By Roger Vincent

Brakes' Youth Fall to Premier Leaders Walsall by the Odd Goal in Five

Brakes' Youth put on a magnificent display at a freezing New Windmill playing the top Premier side, Walsall, who had two Walsall Reserves (Atieno and Lloyd) in their side. A goal down in four minutes, against the run of play, Brakes equalised through Iain Groves but fell to a sucker punch in the 41st to go in to the break 2-1 down. A Walsall penalty made it 3-1 in the 69th before a Howell goal in the 74th set up a grandstand finish with Brakes, close to taking the match into extra time, emerging as unlucky losers.

The pitch looked in near perfect condition but, worryingly, a frost was already crusting the white, plastic barriers before the start and may have helped to keep the crowd down to 68, including some late arrivals. Young Brakes, without a match other than friendlies since 27 November, showed no signs of rustiness and applied the early pressure with Tolley going close in the third minute and Walsall forced onto the back foot. But there is always a danger with league clubs that they can turn a game in a moment and in the 4th minute it was 0-1 when, in one flowing movement, Walsall broke down the left and swung across a ball nodded in at the far post.

Stacey and Howell in particular seemed to be able to take on the whole Walsall defence and both came close in the first quarter hour as Brakes battled for every ball. Stacey, who has just heard that he has been selected to represent England Schools U18s, shot just wide in the 10th and Howell ran through the Walsall defence with no reward in the 11th before shooting over the bar from a Wilkinson cross a minute later; Wilkinson had won the ball through sheer persistence and powered down the right flank before crossing from the line.

With the defence winning everything and Scott in commanding form Brakes piled on the pressure with Kyriacou and Iain Groves joing the dynamic duo of Stacey and Howell in unsettling the Walsall defence. In the 27th minute justice was done as Iain Groves forced the ball over the line from a Tolley corner to make it 1-1. Soon after Taylor went on a mazy run into the heart of the Walsall goalmouth as Brakes looked like taking the game. But Walsall defended in depth and threatened on the break. Van der Heyden, rarely in action, made an excellent save in the 38th but Walsall applied the sucker punch in the 41st minute to make it 1-2 with a loose ball driven hard and low into the corner of the net.

Walsall had, probably, their best spell at the start of the second half and Van der Heyden made another good save in the 48th. But Tolley nearly restored parity in the 54th when he took a free kick from fully 40yds and brought a superb save from the Walsall goalkeeper who tipped it over for a corner. Brakes seemed to have weathered the storm and the main concern at that time was if the match would be allowed to go into extra time if scores were level at 90 minutes as a bitter evening became appreciably colder and frost climbed over the sheds' roofs and crept onto the pitch. Then Walsall broke again and were awarded a penalty when a defender clipped a forward's heels, 1-3 in the 69th.

Arguably Brakes had been the better side throughout but now had a mountain to climb. But heads didn't go down and the battling Stacey set up a chance for Howell who forced the ball over the line in the 74th minute to set up a grandstand finish. The three (allowed out of five) substitutes came on in the last ten minutes to provide fresh legs as Brakes fought for an equaliser and, though it was not to be, the fans (those who hadn't frozen to the spot) gave the team a rousing cheer and enthused that they would come again to cheer the team to promotion.

Leamington Youth: Lee van der Heyden; James Taylor; Martin Groves (Nick Collen 88); Ryan Howell; Lee Scott; Tim Green [Capt.]; Paul Wilkinson (Seb Rockcliff 85); Iain Groves; Nick Kyriacou; Neil Stacey (Chris Lewis 80); Josh Tolley
Sub(s) Not Used: Stuart Poole; Alex Shaw