By Roger Vincent

Leamington Youth Do the Double and Stay Top

This was the second time that Leamington Youth have had to fight hard to overcome a resilient Stratford Town side but they completed the double with goals from Stacey in the 37th and Tolley in the 70th to win 2-0. The lowest Youth crowd so far of 55 was probably affected by the uncertainty of when this rearranged match would happen. A Cheltenham Town scout was in the crowd and asking about James Harri (working) and Lee van der Heyden's performance for the seniors the previous night.

Stratford made the early running and forced saves from Van der Heyden in the Brakes' goasl but it was Brakes who scored first when Stacey rose to nod in a Tolley corner to make it 1-0 in the 37th minute. With the half-time break imminent Stacey headed over as Brakes started to impose themselves on the game.

Brakes started the stronger in the second half and Thompson ran through the defence in the 53rd but was blocked as he was about to shoot. Stratford continued to battle and seemed to have seized the initiative when Brakes' Nick Collen was sent off in the 56th for a mistimed tackle when he the last man. Without the influential Collen Brakes' defence was struggling and Taylor cleared off the line in the 64th to prevent an equaliser. Then, in the 70th minute, Tolley made it 2-0 with a free-kick screamer after Chris Lewis had been upended to restore the comfort zone.

Leamington Youth: Lee van der Heyden; James Taylor (Stuart Poole 87); Nick Collen; Ryan Howell (Lakhdeep Dosanjh 68); Lee Scott; Tim Green; Philip Thompson; Iain Groves; Nick Kyriacou (Chris Lewis 68); Neil Stacey; Josh Tolley
Sub(s) Not Used: Lewis Scott

Team News: James Harri working