Leamington ended their season with a 3-2 victory over Chesham United. They finished in seventh place, seven points clear of St. Albans City. The final day's results were distorted by the postponement of the match at AFC Totton, but Chesham United have secured their play off place despite their defeat.
After the recent slump in attendances the match was played in front of a crowd of 601, bolstered by a large Chesham contingent, no doubt expecting the kings of the Metropolitan Line to motor to an easy victory. I was seated in front of two self-declared neutrals, probably ground hoppers, although they seemed very vague about the pyramid. If anything, it is more irritating to have your side's shortcomings pointed out by a neutral: we did tend to over hit the ball and to hoof it down the pitch rather than try and pass it on the ground, although things improved a bit in that respect in the second half. Once again, very blustery conditions at the exposed New Windmill Ground did not help to provide quality football.
Chesham signalled their intent with a fierce angled shot which went just wide on seven minutes. Brakes had a chance when the keeper spilled the ball, but we could not find the back of the net. Then a free kick was played in again, allowing David Kolodynski to head the ball past the keeper to make it 1-0. But two minutes later the visitors equalised after a failure to clear the ball alllowed Walters to make it 1-1.
The first corner of the game was won by Chesham late in the half. They were given a free kick for supposed handball in a dangerous position, but their effort came off the wall. Brakes had a free kick in a promising position, but sent it so high in the sky it would have been a threat to aircraft if Coventry Airport was still functioning.
HT 1-1
Good work by Jimmy Husband set up Kolo to score his second goal on 51 minutes. Then a good ball down the right allowed veteran Lee Steele to celebrate his last game with a goal that bounced off the keeper's leg. Chesham then came back into the game more and we allowed ourselves to be pinned back too much with insufficient outlets so it was no great surprise when they made it 3-2 through Thomas. A free kick gave them their best chance of an equaliser, but it was cleared and Leamington were able to assume sufficient control in the closing minutes.
The tall referee had a competent game, although he seemed very keen on shouting out explanations of all his decisions.
There was no sign of Jacob Blyth who is presumably going on to greater things. The management team were given the vote of confidence in the programme with the view being taken that we slightly over performed last season and slightly under performed this season.
