By David Hucker

Young Brakes Go Goal Crazy

Leamington again met Kenilworth Town in the season's opening fixture and put on a dazzling display, capped by a second-half hat-trick from substitute Chris Lewis. Two goals apiece for last season's leading scorer Neil Stacey, Josh Tolley and Ryan Howell together with one for Nick Kyriacou completed the scoring.

The starting line-up boasted ten players from last season's squad with Ryan Howell the only new face. Stacey opened the scoring after only three minutes heading in a Josh Tolley corner, but the home side's celebrations were short-lived as Rickylee Moore levelled direct from a corner two minutes later.

From then on, the visitors were back-pedalling and four more goals went in before half-time to make the score 5-1. With Brakes having won the corresponding fixture 7-1 last season, the question for the 64 strong crowd was could they keep up the scoring in the second half.

It took only three minutes to find out as Ryan Howell scored his second and the side's sixth to mark his debut in the best possible way. Josh Tolley curled a free kick into the top corner on 68 minutes to equal last season's score but a minute later Tim Green headed off the line to deny Kenilworth a second. Any remaining resistance was snuffed out by Chris Lewis who came on as substitute for Neil Stacey and scored three goals in the final ten minutes to bring up double figures.

Both Howell and Kyriacou put in impressive performances and Josh Tolley seemed to be revitalised showing the form that brought him trials at Wolves and Leicester last season. But it was Chris Lewis who caught the eye with clinical finishing on a night that he will remember.

Manager Alan Stacey was not getting carried away saying "I thought that we were nervous to begin with and this showed in some sloppy play. I told the players at half-time to relax and play football and more goals would come. In the end it was a good result".

Leamington: Lee van der Heyden; Alex Shaw; Matt Melling (Phil Thompson 76); Mark Beezley (Capt.); Lee Scott; Tim Green (Ben Halstead-Smyth 79); Josh Tolley; Lakhdeep Dosanjh; Neil Stacey (Chris Lewis 71); Ryan Howell; Nik Kyriacou