Are you Kidding?

Brakes were simply outplayed in their 0-4 defeat by Kidderminster Harriers at the New Windmill Ground last night. It showed the benefits of a full time squad.

I don't think that Leamington played badly, indeed I think that they played better than they did against Darlington. The ball was on the ground more and there was some crisp passing. But Kidderminster had an ability to pass accurately over long distances. They simply knew where everyone else was.

Their second goal was a cracker from distance. Breeden could have done better with the third. Our best chance came when one of their players headed against the crossbar and we could have scored if we had been more clinical.

Brakes didn't give up and a flurry of late corners gave hope of a consolation.

At least Colby Bishop got another run out to improve match finish. (Dwyer in my view is not the answer). The crowd of 785 was good for a midweek game. But it's going to be a long old season.

Courier report here: Put to the sword

10 man Brakes fight back

Ten man Brakes fought back from a 0-2 deficit to secure a 2-2 draw against Darlington at a very wet New Windmill Ground this afternoon.

Junior English received an early yellow card after he brought down Darlo's Harvey Saunders just outside the box. Breeden made a great save from the resultant free kick.

Darlington were, however, dominant and soon went ahead. (Just how dominant is evident now that I have watched the video, they were slicing us apart.) Breeden made another great save, but then the visitors broke at pace and secured their second. Dwyer then received a red card for a foul.

Once again Brakes were often out paced to the ball. They lacked width and the tactic of hoofing the ball up to a lone striker failed to work. At this stage it looked as if a rout could be on the cards.

Leamington looked livelier in the second half and even more so after Colby Bishop came on after his long spell out injured, followd by a double substitution.

A handball in the box gave Bishop the chance to show what he could do and he struck a decisive penalty to make it 1-2. Brakes then piled on the pressure and Jack Edwards scored the equaliser from a corner.

Both sides tried to get a third goal in an entertaining game.

Leamington are now 15th in the table.

No dogs were in attendance. Humans 765.

Stenson joins Moors

Matt Stenson has been a key element of Leamington's relative success this season and it is a real blow that he has joined Solihull Moors for an undisclosed fee: No Christmas present

Nuneaton Borough face closure

Nuneaton Borough are in real danger of closure. Apart from the fact that I do not like to see even a rival club go under in this way, it wouldn't help us very much as we might have hopes of winning our upcoming fixture against them. I discuss their problems in greater depth here: Closure threat

More problems than the referee

Leamington are 14th in the National North after losing 0-1 at home to Curzon Ashton today. What is more worrying is that they have won only one of the last five league games. The good start to the season is fading fast.

Unfortunately, referee Amy Fearn had a poor game. When I have seen her before she has been good. But the decisive penalty she awarded early in the game was never a penalty, as far as I could see it was two players coming together.

Having said that, Brakes were poor in the first half. They were outplayed by the visitors, were slow to the ball and had just one shot on target.

The performance in the second half was better, but still not clinical enough in front of goal. Tony Breeden had to make one great save and Curzon could and should have scored a second.

The antics of Curzon's No.10, charm merchant Adam Morgan, towards the end of the game were a sight to behold. He kept falling over, but his basic problem was that he was carrying too much weight and had a low centre of gravity.

There's a lot of work to be done if we are to avoid being sucked into a relegation struggle. Too often we seemed to lack any width.

Attendance on Non-League Day was 705 and one dog.