Brakes’ Wembley Dream in Ashes

Brakes looked ring-rusty after 10 days of weather-enforced idleness and paid the price for an early defensive aberration when they were caught cold by a second sucker punch before half-time. They mostly dominated the first half, after a nervy start, with some superb passing football but gave themselves a mountain to climb by pushing the game too soon.

Goalkeeper Pearcey, who had very little to do in the first half, kept Brakes in the game with a string of fine saves at the start of the second. But Brakes fought back only to succumb to two more goals forged from defensive lapses as they threw caution to the wind though Blake’s 84th minute consolation was, by far, the best goal of the match.

After much recent rain this match was played in bright sunshine on a pitch that, though well-sanded, was firm and fast with no evidence of the promised cloying mud. Nearly 900 fans, predominantly Brakes’, gathered in a superb setting with white, concrete terracing on three sides and a large stand above the players’ entrance rising to hospitality suites and a bar.

Both teams started nervously but Towers broke out of defence twice in the opening minutes with Brakes looking the more threatening side. However, the pattern for the rest of the game was set when a long raking cross into the box by Agoo was heading comfortably into the waiting arms of ‘keeper Pearcey with no Curzon defender in contention when Knight headed into his own goal in the 10th minute, 1-0.

Brakes looked determined to overcome this minor setback in double quick time and perhaps sowed the seeds of their own undoing by seeking to get back on terms as soon as possible when they might have prevailed with a more measured approach.

This was a purple patch with Brakes stringing together a succession of passes as they dominated the midfield without providing the final, telling pass. But their apparent dominance was their undoing as they pushed the game with both Adams and Knight going close so that when the ball broke upfield, after a Brakes’ free kick on the right, 40-goal Nick Allen found himself unchallenged to run on and slip the ball under the advancing Pearcey, 2-0 in the 39th.

At the start of the second half Pearcey, who’d had little to do in the first, brought off a string of fine saves to keep Brakes in contention flinging himself across his goal in the 51st and diving at a forward’s feet a minute later. Brakes broke occasionally but Curzon had done their homework and Towers was well-marshalled with Mackey rendered ineffective by being kept at distance from where he doesn’t score.

Pearcey, again saved the day with a dive at the post in the 56th and a superb reaction save just afterwards. In the 60th large sections of the crowd thought that Brakes were back in the game when Towers worked himself into a dangerous position on the right and crossed for Mackey to volley into the side-netting. The crowd, encouraged, roared on the Brakes who pushed the game, inevitably opening gaps at the back. At this stage it could have gone either way but again the ball came back with Brakes attacking and this time it was Shirley who drove home for 3-0 in the 71st running past a depleted defence.

Now there was no point in caution and Brakes threw everything at Curzon but, in doing so, allowed Cahill the room to make it 4-0 in the 78th. But some pride was restored when Blake ran past the Curzon defence with seeming ease to crash the ball into the net for 4-1 in the 84th, arguably the best goal of the match which, belatedly, set fans wondering what might have been if the Curzon defence had been exposed so ruthlessly earlier in the game.

Inevitably there is huge disappointment but Brakes reached the last eight of a national competition and lost to a team whose record matches their own, who had home advantage and could well go all the way. On another day, with a different start, the outcome could have been very different. The crowd warmly applauded them from the pitch and, it is to be hoped, will turn out in large numbers once again for the bread and butter league match next Tuesday evening at the NWG against Boldmere.

Leamington: Jason Pearcey; Jamie Towers; Adrian Fuller; Adam Knight (Andy Gregory 77); Martin Hier; Craig Dutton [Capt]; Morton Titterton (Dave Pearson 75); Jon Adams (Tom Bates 63); Ben Mackey; Josh Blake; James Husband
Subs Not Used: Adam Cooper; Richard Morris

Curzon Ashton: David Carnell; David Birch [Capt]; Steven Clegg; Andrew Watson; Adam Jones; James Agoo (Liam Shirley 67); Steven Moore; Chris Worsley (Ben Blease 90+4); Michael Norton; Nick Allen; Wayne Cahill (Chris Holt 88)
Subs Not Used: Anthony Leech; David Fish

Attendance: 898

Photographs from the match here»