By David Hucker

Young Brakes Put On Title Show

With no sign of the match officials at the appointed kick-off time, an appeal to the crowd saw Bob Smith-Ward donning the referee's whistle and Director Nigel Hodgkins and PA Announcer Keith Hancock running the line.

When the match did get under way, Young Brakes put their unexpected reverse at Coventry Marconi behind them to get their Midland Floodlit Youth League title challenge back on track against neighbours Southam United.

Leamington's greater physical strength and experience gave them the edge throughout and the margin of victory would have been even greater but for the heroics of Saints' keeper Dean Pennells who pulled off save after save. Brakes cut out all the early running with Josh Tolley going close with a long-range free kick in the fifth minute and then being denied again a minute later when Pennells saved with his legs.

However, there was no respite for Southam as almost immediately Leamington took the lead through the excellent Nick Kyriacou who has really improved this season into one of the stars of the team. The lead was doubled on 17 minutes when a Phil Thompson cross from the right was flicked on by Kyriacou to Neil Stacey. It was now becoming one-way traffic and, six minutes later, Stacey got his second, rising to meet a Tolley inswinging corner and head home with tremendous power.

Tolley got onto the scoresheet himself on 39 minutes finding a gap from the most acute of angles out on the left to make it 4-0. With Thompson creating chances down the right wing, more goals looked inevitable but it was Southam who had the best opportunity leading up to half-time only for Adam Harper to put his shot wide with just Lee van der Heyden in goal to beat.

Nick Collen came on for Tolley at the start of the second half and almost immediately, Stacey got his third converting a cross from Thompson. A penalty award on 51 minutes gave Stacey the chance to score his fourth and Brakes' sixth and he made no mistake, sending Pennells the wrong way. He nearly scored a fifth three minutes later but Pennells saved at full stretch.

Ryan Howell was introduced into the attack. replacing Iain Groves and Brakes continued to surge forward with Collen beating a queue of players to put away his side's seventh goal in the sixty-first minute. Howell showed good pace and touch to score twice, the second from a superb layoff by another substitiute Chris Lewis. Double figures were brought up by Lewis himself, after good work again by Kyriacou and a fine solo run through countless defenders by Paul Wilkinson completed the scoring near the end.

Despite the comprehensive nature of the defeat, Southam conducted themselves with great credit and will be a better side next season. For Brakes, two more wins from the remaining five matches will see them claim the Eastern Division title and few amongst the 75 strong crowd will doubt that they have the ability to do it. Manager Alan Stacey is not, however, getting carried away and said "We had to be patient and get last Wednesday's defeat out of our system. The goals were spread throughout the match, although our second half performance was better than the first. In the end, it was a job well done."

Leamington Youth: Lee van der Heyden; Seb Rockcliff; Stuart Poole; Iain Groves (Ryan Howell 56); Lee Scott; Tim Green [Capt.]; Phil Thompson; Paul Wilkinson; Nick Kyriacou; Neil Stacey (Chris Lewis 64); Josh Tolley (Nick Collen 46)
Sub(s) Not Used: Mark Beezley; Alex Shaw