By Roger Vincent

Brakes Lead Twice But Lose at the Last

The full moon shone like an extra floodlight over an impressive ground but the busy traffic on the adjacent M5 was more in keeping with a game that could have gone either way but at times seemed to be going nowhere.

Neither team looked like scoring until the 25th minute when Mellings jinxed around three players before passing to Wilkinson who slipped it into the path of the diminutive Grainger. Grainger drove the ball low into the corner of the net for a superbly worked goal to put Brakes 1-0 ahead.

With Van Der Heyden looking confident in goal on his return from a loan period at Nuneaton it began to look like Brakes' night. Then, in the 37th, just as they seemed to have pulled Oldbury's sting, the ball broke free in the box and was driven home through a ruck of players for the equaliser. But within three minutes Brakes had the lead once more when a Tolley corner was fumbled by the goalkeeper and Scott netted.

With Brakes on top they were unlucky to concede a second equaliser when Oldbury took a 25 yard free kick which, though well struck, was going nowhere until a deflection diverted it onto the inside of Van Der Heyden's post with the Brakes' goalie stranded. However, Tolley was looking dangerous and Brakes went close to restoring their lead as a Tolley cross was just headed over by Scott.

In the 53rd minute the referee missed a clear handball in the Oldbury box and Oldbury, perhaps feeling that they had been let off the hook yet again, started to impose their greater size and speed on a tiring Brakes. In the 63rd they notched the winner from a free header after a corner from the left. Kyriacou replaced Beezley soon after and his speed threatened to restore Brakes' fortunes but by the time Collen and Pett replaced Poole and Tolley in the 80th the game was beyond their reach.