By David Hucker

Debut Harri Goal as Brakes Hauled by Braces to Level Top

This was a comfortable win over basement club Cheslyn Hay before 382 sun-drenched fans at the New Windmill. The five goal haul came from a brace each by the evergreen Brian Agar (captain for the day) and the back-to-form Josh Blake plus a fine debut goal by James "Shearer" Harri.

Defender Nick McFarlane made his long-awaited debut in a much changed line-up and the match was, for the most part, one-way traffic as Brakes dominated from the kick-off. Within the first five minutes, midfielder Chris Hanrahan and striker Josh Blake (twice) had good chances to open the scoring. It was left to the experienced Brian Agar to show the way by netting on nine minutes to give the home side a deserved lead. Leading striker Paul Nicholls thought that he had doubled the advantage in the seventeenth minute but his "goal" was disallowed for offside.

On twenty-one minutes, midfielder Baz Shearsby, who had an excellent match and looked back to his best, slammed a free-kick against the Cheslyn Hay wall but then sent the rebound sailing over the bar into the car park. Defender Tom Sidwell joined in the action heading a Nick Mort free-kick just wide in the thirty-third minute and then almost immediately good work by Jonny Burgess (who later received the Player of the Month award for January) set up Nicholls but to no avail. With half-time approaching, Nicholls was twice denied by good saves by visiting 'keeper Darren Walters and the 1-0 interval scoreline in no way reflected Brakes' territorial supremacy.

Within four minutes of the restart, Agar shot low into the corner to create some breathing space and on fifty-one minutes he supplied a perfect cross to Blake whose shot was kicked away by Walters. Brakes followed this up with a fine solo run by Shearsby whose shot was pushed out into the path of the oncoming Nicholls, but he was again denied by an offside decision.

Cheslyn Hay do not have a good scoring record, having averaged only one a match, but they made sure that Brakes would not have everything their own way netting through Stuart Darby on the hour to make it 2-1. This seemed to spur the home side into action as two minutes later Josh Blake took advantage of a partial clearance from a Mort corner to make it 3-1 and then scored his second of the match in the seventy-second minute to effectively put matters beyond the visitors' reach. This was by far the best of Brakes' goals as it involved a superb long pass by the in form Chris Hanrahan to Shearsby out on the right and his cross was dummied by Agar to create the space for Blake to slot home.

It was all Brakes now and youth team striker Harri came on for Agar with sixteen minutes to go and within five minutes of being on the field of play made it an afternoon to remember scoring his debut goal latching on to another precision pass from Hanrahan. Further close efforts by Shearsby (from a fine cross-field pass by Mort) and Darren Timms (on for Nicholls) could have added to Brakes' tally in the dying minutes. As it was, this win was enough to put Leamington back in with a real chance of the title and the future is very much in their hands with upcoming fixtures against rivals Rugby Town, Alvechurch and Bolehall Swifts (on the last day of the season). The arithmetic is simple, win the remaining ten matches and the championship is theirs.

Co-manager Barry Proctor was pleased with the performance saying "we made seven changes from our last match which shows the strength in depth and quality of our squad. We created a lot of chances and both the debut of Nick McFarlane and the first goal from young James Harri were particular highlights for me"

During the interval, Club President David Hucker and popular midfielder Glen Webb presented a memento to sixteen -year-old Ellie Wright of Warwick who was the 10,000th supporter to walk through the gates this season.

Leamington: James Gettings, Jonny Burgess, Nick McFarlane, Tom Sidwell, Andy Gregory (Harj Dhesi 65), Barry Shearsby, Nick Mort, Chris Hanrahan, Brian Agar [Capt.] (James Harri 74), Paul Nicholls (Darren Timms 70), Josh Blake

Team News: Most players rested or with slight injuries were at the game.