By Roger Vincent

Brakes Make It More Interesting

Everything went really smoothly on a perfect day at the New Windmill. The park 'n' ride worked well as did the free bus service from Leamington Parish Church with the result that a huge crowd of 1263, which has league officials thumbing the record books, was accommodated with no real problems. The colourful crowd, all but around 50 Leamington fans, sang happily in the sunshine. The soggy, grey days of only a few weeks ago seemed much further away.

The stall did a roaring trade in everything from cups of tea to hot dogs, the merchandise sold well and the Golden Goal sold out twice. People chatted contentedly, reminiscing about Brakes' sides from a glorious past soon to be emulated by today's heroes. Small children played happily and dogs blinked in the strong light.

In the distance fluffy sheep, like cotton-wool puffs of rain-free clouds, grazed .... OK, OK, I know! I'm in denial, don't need you to tell me that! I was just putting it off as long as possible. Yes, there was a football match as well and we lost 2-0 so the unbeaten record went as well. And Rugby went back top as they'd won a midweek match that hadn't been reported anywhere so they weren't 4 points behind at the start.

This had all the signs of another 0-0. Brakes were the better side though neither side looked like breaking the deadlock. Josh Blake's 3 match suspension, not expected until August, had come through and we missed his speed and opportunism.

I watched a replay of the incident that led to the Rugby 64th minute penalty on the Warneford Hospital Radio reporter's digital camera and no way was it a penalty, though nor was it an intentional dive. Perhaps we paid the penalty (literally) for flapping around our own goalmouth just beforehand. Fortunately their second goal just a minute later was superb so it didn't hinge on that 1 decision.

The North Bank got its come-uppance as the Rugby defence, who had been taunted all match, turned to the Bank as one with their hands behind their ears.

So, what can we take from this? Let's look at it positively. If we'd won we'd have been promoted and pretty well assured of winning Division 2 with 6 games still to go. As it is, assuming that Rugby and Wilmcote win all their remaining games, we still have to get 3 points for promotion and 9 points to win the league.

Now surely that makes for a much more exciting end to a magnificent season and is set up nicely for Brakes to run out for our last official home game as title holders. Much more interesting all round don't you think than some namby-pamby, meaningless games at the fag-end of the season with nothing at stake. Anyway, that's my view of things and I'm sticking to it, despite what my psychiatrist says.

Leamington Paul O'Keeffe; Ian Billington (Jon Burgess 62m); Stuart Hepburn; Kevin Ariss; Will Payne; Darren Timms; Glen Webb; Simon Wickson; Barry Shearsby, Brian Agar (captain); Steve Thompson
Unused subs: Guy Rippon, Adam Ball