Leamington continued their progress towards the title with a 3-0 win over Bedford Town at the New Windmill Ground last night. Some have said that it was 'easy' and the scoreline would certainly suggest that. However, virtually all the teams in this division are competitive and Bedford showed that they could play football, with their speedy Number 11 (Joel Gysai?) being particularly impressive (sorry for using numbers but I didn't get a team sheet).
The Eagles are not in contention for promotion, nor are they in danger of relegation, but they were certainly up for this match. They brought a small group of vociferous supporters ('there are only three of you singing' was one chant) and all credit to them for making the journey up to Leamington on a cold night. Bedford were certainly up for the match, so much so that things started to boil over and their charm merchant wearing the No.8 shirt was justifiably sent off in the first half which left the visitors stretched.
The teams changed ends at the start of the match with the Brakes playing down the slope towards the Harbury Lane End. The visitors threatened to open the scoring and on ten minutes a powerful shot went just wide of the post. On fifteen minutes a cross skimmed off the crossbar. Magunda picked up a yellow card (and may now face a suspension for two games for ten yellows) and I have to say I thought that on the whole the referee (David Avent) knew what he was doing. The call for a penalty when Stefan Moore went down in the box wasn't one. He often had a word or a joke with the players.
Brakes were coming into the game more and I thought that Batchelor had a great first half (he was substituted in the second, we don't want to risk any injuries to on form players). Ricky Johnson, the target of some complaining in the Sheepside, put in a speculative shot from distance which the keeper tipped round the post. On 28 minutes it was skipper Liam Daly who scored emphatically from the corner provoking a chant of 'He scores when he wants to.' Moore missed a chance to make it 2-0 when clear. On 39 minutes the impressive Lee Chilton burst through to make it 2-0, was one on one with the keeper and scored a great goal. Joel Gysai looked really crestfallen. The sending off incident happened not long after and the foul (difficult to see from the Sheepside, but probably a high and dangerous challenge) led to an outbreak of handbags but the referee decided to keep things calm by not making any more bookings.
The second half was less eventful and possibly Brakes took their foot off the accelerator, but they were still very much in control of the game. Indeed, in the match of the whole, they played some of the best football I have seen from them recently, keeping the ball on the ground and passing well, often in diamond shapes. Stefan Moore looked as if he had a goal in him and made it 3-0 with a great strike on 56 minutes after Johnson had provided the assist.
The attendance was 381, 80 up on the last night game. When you remember that Leamington Town were getting 2,000 one hundred years ago in a much smaller town, it gives pause for thought, although there were far fewer leisure options in 1913. For my part, I am going to redouble my efforts to brush up my Portuguese so that I can try and encourage people in the town's Portuguese/Brazilian community to come. They must like football.
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