Bandwagon rolls on as Brakes overpower Oldbury

The unbeaten run will come to an end one day, but Brakes brushed aside the efforts of Oldbury in a one-sided encounter to maintain their grip on the league leadership.

On a blustery afternoon, Brakes kicked off towards the North Bank and Jamie Towers planted a free-kick onto the Oldbury crossbar with less than a minute gone. However, Oldbury's luck wasn't to hold out for much longer as, after only 3 minutes, their defence failed to clear and the ball landed with James Husband who turned and shot into the corner.

The lead was soon doubled when the visitors' defence again failed to get the ball away and Martin Thompson scored with a header from an acute angle on 12 minutes. The one-way traffic continued and next it was the turn of Ben Mackey to get on the scoresheet when, in the 18th minute, he picked up a long ball out of defence and rifled a shot into the corner past the helpless Gareth Massey to make it 3-0. The trademark somersault followed and, in this sort of form, Mackey is likely to treat the crowd to a few more of these before the season is over.

The referee then got busy booking Oldbury's Simon Hampson for kicking the ball away after a free-kick and Martin Thompson for retaliation (but not the offender). On 33 minutes, Adam Knight also went into the book for a foul and, from the resultant free-kick, Jason Barton sent the ball through the Brakes defence and past Richard Morris for the softest of goals to pull the score back to 3-1.

The second half was much like the first with Brakes having nearly all the possession, but failing to turn their chances into goals. Substitute Scott Darroch saw his 59th minute header (which came after Jon Adams and James Husband had combined well down the left) saved by Massey and then was denied by the crossbar when meeting a Josh Blake cross six minutes later. Somehow Massey then scrambled a Darroch shot away to thwart the Brakes striker once again and then Jon Adams saw his goalbound shot cleared off the line.

Brakes finally got their reward with three minutes to go when Tom Bates shot low into the corner from well outside the penalty area to confirm the promise he has shown in his previous two appearances.

Brakes 'keeper Morris had only one save to make in the half denying Nathan Jones after good work by the lively Ramone Stephens and, overall, this was a comfortable margin of victory which could easily have been doubled.

There were second half bookings for Adam Cooper and Oldbury's captain Danny Rochester. To cap a busy afternoon for the referee, Oldbury finished with only ten men after substitute Martyn Allard picked up two bookings in the space of seventeen minutes and was sent off.

Despite the ease of the win, manager Jason Cadden still saw room for improvement. He said "I was disappointed with our performance after going three goals up. I said at half-time that we wanted a few more goals, but we missed a lot of chances in the second period.

We didn't know what to expect from Oldbury after their good win at Quorn last week, but killed the match off with the three early goals. We are not playing as well as we can and didn't step up a gear when it was needed. However, it is another win and there is a bit of a gap opening up now at the top."

For those fans wondering about the position with Richard Adams, now back from his trip to the States, the manager said "I have spoken to Richard and explained that, whilst the door is not closed, there will not be an opportunity for him in the immediate future. All the forwards are doing well and we are scoring a lot of goals. If we had started off badly, the situation would be different, but it would not be fair to him to offer hope at the moment."

Leamington Richard Morris; Jamie Towers; Tom Cudworth; Adam Knight; Adam Cooper; Craig Dutton [Capt.]; Stuart Herlihy; Jon Adams; Ben Mackey (Scott Darroch 58); Martin Thompson (Josh Blake 62); James Husband (Tom Bates 72)
Subs Not Used Morton Titterton; Jason Pearcey

Oldbury United Gareth Massey; Simon Hampson (Martyn Allard 62); Robbie Marshall; Liam Newell; Melford Salmon (Jason Francis 83); Danny Rochester [Capt.]; Craig Gregg; Darren Goodall; Nathan Jones (Simon Carter 63); Ramone Stephens; Jason Barton
Subs Not Used Ben Smith; Steve Broome

Attendance 583

Author's Man of the Match Martin Thompson

Photographs from the match here»