Cup quest still on track as Brakes ease through

This was not a match to set the pulses racing, but Brakes eased comfortably into the quarter finals of the Midland Alliance League Cup thanks to goals from Tom Bates and Dave Pearson.

Despite the pessimistic weather forecasts, this was a sunny, but blustery, afternoon and, until the temperature dropped towards the end, pretty ideal conditions for watching football. When the two sides met in the league earlier in the season, Brakes took the lead in just twelve seconds, but it was clear early on that goals would be harder to come by this time.

Brakes did start off well though, with Ben Mackey and Dave Pearson having good shots in the opening ten minutes. However, the home side seemed to sit back a bit and allow Westfields, who hail from Hereford, to gain the ascendancy. A succession of corners taken by Matt Beale resulted in a pressured Brakes defence clearing off the line and both a free-kick by captain Mark Hibbard and a curling long-range shot from Daniel Moon could have given the visitors the lead.

Tom Bates started to show some nice touches of skill and was on target with a 31st minute free-kick which was palmed away by visiting 'keeper Adam Hodges. Shortly after, Bates created space for himself on the edge of the penalty area, sending his shot just wide. However, it all came right on 34 minutes, when Bates took a free kick (for which Scott Jackson was booked for protesting too loudly to the referee) outside the penalty area and put the ball into the top of the net past the helpless Hodges (1-0).

Both Pearson (from a good cross by the returning Adam Cooper) and Martin Thompson had chances to put Brakes further ahead before half-time, but only a single goal was to divide the two sides with all to play for in the second period.

Ben Mackey, who has been in such sharp form of late, blasted a shot high and wide into the North Bank after only four minutes of the re-start and, just to show that Brakes couldn't afford to squander chances, Moon again planted a shot onto the roof of the net for Westfields. Martin Thompson should have done better with a header from a Bates cross on the left, but had more time and space than he thought. In the 61st minute, Bates took a free-kick from just about the same spot as he scored from in the first half but, this time, he put his effort high over the bar.

Pearson was brought down by Moon and, from the free-kick taken by Bates, Andy Gregory sent in a header that should have been Brakes second, but was cleared off the line. With ten minutes remaining, substitute Jamie Towers sent over an inswinging corner from the right which was met by Morton Titterton, but his header went straight into the arms of Hodges. Then, Titterton sprung the offside trap to send Pearson away, but Matt Morris got back to clear off the line.

However, with the match going into injury time, Towers put in the perfect cross to Scott Darroch whose shot was not gathered cleanly by Hodges and Pearson reacted quickly to score and cap a good afternoon's work (2-0).

Manager Jason Cadden was pleased with the outcome, saying "it was a bit of a scrappy affair and we did enough to win. We never looked in danger of conceding a goal and I don't think that Richard Morris had a shot to save. It was a good free-kick from Tom Bates and Dave Pearson deserved his goal at the end. Obviously, we are pleased to be through to the next round and can now concentrate on Saturday's FA Vase match at Croydon."

Leamington Richard Morris; Jon Adams; Tom Cudworth; Adam Cooper; Andy Gregory; Craig Dutton [Capt.]; Morton Titterton; Ben Mackey (Tom James 66); Martin Thompson (Scott Darroch 76); Dave Pearson; Tom Bates (Jamie Towers 79)
Subs Not Used Josh Blake; James Husband

Westfields Adam Hodges; Matt Morris; Kevin Jinks (Derek Craddock 85); Scott Jackson; Anthony Rivett; Daniel Moon; Ashley Day; Mark Hibbard [Capt.] (Tom Harding 71); Mark Davis (Mark Mortlock 61); Matt Beale; Lukasz Jobda
Subs Not Used Darren Lynch; Dan Taylor

Attendance 433

Author's Man of the Match Dave Pearson