By Roger Vincent

Brakes Recover from Early Fumbles

Two down in 17 minutes from a deflection and a free kick Brakes woke up to the realities of life in a higher division scoring twice in 3 minutes through Blake and Agar. There were no further goals after the 21st minute in a hard-fought but not dirty game spoilt by a referee who did not allow the game to flow and must have been close to booking every player on the field.

An early defensive mistake went unpunished but in the 7th minute Thimblemill broke through and were somewhat lucky to see a speculative shot deflected over Morris. On 17 minutes Brakes were 2 down after a free kick was driven into the corner past the wall with Morris static. Brakes looked stunned and finally "got out of bed".

There followed a period of sustained pressure from Brakes who scored in the 18th when Billington crossed after good work on the left and Agar touched a back-flip to Blake who drove home. 3 minutes later and Brakes were level after superb work from Agar who, having just given the ball away with an uncharacteristic bad pass, fought back to rob a defender and smacked an unstoppable shot in the corner.

With Billington playing well and Agar playing with great skill and as fast as anyone on the pitch Brakes continued to press. However, although the fast-running Blake always worried the Thimblemill defence, Brakes relied too much on the ball played down the middle. The wing-play of the early part of last season when they scored so many goals seems to have deserted them.

As the match went on it looked as if Brakes would snatch the winner against a team who seemed to be tiring but who still looked dangerous. Blake netted on 50 minutes but was ruled offside while the magnificent Webb, who seemed to be everywhere, went close as did Mort and McGovern. The game was being spoilt by stoppages and I lost count of the players yellow-carded on both sides. Despite Brakes increasing dominance Thimblemill looked capable of scoring on the break and there were some uncomfortable moments with Morris fumbling and Payne clearing off the line in the later stages of the game.

Leamington Richard Morris; Glen Webb; Ian Billington (Kevin Ariss 78m); Will Payne; Liam McGovern; Guy Rippon; Darren Timms (Barry Shearsby 63m); Nick Mort; Josh Blake; Brian Agar (captain); Simon Wickson
Unused sub: Jon Burgess.