Holleran salutes 'fanastic fanbase'

Brakes boss Paul Holleran describes the National League North as like an 'old League Two' in an interview in The Non-League Paper. 'We are aware we are a small club, but we are run very well and have a fantastic fanbase, so we have to try and be competitive. It's a strong league with some fantastic clubs.'

Talking about the relegation back to the Southern League after two seasons in the Conference North, Holleran said: 'It's such a tough division - some good sides get stuck at that level by just missing out on the one promotion spot - so it was such a blow to be back at that level. We all looked at ourselves after being relegated, and to be honest I was ready to hang up my boots, but after 17 or 18 years in management I didn't want to end on my only relegation.'

Holleran puts the club's relegation down to his own inexperience and the club losing some of its key players, but this year confidence and experience is far higher going into the season. 'We will need to be at it from the word go. We don't have massive squad depth, so we need all our players to be at their best for every minute. We have to make sure we are competitive and reach 45/48 points as quickly as possible.'

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4-3 win for Brakes

Brakes continued their impressive run of pre-season preparations with a 4-3 win over a youthful Birmingham City side at a chilly and wet Phillips 66 Community Stadium this afternoon. It was 4-1 at half time, but the visitors replaced hapless keeper Jake Weaver by Conal Trueman who was much more impressive while Leamington faded a little in the second half. Indeed, they probably would not have won if it was not for a number of impressive saves by Tony Breeden throughout the game which won praise from Birmingham fans around me.

A rather soft penalty allowed Rob Thompson-Brown to open the scoring for the home side on six minutes. The visitors started to come to the game a bit more, but then Courtney Baker-Richardson made it 2-0 on 24 minutes. McDonald replied for the visitors, but Brakes then went 3-1 ahead through Junior English who worked well throughout the game. Good work by Ahmed Obeng on the wing set up Baker-Richardson to make it 4-1 before the break.

The visitors made it 4-2 with what was probably the best goal of the matches and then on 80 minutes the ball crept in from a corner.

Stefan Moore came on a sub, but I don't think he touched the ball once, ghosting around the pitch. It was an entertaining match.