By Roger Vincent

Brakes Youth Put Title in Sight but Stacey Dismissal Mars the Occasion

Neil Stacey is a young man with a great talent who spent the weekend in Ireland playing for his country. But that talent will be wasted, and he will be an embarrassment rather than an asset to any club he represents, if he does not learn very quickly to behave on the pitch rather more like his pleasant persona off it. Brakes were 1-0 up through Howell when Stacey lost a one on one with the Kenilworth 'goalie and kicked him in full view of an angry, mostly Leamington, crowd. The referee must have missed that because there was no caution but within minutes he earnt a yellow with another blatant foul followed by another yellow, and a red, for the most innocuous of the three challenges, moments later. He left the field in a cloud of abuse to the embarrassment of the Leamington fans.

Brakes won the home fixture against Kenilworth 10-1 but this was clearly going to be a much harder-fought encounter. Thompson's crashing drive was palmed over in the 11th for the first of many excellent saves by the Kenilworth goalkeeper. In the 16th Leamington were ahead with a fortunate goal when Howell made it 0-1 pushing a through ball that looked to be going out for a goal-kick but turned and crept inside the post.

The central players, Stacey, Iain Groves and Howell were threatening with Collen whipping in some excellent corners, but the Kenilworth defence was looking solid. Groves drove over in the 21st and Stacey went close in the 26th and 31st. Then Stacey self-destructed when the Kenilworth 'goalie reached a through-ball first and was kicked from behind. Within a minute Stacey had tangled again with a defender to earn a yellow and, with the Leamington fans hoping he would be withdrawn before being sent off, tangled again and received his marching orders. A Green header went close but the half closed without Brakes dominating the game and only 1-0 up.

But the 10 men rose to the occasion and started to take control of the game in the second half. Howell went close and Wilkinson hit a post before the industrious Iain Groves dribbled past four defenders driving an unstoppable shot into the corner for a superb goal to make it 0-2 in the 61st. Scott cleared well in a rare Kenilworth attack and Thompson hit the post before Howell made it 0-3 in the 72nd smashing home an excellent through ball from Iain Groves. In the 79th Groves, again, powered into the area to be brought down but Howell's penalty was saved denying him his hat-trick.

The under-occupied Van der Heyden made an heroic save in the 85th when a Kenilworth forward bore down on goal and substitute Martin Groves nearly emulated his twin with a crashing drive in the 87th that skimmed the woodwork. Ultimately this was a comprehensive win, against an improving Kenilworth playing their hearts out, that puts young Brakes within a win (hopefully next Monday at the NWG) of the championship. But the euphoria was marred by a sending-off that added a touch of bitterness to the sweet taste of quality and could have changed the result as well.

Leamington Youth: Lee van der Heyden; Seb Rockcliff; Stuart Poole; Tim Green [Capt.]; Lee Scott; Paul Wilkinson; Nick Collen (Martin Groves 70); Iain Groves; Ryan Howell (Chris Lewis 80); Neil Stacey; Phil Thompson (Mark Beezley 80)
Sub(s) Not Used: Josh Tolley; Alex Shaw