Ale and Camaraderie

Ale and camaraderie flowed and 786 people turned out to celebrate two great teams on an excellent pitch. Coventry City fans also have something to celebrate after Saturday and there was a fair sprinkling of fans in sky blue on a warm afternoon only occasionally dampened by a sprinkling of another kind.

Howell was the first to strike in the 11th heading the ball past Ogrizovich in the Coventry goal. The towering, good humoured Oggy looks little different from his playing days though a little hair is missing from the top of his head, no doubt where it's been rubbed away by the tops of door frames. Herlihy doubled the score in the 26th with another header, this time from a Ben Adams corner.

Whether money had changed hands I know not but each half was reduced to 40 minutes so it was seven minutes into the second half when Blake chipped Ogrizovich in the 47th from a Richard Adams pass. In the 52nd it was 4-0 as Richard Adams ran through a tiring defence to round Ogrizovich and slot home.

Leon Morgan displayed his usual silky skills and hit the woodwork twice but next to strike was Coventry's Dave Bennett who slotted home an excellent strike to finish the scoring at 4-1 in the 58th after a good passing movement by a Coventry side who seemed to get quicker as the game wound down.

Intriguingly Racing boss, Marcus Law, took over in the Coventry goal, no doubt to get some first-hand experience of facing Brakes' rampant forwards. One of his first tasks was to keep out Martin Thompson who came off the bench looking strong, fit and full of goals.

This was an excellent day, in large part due to the quiet good humour of David Phillips' Coventry side who showed they can still put on a show and refused to be intimidated by some earnest young men from Leamington. The takings will be shared equally between Leamington FC and Coventry's charity, the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme.

An auction of signed shirts from over 20 league and Welsh International sides, with those proceeds entirely for the D of E, was conducted by Leamington's Adrian Barton in the clubhouse after the match; he has the loudest voice. Ably assisted by David Phillips this raised an extraordinary amount, so much so that I don't trust I heard the estimated amount correctly. But this figure, and all other accounts will be presented in their entirety soon.

A big thanks to all those who helped, in so many ways, to make it a special day to round off a special season.

Leamington: Richard Morris (Andy Harper 62); Jon Burgess; Ben Adams; Steve Smith; Ryan Parisi (Andy Gregory 51); Jon Adams; Stuart Herlihy; Richard Adams; Paul Nicholls (Leon Morgan 46); Darren Timms (Darran Tank 51); Josh Blake; Ryan Howell (Richard Adams 46); Steve Thompson [Capt] (Martin Thompson 61)

Coventry City Select XI From: Steve Ogrizovich; Les Robinson; Tom Cudworth; Micky Gynn; Trevor Peake; Dave Titterton; David Phillips; Brian Borrows; Cyrille Regis; Marcus Law; Dave Bennett; Rob Betts; Dan Anderson; Dan Harris; Howard Raven; Rob Claverly; Paul Culpin