By Paul Edwards

Of Haves and Have Nots

Having just arrived in time for kick-off after getting lost thanks to some wrong directions, I took my place among the other Brakes fans confident of seeing a Leamington victory after reading the report in the last issue of WW about the reverse fixture. Needless to say, the Chelmsley keeper didn't let me down!

Brakes started the game rather slowly, with a few wayward efforts. To make matters worse we then contrived to fall behind to a well placed header after about ten minutes. Backed by the noisy vocal support of some of the North Bank who had taken up residence in the home side's excuse for a stand, Brakes equalised as the dazzling Darren Timms hooked in a shot straight from a long throw by Thommo. The game continued in the same scrappy vein but was lit up by the sending off of Josh Blake and Chelmsley's number four just before the break. It didn't look justified at the time, as all most of us saw of the incident was the two players pushing each other. Apparently, Josh went for 'kicking out'. He was not happy - neither was the crowd! Cue: letting the ref know it! One of many talking points during half time was that we thought Chelmsley's number seven had been booked twice, but the ref hadn't realised!

The second half started well on a pitch fit for Sunday park football, with calamity keeper handing Brakes the lead around ten minutes in. He gloriously flapped a right wing cross straight into the net! Billo's goal though! Twenty minutes later he did it again, allowing sub Si Wickson to bundle in from a yard out. Wonderful to watch. For us anyway! Calamity keeper (we like this sobriquet - Ed) then proceeded to slice a simple clearance out of the box behind him shortly after this, and when he ran back he succeeded in clearing it straight to our new boy Glen Webb, who shot just wide from 35 yards.

The Leamington fans were turning up the noise now, with two or three individuals being singled out for friendly abuse, especially their rotund number five. Other targets of the Brakes banter were the Emile Heskey lookalike up fron (Bruno!) and the rather young looking linesman, dubbed "linesboy" by the wags in the stand!

Chelmsley had little attacking threat, and Richard Morris hardly had a save to make. Town had a second red card on full time when Thommo was brought down as he charged towards the box. The impressive Webbo curled the resulting free kick past the keeper to finish things off nicely.

The travelling fans went home happy in anticipation of the imminent top-of-the-table clash and I thoroughly enjoyed my first away game. BRING ON THE RUGBY!!!

Leamington Richard Morris; Ian Billington; Adam Ball; Will Payne; Liam McGovern; Glen Webb; Darren Timms (Barry Shearsby 68m); Jon Burgess (Simon Wickson 56m); Josh Blake; Brian Agar (captain - sub Guy Rippon 71m); Steve Thompson