Hanrahan the Foundation For Vital Win at Bloxwich

Brakes secured a hard-fought win against second in the table Bloxwich Town on Saturday to stretch their lead at the top of the Midland Combination Premiership to nine points. Whilst Paul Nicholls took the plaudits for the only goal of the match on 43 minutes, that secured victory, Chris Hanrahan was the bedrock of a solid defensive display that snuffed out the home team's fire and sent the large contingent of travelling fans, in a crowd of 239, away happy.

The bumpy and heavy pitch made life difficult for both sides, but Brakes' slick passing style was more affected than Bloxwich's more direct approach up the middle. They still had the best of the early exchanges with Josh Blake working hard and to some effect in midfield. Paul Nicholls just failed to connect with an Andy Gregory pass in the fifth minute and, shortly after, an inswinging corner from Steve Thomspon found Chris Hanrahan who put his shot over.

Bloxwich came into the match with Robert Pearce being denied a scoring opportunity by the ever-dependable Simon Walker and then Christian Darby shot across the face of the goal. On 15 minutes, Darby had another chance when clear, but put his shot over the bar. The deadlock seemed to have been broken on 18 minutes when a well-struck free kick by Paul Nicholls looked to be goalbound, but home 'keeper Richard Williams got down late to turn the ball around the post.

Brakes were living a bit dangerously at this stage relying on the assistant referee spotting offside positions and risking being caught out. At the other end, Richard Adams had a shot saved at close range and the Brakes striker then came out worst from a tackle by James Roberts suffering sore ribs. After treatment, Adams continued for a few minutes but was replaced by Stuart Herlihy, himself returning after injury. This meant that Blake went up front to join his old partner Nicholls in what was a potent strike force last season and, with two minutes to go to the interval, they were back in business as Blake crossed low from the left and Nicholls pounced to slide the ball home, 0-1 in the 43rd minute.

Bloxwich came at Brakes at the start of the second half and Stuart Whitehouse had a shot pushed away for a corner by Richard Morris. That man Nicholls again then let loose with another fierce free-kick which Williams palmed away, before beating two defenders and cutting in from the edge of the penalty area and sending his shot into the side netting. The ever dangerous Ricky Baker (for me Bloxwich's best player) went on a run on 61 minutes which was stopped by well-timed Hanrahan tackle. A well-constructed move involving numerous Brakes players finished with Herlihy laying the ball off to Blake only for the striker to put his shot wide.

Blake had a golden opportunity to put the match beyond doubt and calm the nerves with two minutes to go but headed wide from a pinpoint Leon Morgan cross. Then with Bloxwich mounting another attack to save the match, Richard Morris finger-tipped a shot from substitute Ryan Damms over the bar. A goal conceded would have been unjust for the Brakes defence in which Andy Gregory played his best match since returning to the club and Hanrahan mopped up everything that went loose. Ben Adams came forward down the right side with great effect and Morgan was tireless in midfield. All the players showed the kind of committment which was lacking at Barnt Green and Coleshill to carve out a win against tough opponents who could never been taken for granted.

One of the home fans, clutching a pint of beer, abused the Brakes players coming off the field, threatening to see them all in the bar afterwards (I don't think that he had it in mind to buy them all a drink). Without the wire cage separating him from the players, there could have been an unnecessary and ugly incident

There were bookings for Stuart Herlihy and Bloxwich's Ryan Damms and Christian Darby.

A happy Jason Cadden said of his team's display, "It was a hard-fought game where we had to dig in deep and defend well as a unit. It was our second successive clean sheet and ends October in pleasing style. I had hoped that we could be seven points clear at the end of the month and we have beaten that target. But for a couple of silly displays, we could have done even better. There is still a lot of football to be played and we are not yet at the halfway stage, so we will see how November goes."

Leamington: Richard Morris; Ben Adams; Simon Walker; Steve Smith; Andy Gregory; Josh Blake; Leon Morgan; Chris Hanrahan; Paul Nicholls (Jonathan Adams 90); Richard Adams (Stuart Herlihy 35); Steve Thompson [Capt] (Vernor Sleem 75)
Subs Not Used: None

Team News: Richard Adams ribs are sore under the stud marks, no prognosis yet; Steve Thompson couple of whacks in the back, probably OK; Nicholls "bit of muscle tightness", should be OK; Tank, twinge still unidentified, probably OK next week judging by how he sprinted onto the pitch as stand-in physio.