Brakes come back to share the spoils against Brackley
Sat, 11 Aug 2007 @ The New Windmill Ground. vs Brackley Town (2-2). Pre-season Friendly. By D Hucker. Brackley gave a first outing to young keeper Tom Willshire and also included former Barwell striker, Danny Spencer, who was well marked from the beginning by Aaron Parkinson.
Brakes had an early chance when Adam Cooper headed over from a James Husband corner, but soon found themselves behind. In the tenth minute,Tom Winters rounded Marcus Jackson and, with the Brakes defence looking in vain for the referee to award a foul, he lobbed keeper Richard Morris to open the scoring.
It only took one more minute for the visitors to double their lead. This time, Elliot Sandy headed against the post and Josh Green was on hand to crash the rebound into the roof of the net.
Dave Savage made a timely tackle to deny Josh Blake, but the Brakes striker was soon on the scoresheet, picking up a pass from Ben Mackey to slide the ball under the advancing Willshire in the 21st minute. This signalled a period of sustained attack from Brakes and it was no surprise when, on 33 minutes, the excellent Marcus Jackson rounded the defender to send a perfect cross into the box where Josh Blake was on hand again to convert and make it 2-2.
Brackley could have taken the lead again just before half-time, but Andy Williams header came back off the bar. The woodwork was to deny Ben Mackey in the second half, when his fine solo effort deserved more, but chances were few and far between for both sides and drinks breaks were the order of the day as the sun beat down on the crowd of 312.
Brakes were missing Stuart Herlihy and Ryan Parisi through injury and had six other unavailable, so manager, Jason Cadden, had to keep his players on the field longer than planned with assistant, Darran Tank, being called on for the last eight minutes when the referee asked Adam Cooper to leave the field after a bit of bust-up.
With both Martin Thompson and Avun Jephcott suspended at the start of the new season, manager Cadden will have to shuffle the pack again, but he was unconcerned and very much looking for to next Saturday.
He said, We showed good character to fight back and their keeper was busier than either Rich Morris or Chris Gibson. We have come a long way in terms of fitness since our only defeat against Nuneaton Borough and we will work hard this week to be spot on by Saturday."
Brakes Richard Morris (Chris Gibson 46), Marcus Jackson, Aaron Parkinson, Adam Cooper (Darran Tank 82), Martin Hier, Craig Dutton [Capt.], Tom Fountain, Liam Reynolds (Tom Bates 55), Ben Mackey (Avun Jephcott 70), Josh Blake, James Husband
Subs Not Used Morton Titterton
Brackley Town Tom Willshire, Craig Farley, Mick Love, Guy Hadland, Josh Green, Andy Williams, Scott Hadland, Dave Savage [Capt.], Danny Spencer, Elliot Sandy, Tom Winters, Martin Brown, Les Hines, Ollie Stanbridge, Phil Murphy, Robbie Beard, Tony Fontenelle