Triumphant Brakes Go Marching On

The Midland Combination's "Team of the Month" for August (both Premier Division and overall) started September in similar fashion maintaining their 100% record with another clean sheet and a first victory over Rugby Town at the New Windmill. The attendance of 701 was the largest recorded by Brakes for an evening match on their own turf. Brakes swept into a 5th minute lead through Wickson with another before half-time from Nicholls in the 32nd. Care made it safe in the 68th against a dispirited Rugby side who never looked like breaking down a resolute Brakes' defence and lost Lavery to a red card in the 69th to add to their woes.

The pattern of the game was laid down from the start with the speed of Care and Blake on the wings unsettling Rugby's static defence and Brakes' defence looking solid despite the absence of McFarlane and Gregory. The magnificent Sleem has provided Brakes with what they've always lacked until this season, a strong, front target man capable of holding up the ball to allow creative players such as Nicholls and Wickson to ply their trade. After threatening shots by Timms and Sleem Brakes were ahead in the 5th minute when Nicholls crossed after a throw-in from the right for Wickson to make it 1-0 slotting home his first of the season.

Unlike most games this season there was nothing tentative about this start as Brakes threatened to run riot against an uncertain Rugby defence. Blake, Wickson and Care all went close before Nicholls started to impose his authority on the game. He went close, twice, in the 27th minute first with a drive from distance that skimmed past the post and then a turn inside a defender with a shot that was screwed just wide. Nicholls perhaps should have scored early in the 32nd minute when a dipping shot over the 'keeper just nestled on top of the net before he beat the offside trap in the same minute and hammered home from 20yds, 2-0.

Rugby showed little of the threat we expect from them down the wings in another solid, Brakes' defensive display with defenders covering for eachother such that Rugby rarely got near goal. A defensive slip in the 24th, when a forward drove over the bar, was the only real goal attempt in the first half-hour. Brakes nearly went further ahead in the 39th when Nicholls and Blake earned a corner after some delightful interplay but Rugby had two late chances in the first period. The underemployed Gettings showed his usual safe pair of hands in the 41st but could only watch a cross flash dangerously across his goal as the half expired. The chances of a Rugby recovery seemed less likely as some of their players, clearly upset at a refereeing decision, harangued the officials or sat, slumped, on the ground conveying the impression that this was not a side to be feared as in previous seasons.

With the niggling increasing the second half lacked the entertainment value of the first. Rugby played the offside trap and Brakes forwards, scenting goals at every opportunity, were too prone to fall into it. Hanrahan had a header scrambled clear and Wickson wasted a golden opportunity after good work by Sleem and Nicholls before Care made it 3-0 in the 68th. Timms was the architect, playing a superbly weighted ball up the right touchline. Care picked it up at speed and then ran inside leaving a defender in his wake to smash home with his left foot. Within a minute Rugby were down to 10 men with the dismissal of Lavery for dissent.

Brakes brought on all three substitutes as Rugby practised damage limitation with a packed defence. Shearsby ran on goal twice as Brakes sought to realise their dominance in further goals. The supreme force that is the Brakes defence watched events from the solitude of their own half; as one observed after the game "there was so little to do at this stage I thought of moving up to have a pop". This was Brakes' first win against old rivals, Rugby, at the NWG but this evening there was only one team in it. Time will tell if this is largely due to a Brakes' improvement or a Rugby decline but the large majority of a 701 crowd left a balmy NWG, with its excellent pitch and its new club-house growing by the day, believing that the future was golden.

Leamington: James Gettings; David Care; Harj Dhesi; Simon Walker; Tom Sidwell; Darren Timms [Capt]; Chris Hanrahan; Simon Wickson (Barry Shearsby 77); Vernor Sleem (Scott Easterlow 79); Paul Nicholls (James Harri 83); Josh Blake

Team News: Nick McFarlane now living and working in Doncaster but hopefully will make weekend games; Andy Gregory fit and available