Brakes feel the pressure

The Coventry Evening Telegraph reported in February 1976: ‘AP Leamington are beginning to feel the pressure as they mount their fiercest challenge yet for Southern League Premier Division status.  Manager Jimmy Knox this week admitted: “It’s to our credit that teams are now only concerned with stopping us but life is becoming more difficult.” 

A haul of 19 goals from their last seven matches would suggest that Knox is being less than fair to his attack and generous to the ability of the opposing defences.  Bur certainly Brakes did find it difficult to master Witney Town’s active rearguard during last Friday’s 1-1 draw at the Windmill, Adrian Stewart’s goal being their only on target effort.   The Leamington side have stretched their unbeaten league record to a splendid 13 wins and five draws to have the supporters cheerfully contemplating the thought of visits from the likes of Wimbledon and Nuneaton Borough next term. 

But Knox is adamant that the hardest hurdles have yet to be overcome.  “The players must realise that from now on every team will be out to beat us.   Fortunately, they have the character and ability to meet the challenge.”    Knox is disappointed by the attitude shown by some opponents.  “I will never asl my players to stop attacking.  I feel very sorry for managers who are forced to adopt such depressing policies”. 

AP joined the rush this week to sign Bermuda and Arley Rectory winger Pete Dawkins.  They put in seven days’ notice of approach and are hopeful that a transfer will be completed.  Says Knox: “Arley came and played a friendly match against us on Tuesday for their big Sunday Cup tie tomorrow.  Obviously, this gave me a chance to see the boy in action and I was extremely impressed.”’

Brakes were hoping to complete a double on Bedworth United to maintain pressure on league leaders Redditch.   ‘However, it will be no easy task.   Despite their modest record, George Awde’s Bedworth outfit are difficult to beat.   They have drawn 19 matches this term and have a disciplined defence.’

It turned out to be a bit of a game of two halves with the Evening Telegraph report which covered the match up to half time much more positive than the Courier report on the game as a whole.   The Telegraph report was headed ‘Bedworth feel AP drive’ and stated that ‘Title chasing AP Leamington dictated their clash with Bedwortb United at the Windmill Ground.  They were worth more than the 2-0 half time score suggested, giving the hard-pressed Bedworth defence a pounding.  AP were the first to show aggression and looked the better side.’  

Their first goal was a simple header from Lee after Keeley worked an opening on the right.   For the second goal, Stewart made use of a midfield mistake, ran 30 yards and rounded the keeper to score.    The Courier warned, ‘The sort of over confidence that allowed Bedworth two late chances could prove costly.’  Ivor Talbot scored the third for Brakes on 65 minutes and ‘it looked all over bar the shouting.’  

However, Bedworth then ‘staged a stunning revival as AP decided to rest on their laurels’, allowing Bedworth ‘the time and space to bounce back.’  In the last 10 minutes the visitors hit the post and bar, threatening to share the points.

Knox gets his man as Brakes battle on

In February 1976 Brakes boss Jimmy Knox swooped for the signature of Banbury United midfield player, 21-year old Jimmy Lines.  ‘Knox has had Lines watched four or five times in recent weeks and wants to sign the midfield player to boost AP Leamington’s bid for Southern League Premier Division  status.

 But Knox’s approach to Lines received a cool reception from Banbury boss Brian Stone who does not want to lose the services of the player.   Commented Stone: “I understand that AP Leamington has placed seven days’ notice of approach on the player but other than that I do not know much about it.”  He added: “I wish Jimmy Knox had come to me first rather than have gone about it like this.  It would have been much more satisfactory all round.”  

But Stone is unlikely to stand in the way o Lines moving to AP Leamington if terms are agreed between the player and Knox, who himself is a former Banbury player.’

Knox did indeed get his man: “Phil is just the sort of player I have been looking for and he will be included in the squad for Friday night’s match with Witney.   I would have played him against Kidderminster on Monday but the game was postponed.”  After his meeting with Knox, Lines said: “Leamington are a good side and I will have to play well to keep a regular place.  But there is a very good chance of playing Premier Division football with them next season.”’

‘Despite struggling with a heavy cold, marksman supreme Adrian Stewart was in the right place for the 37^th time this season when he soared above the Witney defence to give Brakes a 61^st minute lead on Friday.  Skipper Roger Brwn was absent with ‘flu, having missed the last two games with a knee injury. 

 The gritty Oxfordshire side clung on to their promotion hopes with a deserved equaliser 14 minutes later which keeps them snapping at AP’s heels in third position.  The fierce-tackling Witney rearguard soon put the shackles on Stewart, Keeley and Talbot, and with the struggle for midfield supremacy unresolved throughout the match chances were few and far between.

 Indeed the best chance of the match resulted from a careless back pass which fell to Ivor Talbot as early as the tenth minute.  But the winger was unable to add the final touch after rounding keeper Stewart Rennie. 

The remainder of the half was a grim affair with goal scoring efforts restricted to long range shots which never looked likely to break the deadlock.   There was little more enterprise in the second half, but at least there were goals.  

And ironically – in a defence-dominated match – both resulted from moments of slackness.  In the 61^st minute Micky Boot crossed from the left and Stewart rose almost unchallenged to head home from four yards with debutante keeper Rennie rooted to his line.  And Witney’s goal was equally negligent.    A cross from the right gave unmarked Barrie Thomas the time and space to head home a header from ten yards. 

Brakes nearly stole both points in the last minute when Keeley failed by a whisker as he went in on a Kavanagh corner at the far post, but it would have been more than AP deserved.’

Morale high at injury hit Brakes 50 years ago

In January 1976 ‘The precarious tightrope that Brakes boss Jimmy Knox is walking with his depleted squad tautened this week with the injury sustained by midfield man Micky Boot.   With his squad almost at full stretch, Knox now has to sweat it out until Saturday to see whether Boot will be at the ‘derby’ encounter at the Windmill against Banbury. 

Should Boot – whose form this term has been one of the dominant factors in AP’s surge towards the head of Division One North – fail a late fitness test with knee ligament trouble then Knox will be  virtually forced to bring in either defender Doug Griffith or John Brady, neither of whom have creditable experience in midfield.  And that will mean in turn Knox will have no option but to switch around his settled side.

Obviously the AP chief is reluctant to take such a step and possibly upset the rhythm of the team which have now gone 15 consecutive league games without defeat and picked up 26 of the last possible 30 points in the process.  And naturally, Knox is anxious to sign the midfield cover which he has been watching in recent weeks – and is hopeful that the move will come in the next week. 

Meanwhile, the goalkeeper crisis that has beleaguered the Windmill in the past three months is still no easier.  Dave Jones and Dave Garratt, the two AP professionals, are still nursing knee and ankle injuries and a lack of match practice isn’t helping their recovery – a sure sign that reserve soccer is sadly missed at this level of football.   Consequently John Davis is likely to once again take over the keeper’s jersey for the tenth game of the season.  

Despite the problems, spirit in the AP camp has never surely been as high.  Even in his programme notes on Tuesday, Knox was moved to comment: “I can’t praise enough the players’ attitude and the work they put into their game.   We have a wonderful spirit inside the dressing room and outside as well – this is an essential part of any successful team and takes time to achieve it but I feel we have got this now … it will go a long way to get us into the Premier Division.  There’s still some way to go but in our present mood I don’t see anyone stopping us.  It’s the same story from the players.  Ask any one of them and they’re all confident that promotion – if not the championship – is on the way to the Windmill. 

Last night at Birmingham skipper Roger Brown was appealing against a booking he received in the September FA Trophy game at Boston.  Brown asked for a personal hearing against the caution because he believed that should the FA take into consideration with two other bookings he received against Redditch and Bury at the end of last season, he could receive an automatic short-term ban.   Manager Knox was accompanying Brown, who is claiming a case against mistaken identity at the hearing.

As it turned out Brakes had no difficulty in beating Banbury 5-0, although the visitors lost their leading scorer to injury and then their keeper had to go off with a gashed eye.   Brakes were 3-0 up at the interval with two goals by Stewart amd one by Talbot.    He scored again in the second half and then Stewart scored jis 35^th goal in 34 games.

 

Good start to 1976 for Brakes

The end of 1975 and the beginning of 1976 saw some encouraging results for Brakes.  ‘AP Leamington extended their long unbeaten run in the Southern League First Division North by drawing at promotion rivals Barnet on Saturday.  And if this gritty performance was anything to go by, they are sure to be there or thereabouts by April. 

 One point was as much as they were going to get.  Indeed, their ambition from the outset did not seem to aspire to victory.   But in face of Barnet’s relentless advance, Leamington resisted so stubbornly for so long that one could not begrudge them a major piece of luck near the end.   They began brightly enough, home goalkeeper Barker cutting out a Talbot cross and then clinging to a Boot free kick in the first ten minutes.  

But the rest of the half saw Barnet pour down their slope.   Top scorer Ray Agglo once had Leamington worried by turning and firing into the hands of David Jones and later rounding the keeper, only for a couple of defenders to prevent him getting in a shot.   Leamington must have been relieved to see Agglo helped off after half an hour with a leg injury.  Certainly, Barnet had no one else with his ability to prise open defences.  

For a while in the second half Leamington came more into the picture until Barnet launched themselves into one final all-out assault.    But with Alan Jones and Brown on fine form, the home side could not find a way through, though Meadows headed against the bar in the 94^th minute with David Jones stranded.  Lemington visibly breathed a sigh of relief.  AP: David Jones, Taylor, Kavanagh, Alan Jones, Brown, Boot, Adcock, Lee, Keeley, Stewart, Talbot.  Sub: Griffiths (not used).

On Boxing Day Brakes played Enderby Town at home.  ‘When substitute Graham Adcock fired in AP’s second goal with his first kick of the match In the 46^th minute, Brakes finally relaxed.   For virtually thewhole of the first half, Enderby’s slick and zippy play caught the eye – and only poor finishing and bad luck denied them a commanding interval lead.  However, Adcock’s goal signalled a better display from a strangely lethargic AP oufit.   [Perhaps they had enjoyed Christmas too much?] And at the end the visitors could have had few grumbles about the final result.

Leamington looked only a faint shadow of the side that had humbled Worcester a few days earlier.  They let Town grasp the initiative and had few answers to the visitors’ early pace.    In the 8^th minute their efforts were rewarded when Cooper sliced the home defence apart with a perfect through ball for Paul Dearden to shoot over Davis’s body.   Mee failed to make it two in the 16^thminute after Dearden had weaved his way around the back of AP’s susceptible looking rearguard.  

However, strong running by Adrian Stewart after Talbot had knocked on a header brought Leamington’s equaliser in the 27^th minute.  Adcock’s goal put a different complexion on the game and it was AP who started to work together with their defence stifling what moves the despondent Town side could muster.    Town keeper Satchwell was carried off with torn ankle ligaments in the 70^th minute and four minutes later when stand in Burton failed to hold Boot’s shot, Stewart dispossessed him for Keeley to tap home.

NLP coverage of Holleran departure

 

Viva Holleran

The news that Paul Holleran is standing down was a shock and a blow.   In days of rapid managerial turnover he has served the club for 16 years and his long spell in charge was recently featured on BBC TV.

Paul has a marvellous contacts book and has developed many under rated players who have gone on to greater things, e.g., Colby Bishop at Portsmouth.   Danny Newton writing on X was full of praise for how Paul had rebooted his career.

Danny Newton said: 'The word legend for this man is an understatement  Signed me when I was close to packing it all in.   Gave me belief, advice and endless opportunity to discover my abilities that sparked my career.  What a man!  I am for ever grateful.'

I understand that Paul has some health challenges and I wish him well with those.

We will not see his like again.   I hope that someone on the board is filling in the Cabinet Office forms for an appropriate honour.

What we must now try and do is find a manager who will stay with us for a while.

I might give my Paul Holleran mask one more outing!

Micky Boot was the hero against MK City

No MK Dons in 1975 but in December Brakes faced cash strapped Milton Keynes City in a league game.  ‘Micky Boot’s sheer class paved the way for AP to pick up a win against Milton – but two defensive lapses almost cost Leamington their fifth home win.  Even those lapses of concentration would not have mattered had they finished in the same sparkling fashion as Boot had provided the opportunities. 

His first pass – six minutes after McCarty had fired in a shock sixth minute opener for Milton – was perhaps the most stylish of all.   After a one two with Talbot, the former Arsenak player hit a superb through ball with the outside of his foot, which swerved into Stewart’s path.  Unfortunately, Brakes’ leading scorer smashed his drive against the upright and was unable to direct his header from the rebound. 

After the break, AP kept up the pressure and in the 51^st and 59^th minutes Stewart displayed his pace to out-run Milton’s defence and blast Boot’s passes into the net.  Stand in keeper Keith Batchelor, signed only hours before kick off, had no chance with Milton’s second from McCormick six minutes from time.    But two minutes later Boost hoisted a curling corner for Brown to nod home the winner. ‘

‘One to forget’ was the headline as Brakes made a midweek trip to beautiful downtown Wellingborough, Kettering’s rival for the title ‘rose of the shires’.   ‘The memory of his dull, scrappy encounter won’t linger on for Brakes – but they’ll certainly not forget the valuable two points they earned in their quest for promotion.   

Adrian Stewart slotted in his 23^rd goal of the term to bring his tally to a remarkable seven goals in the last five games, ensuring that Leamington didn’t follow the way of Oswestry and Kidderminster in Town’s mini-revival.    The goal popped up the pace slightly after the break after a lacklustre first half, yet with defences dominant, there was little to enthuse over. 

On a greasy surface, mistakes were legion.  Little went right for either side in the opening half with no one able to get in an on target effort.    In the 47^th minute, Stewart slotted home from six yards Boot’s free kick after Brown had headed on.   Wellingborough hit back, but their finishing denied them an equaliser.  

As the game progressed into the last 30 minutes, Brakes’ extra stamina and especially Stewart’s pace began to show.   Talbot came close with an intelligent shot in the 83^rd minute, and Keeley too had a narrow miss from a Lee free kick.  

AP, though, had a fright four minutes from time as a Kavanagh and Davis mix up almost let in one of Town’s front runners.  Burnham hit the side netting in the 89^th minute as Town desperately strove for an equaliser, but in the final seconds it was Talbot who fired wide after Stewart had set up one of the best chances of the game.

Bailey’s had a big advert in the Courier pressing their fine furniture and tableware.   Shoppers were urged to ask Gary about an account.  I rather liked their coffee shop which was a nice space for meeting young women on a Saturday morning.   Rackhams had an even bigger advert offering the chance to visit Father Christmas in the toy fair.   For ‘his gift to her’ (lingerie) male customers were invited to ask for Sally on the second floor.