Gloucester City's 93rd minute winner at Harbury Lane today was a bitter blow and reminds us how hard it is going to be in this division. But I couldn't see how we were going to win the match and halfway through the second half I said to the bloke beside me that it would either be 0-0 or 0-1. He had been at Boston and said we couldn't hit a barn door then so this is two games without a goal. Admittedly it was very hot for an August Bank Holiday, but that is no excuse.
Gloucester City wear the same colours as us, although their team played in blue today. Apparently they call it yellow and black whereas we call it gold and black. It's unclear when we adopted these colours (at least to me). At one time in the past the colours were gold and blue which are the colours of the town. One story is that a set of kit arrived which was gold and black instead of gold and blue and so the change was made, but I can't vouch for that!
There was concern early on when Breeden made a poor clearance under pressure, the visitors won a free kick on the touchline and this led to another free kick near the corner flag, but we were able to clear. We did win three corners in the first quarter of an hour and the third of these led to three corners in quick succession. The last led to a good shot on goal by Daly, but the City keeper, formerly with Bristol Rovers, was able to make the save without much difficulty.
To be fair to the City, they did defend well and seemed to get numbers in the box. Breeden have to make a great save from a fierce shot which would have been too difficult for some keepers. City's Ryan Batten was injured in a collision with Stefan Moore and it was learnt that he had broken his collar bone. The rest of the first half lacked any real pattern with neither side able to dominate.
The Leamington support had been taunted by the City supporters for their relative silence in the first half, but they were in much better voice once they were in the Harbury Lane end for the second half. Craig Owen had to be withdrawn injured and was replaced by Alex Taylor. For a moment I thought that the ball had gone in for the Brakes, but it failed to go over the line. Matt Groves, who had been constantly whingeing to the officials, was taken off and replaced by Scott Wilson who turned out to be our nemesis. Stefan Moore put in a disappointing shot which was way over the bar.
City were beginning to step up their game and they put the ball in the net. It was rightly ruled offside, but sometimes even a disallowed goal gives a team a boost and shortly afterwards they put in a shot that was fractionally wide. Elliott Sandy, who had not impressed me that much, was taken off and replaced by Towers. There was a shout for handball in the box from the Harbury Lane end. They may have had a better view, but it didn't look like a penalty to me. Breeden came nearest to scoring for the Brakes when his goal kick went off the bar as the City keeper back pedalled.
Stefan Moore was taken off and Ricky Johnson came on and for a time we looked more threatening. Breeden had to make another save and put in a good free kick which someone should have connected with. Four minutes were added on and as we sought a winning goal Scott Wilson stormed through and scored. The referee seemed to find quite a few extra minutes, but if we had played another thirty, I doubt whether we would have scored. It's a steep learning curve.
My history of Leamington Town's double winning 1912-13 season is now being printed and will be available in the club shop for the next home game. It is reasonably priced at £5 and as I have met all production costs, all sales will go towards the ground improvement fund. I can arrange to post copies for a nominal fee. I think it's a good read.
