Brakes bounce back in style

After recent defeats and draws, Leamington bounced back in style with a convincing 3-0 win over promotion hopefuls Altrincham at the Phillips 66 Community Stadium this afternoon. They have now edged up to 13th in the table.

Altrincham looked really dangerous in the first ten minutes. But then a scramble in front of goal followed a corner and Junior English was able to get the ball home on 12 minutes. A great run at the defence by Jordan Murphy saw him brought down and Colby Bishop scored from the resultant penalty. Then just before half time a long pass from Murphy enabled Colby Bishop to head home the third.

Hopes of the old five were dashed in the second half, but Tony Breeden did not have that much to do, although the Robins won a number of corners. They had a tendency to send the ball way over the goal into the trees and the field and also liked to faff around in defence. But Brakes defended well and Jordan Murphy broke up attacks in midfield.

The linesman spotted something by Jordan Hulme, I think it was having a go off the ball at Junior English and northern charm merchant Jordan Hulme was shown the red card. The linos and the referee actually worked as a team for once.

New signing Mikey Taylor had a cameo in what by then were difficult conditions, not enough to take a view about his potential contribution.

Effort was not enough

No one can fault the effort put in by Leamington's players against Stockport County on a cold Tuesday night at the Phillips 66 Community Stadium. However, it was not enough to prevent a 0-1 defeat by high flying Stockport County in front of a crowd of 604 (no dogs seen).

The visitors were often faster to the ball than the Brakes and showed considerable speed down the wings. However, I did hope that we could hold on until half time but a simple header on 37 minutes gave Stockport their winning goal.

If it was not for two brilliant saves by Tony Breeden, the margin of defeat could have been bigger. For me, Ahmed Obeng, with his ability to get round opposition players, was my man of the match.

The first half in particular was relatively free of fouls, but a yellow card was issued to each team in the second half, Colby Bishop for Leamington.

A Stockport fan said that we had given them as hard a time as anyone in the last twenty minutes. Maybe. According to social media there was trouble afterwards in the car park with charm merchants from up north giving it large.

I'll settle for that

Leamington drew 0-0 with Brackley Town at the Phillips 66 Community Stadium in front of a crowd of 643 and one dog. They remain in 12th place in the table.

Junior English was unavailable because of injury.

Brackley had the edge for large parts of the game with the number of their corners well into double figures. They often seemed to be first to the ball, while Leamington lacked width. We really only had one shot on target during the whole game.

The visitors had an early soft penalty but Glenn Walker managed to send it well wide. Indeed, throughout Brackley's shooting let them down, although Breeden was troubled more than his opposite number.

Brakes looked a bit brighter in the second half, but Breeden had to make one great one handed save to keep them in the game.

Leamington have now drawn four of their last five games.