Morris Spot On as Brakes Crush Highgate to Maintain Title Challenge

On a sundrenched afternoon more suited to cricket than football, Brakes edged closer to the Midland Combination Premiership title with a deserved success over lowly Highgate. Goalkeeper Richard Morris stepped up to score his second penalty of the season to give the visitors a one goal interval lead and three more strikes in the second half safely wrapped up the points.

Highgate fielded a much-changed side from that which went under to an injury-time Andy Gregory goal at the New Windmill last November. Only goalkeeper Jamie Creevy and defender Neil Hodgkiss remained, but any thoughts of the home side causing an upset were well and truly banished by the end. Had Tom Elmes not headed wide with only Richard Morris to beat on ten minutes, the match might have taken a different course, but Highgate's physical gameplan built around catching the Brakes forwards offside and neutralising the creative talents of Jon Adams and Leon Morgan was woefully inadequate against a side that rediscovered its goalscoring touch.

The home team's Paul Finlan was booked for a foul on Adams as early as the ninth minute and, before the end, Marcus Ricketts (for dissent after Brakes' opening goal) and Darren Fields (for a foul on Ryan Parisi) also went into the referee's notebook. Others could consider themselves lucky not to follow and the referee must have been the only person on the ground to know why Jon Adams was booked on 40 minutes when seemingly fouled by his opposite number Anthony Sale.

After a nervous start, Brakes piled on the pressure with the busy Richard Adams causing all sorts of problems. He was unlucky to be pulled back by the referee on 18 minutes when sprinting clear as, whilst Ryan Howell was in an offside position, he was not interfering with play. Last week at West Midlands Police a similar decision went Brakes way, but this time it was not to be. Almost immediately, Howell went on a good run and crossed to skipper Steve Thompson whose header went just wide.

On 21 minutes, Creevy went down under challenge from Howell and appeared to kick out at the young Brakes striker whilst on the ground. However, he recovered his composure to palm a goalbound Richard Adams shot over the bar on 27 minutes, but then watched helplessly as Leo Morgan's header from the resultant corner was cleared off the line. Morgan got the ball into the net a minute later, but the "goal" was disallowed for no obvious reason.

The all important breakthrough came three minutes before half-time when Creevy brought down Thompson in the penalty area. Up stepped Richard Morris, who had scored from the spot against Coventry Sphinx in October, to blast the ball home; 0-1 in the 42nd.

Brakes had almost all the second half play. Within a minute of the restart, a cracking shot from the edge of the area by Morgan was touched over the bar by Creevy. However, the Highgate 'keeper had no answer to Ryan Howell's header from an inswinging Thompson corner in the 73rd minute as Brakes increased their advantage, 0-2. Within two minutes, Richard Adams had converted a cross from his brother Jon to make it 0-3 in the 75th and substitute Paul Eden got the fourth right on full-time, blasting the ball into the roof of the net after Creevy had fumbled Jon Adams' shot, 0-4 in the 90th.

Manager Jason Cadden was understandably pleased saying "we got our just reward in the end. I was very happy with four goals on another bumpy and difficult pitch and our second half performance was by far the best we have put on in the last three games. We agreed beforehand that, if we got a penalty, Richard would take it and he may have got the job on a permanent basis now."

Stuart Herlihy was absent with a calf injury and Paul Nicholls was not considered for selection having been unavailable due to work commitments for last Monday's match at Alveston and for training on Thursday.

Leamington: Richard Morris; Ben Adams; Simon Walker; Steve Smith; Darran Tank (Tom Sidwell 85); Chris Hanrahan; Leon Morgan (Paul Eden 79); Jon Adams; Richard Adams (Ryan Parisi 81); Ryan Howell; Steve Thompson [Capt]

Highgate United: Jamie Creevy; Neil Hodgkiss; Paul Finlan; Stuart Merry; Darren Fields [Capt]; Matt Phipps; Mike Mulgreen; Anthony Sale; Marcus Ricketts; Tom Elms; Leon Reid; Lewis Drinkwater; Andy Crabtree; Omar Zaman

Team News: Herlihy and Nicholls: see main report.