Penguins Spotted at New Windmill as Alveston Snatch Draw

According to the song, only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun. We can now add another line which says that only penguins and Brakes' fans go out in the evening frost.

A crowd of 281 braved a cold night to watch a match which had goalmouth incidents aplenty and four cracking goals as well as one disallowed for Brakes. Whilst the result was definitely not what the home team wanted, the match was nevertheless a credit to both sides who did not let a frosty and hard pitch get in the way of fast flowing football. Former Brakes 'keeper, Richard Morris, was made the Alveston captain for the night and he duly received some light-hearted banter from the North Bank to welcome him back to the New Windmill.

Latecomers will have missed all the early excitement. With only three minutes gone, leading scorer Paul Nicholls dispossessed Ben Huckfield on the edge of the penalty area and embarked on a fine solo run, cutting in from the left to beat Morris. Before your reporter could write down the details, Alveston's Vernor Sleem ran through a static Brakes defence to equalise within a minute. To compound the home team's troubles, Scott Easterlow gave Alveston the lead in the twenty-first minute to set up the chance of a shock result.

As has happened before, Brakes came alive after falling behind and a Josh Blake header was cleared off the line on 38 minutes and Morris proved his worth on the stroke of half-time tipping a goal-bound Nicholls' header over the bar.

The second half saw Brakes pushing forward for an equaliser which should have come on 58 minutes when Darren Timms' shot was cleared off the line. Then in the sixty-fifth minute, a cross from Blake found Nicholls alone in the penalty area with only Morris to beat but the Brakes striker mis-kicked. Finally, with twenty minutes to go, Brakes got the ball in the back of the net but, despite two defenders and Morris being on the goal-line, the referee disallowed Nicholls' strike for "off-side". The equaliser did finally arrive on 77 minutes when the excellent Andy Ellis went to the by-line and crossed to Darren Timms whose shot crashed against the crossbar but Blake was on hand to bundle the ball home.

Brakes had further chances to wrap the match up with Tom Sidwell's overhead kick cleared off the line and Paul Eden blasting over from close range. For their part, Alveston took advantage of the stretched Brakes defence and should have made some of their opportunities count.

To the neutral, this was a fair result to a match played in good spirit with little to chose between the sides on the night. However, to Brakes co-manager Barry Proctor, this was a disappointing result which he described as "two points lost, rather than one gained". Neighbours Coventry Sphinx had done Brakes a favour by holding Alvechurch to a draw the night before and there is no doubt that this was an opportunity to stretch the lead at the top that had gone begging.

Leamington: James Gettings, Jonny Burgess, Harj Dhesi, Tom Sidwell, Andy Gregory, Andy Ellis, Baz Shearsby, Ben Adams (Paul Eden 64), Daz Timms [Capt.], Paul Nicholls, Josh Blake
Subs Not Used: Tom Saunders, Nick Mort