By David Hucker

Brakes' Gifts for Smiling Sphinx

A heavy downpour of the wet stuff just before the match left water lying on the pitch but this can be no excuse for the gifting of a match that Brakes should have wrapped up in the first half.

With new signing Leigh Martin having joined from Racing Club Warwick, the attack had enough potency to see off the opposition but, as with last week, the lack of midfield bite put too much pressure on a defence that looked hesitant on more than one occasion.

The first chance fell in the fifth minute when the Stratford defence cleared off the line and, as often happens, play switched immediately to the other end when failure to clear a corner saw Brakes fall a goal behind two minutes later. Parity was restored on 14 minutes when leading scorer, Neil Stacey, headed in a Jimmy Claridge corner. Stacey scored again five minutes later when he coolly placed the ball wide of the keeper into the corner of the net.

At this stage, Brakes could and should have put the result beyond doubt and, with Leigh Martin put clear, a third goal looked certain. However, the Stratford keeper pulled off a fine save to push the ball round the post. The action was now fast and furious and Stratford equalised in the 24th minute when Lee van der Heyden could only parry a shot for the rebound to be put cleanly away. A free header from yet another corner saw the visitors go in at half-time with a 3-2 lead.

Stacey completed his hat-trick on 54 minutes with Dhesi-style free kick from the edge of the penalty area. Brakes pressed forward for the winner but it was the visitors who prevailed with a well-taken goal in the 73rd minute.

Not enough of the players performed well on the night and, at the end, the dressing room was not likely to be a place for the faint-hearted. The team will need to regain the desire to win if it is not to finish at the bottom. Although still in their first season, the players have to see themselves as part of the club structure where progress to the first team is the objective. At the moment, the gap looks too large for most of them.

Leamington: Lee van Der Heyden, James Taylor (Nik Kyriacou 88), Stuart Poole (Paul Wilkinson 42), Tim Green, Lee Scott, Mark Beezley, Jimmy Claridge, Ben Webster, Leigh Martin, Neil Stacey, Nick Collen
Subs Not Used: Matt Mellings, Umbi Sidhu