 15 Tyler Lyttle, 2 George Carline, 6 Gareth Dean ©, 27 Connor Hall (22 Miracle Okafor, 78), 18 Tommy O’Sullivan, 23 Shane Byrne (14 Scott Pollock, 86), 10 Morgan Roberts (8 Alfie Bates, 70), 11 Matt Lowe, 9 Danny Newton, 19 Zak Lilly.
Subs not used: 17 Justin Donowa, 3 Riccardo Calder.
Referee: Mr Darren Rogers
Assistant Referees: Mr James Wetherall & Mr Richard Fullicks
Fourth Official: Mr Samuel Lee
Brakes Man of the Match: Owen Farmer.
