Captain’s Strike Wins the Day

With large puddles on the fields, and sheets of water washing up and over the top on both sides of the team coach as it ploughed through the Herefordshire countryside, it was a surprise and an unexpected pleasure to find a pitch heavy but playable at the end of the long journey. Moreover the rain stopped and the sun shone brightly, though briefly, before slipping away behind the huge cider vats at one end of the ground.

And for the third time this season Brakes beat the Hereford outfit though, once again, needing a gritty performance to overcome a team low in the table but high in spirit and endeavour.

Yet the measure of a good championship side is winning matches like these in mid-winter, more so perhaps than the champagne football served up on a perfect surface in spring and autumn. And this was Brakes’ 17th straight win in the league with a 23 match unbeaten league run since the start of the season that equals an Midland Alliance record set by Shepshed Dynamo in 1995-1996.

In truth, despite the narrow margin of the victory, Westfields rarely looked like repeating their success in last season’s equivalent fixture because their attack lacked bite. A David Moon strike in the 21st minute whistled past Morris’s post but the Brakes’ ‘keeper was not really tested in the first half though Cudworth’s 42nd minute, last-ditch tackle maybe allowed Morris to go in at half-time with a clean shirt.

But Brakes weren’t much better at hitting the target and found a well-organised defence hard to break down. Blake and Pearson used their speed on the grassier, firmer areas, and Martin Thompson sped down the left on a superb run in the 26th to cross into the middle. But with the centre a quagmire it was the strength of Herlihy, Knight and Dutton that kept Brakes coming forward with Cudworth and Cooper supreme at the back.

So it was perhaps appropriate that Dutton, who’d already seen one shot squirm just wide in the 33rd, scored his first goal for the club in the 54th, and the only one on the day, when he drove in Towers cross from the right after uncharacteristic hesitancy in the Westfields’ defence.

Now Westfields looked dangerous and in a five-minute spell first Cudworth brought down an attacker on the edge of the box with Morris tipping a Matt Beale free kick over the bar and Blake headed off the line in the 58th. In the 64th Westfield’s Jamie Cuss missed a golden opportunity to put his team back in the game but couldn’t convert when clean through.

On the hour, with legs tiring in the heavy conditions, it was Towers who looked as if he might ensure an emphatic win on his own. Time and again he took on, and beat, his defender. And Brakes, as a whole, threatened to take control with 20 minutes left. But a few attempts at refined football in the mud nearly led to a late Westfields’ goal and Brakes effectively shut up shop refusing to let in a briefly resurgent Westfields' attack that included their excellent ‘keeper, Jon Pugh, who made a rare foray upfield as Westfields sought to emulate their late goal surge of last March at Allpay Park.

Leamington: Richard Morris; Jamie Towers; Tom Cudworth; Adam Knight; Adam Cooper; Craig Dutton [Capt]; Stuart Herlihy; Tom Bates (Jon Adams 74); Martin Thompson; Dave Pearson (Ben Mackey 70); Josh Blake
Subs Not Used: James Husband; Andy Gregory; Jason Pearcey

Westfields: Jon Pugh; Terry Green; Anthony Rivett; Jon Hill; Scott Jackson; Jamie Cuss; Ashley Day (Alex Hunt 47); Daniel Moon; Chris Jefferson; Mark Davis [Capt] (Paul Burton 86); Matt Beale (Tom Harding 73)
Subs Not Used: Kevin Jinks; Paul Jones

Attendance: 207

Player News: Jason Cadden missed this one, on holiday in Portugal, but returns in time for Tuesday night and Oadby, Morton Titterton is in Australia for a month, Scott Darroch had to work and Martin Hier is not yet fully fit.

Westfield’s Scott Jackson was awarded the man-of-the-match by match sponsor, Mr Ron Hooper, of Hereford.