20 - The number of games played in all competitions. 15 in the National League North, 1 in the FA Cup and 4 in the FA Trophy. Our overall league is P15 W5 D7 L3 F22 A20 Pts22, leaving us in 9th position, just a point off the play off places. Of course, with the season curtailed after little more than 4 months, teams have played as many as 18 games and as few as 11. The footballwebpages site has us finishing in 11th position based on the points per game method, which would represent our best finish at Step 2 since returning to the National League, and our best since winning the Southern League Premier Division (Then at Step 2) title for the first time back in 1982/83.

5-0 - Our biggest win of the season, v St Ives Town in the FA Trophy.

0-4 - Our biggest defeat of the season, v Boston United in the opening National League North game of the season.

5 - The number of clean sheets kept by Jake Weaver and his defence - Against Curzon Ashton, St Ives Town, Wrexham, Hereford and Kettering Town.

2 - Home wins - This season may have been brief, but one thing it has not been short on is incident - nobody could have possibly predicted that Brakes would record their first home win of the campaign when they were 3-0 down at half time against Alfreton in mid November, but that is exactly what they did.

Our second victory at home came two games later against a York City side who, like pretty much every team in the division, had suffered from being unable to play for a number of weeks due to COVID19, and Brakes caught them on the hop with 2 goals in the opening ten minutes which ultimately won them the game.

1 - Our only defeat came in our opening game of the season, as Boston United ruthlessly exposed us with four set piece goals. Worrying though it was at the time, it most definitely was NOT the shape of things to come.

5 - Our five stalemates all came against teams that would have expected to have been in and around the promotion places at the end of the season, and highlights that once Paul Holleran’s team had overcome their early season jitters they became a very difficult team to beat.

3 - Away wins, all achieved at grounds where historically Brakes have not picked up too many points. Just days after the incredible comeback against Alfreton we travelled to Curzon Ashton’s Tameside Stadium and finally registered a win there at the fifth attempt, thanks mainly to a masterful performance from Sam Osborne and an absolute screaming strike from Jack Lane of all people.

The second win came at Bradford (Park Avenue), whose Horsfall Stadium had been an unhappy hunting ground for Brakes, who had lost on all 5 of their previous visits until a 3-0 win in 2019/20 finally broke their duck. They hit three goals again to record a second successive win up in West Yorkshire, Sam Osborne with a brace again and Simeon Maye bagging his first goal for the club in between times.

Our third victory came in what turned out to be our final league match of the season, at Chorley’s Victory Park. It was another ‘first’, having lost two and drawn one of our previous fixtures there, but goals from Kaiman Anderson and a late penalty from debutant Dan Turner earned us a very good win against a side who had pushed Premier League Wolverhampton Wanderers all the way in the FA Cup just days earlier.

2 - Draws, picked up at tough places to go to. Captain Jack Edwards’ late strike earned us a first ever point at Farsley Celtic, which was also our first point of the season, while we picked up another at Aggborough in the next game against Kidderminster Harriers, a match we could easily have won.

2 - Defeats - Our only losses on the road in National League North came at Chester, where we were arguably unfortunate to come out on the wrong side of a five goal game, and at almost season long leaders Gloucester City, where we were again probably worth a point on the balance of play.

Only 3 defeats in fifteen league games is certainly not a record to be sniffed at, and further underlines the progress that was being made by the squad.

10 - Ten different players shared the Man of the Match awards, highlighting just how much of a team effort went into our games. Kyle Morrison picked up four of the 18 awarded (We didn’t have one in our opening two games for some reason), so he is unofficially our Player of the Season! Close behind him was fellow new boy Simeon Maye with three, while Sam Osborne, Jack Lane and Dan Meredith all picked up two. Josh Martin, Kaiman Anderson, Jake Weaver, Lance Smith and Danny Waldron all claimed one a piece.

8 - The number of goals Brakes scored in the final ten minutes (plus added time) of games. 5 of these came in league games, and their value really cannot be understated as they earned us 6 points from losing & drawing positions that would have changed our league position greatly had they not been scored.

3 - Leamington developed an exciting habit of scoring goals in added time during this shortest of seasons, the first of which, from Jack Edwards, completed the astonishing comeback against Alfreton. Incredibly, the lads did it again in the following home game, as AFC Fylde paid the price for missing a stack of chances when Sam Osborne netted in the 93rd minute to send them home with one point instead of three. Fylde must have liked what they saw, as our Sam is now a Coaster, but he made a tremendous impact in the short time he was with us, his 9 goals coming in the space of just 7 games.

4 - After Sam’s departure, Lance Smith was our top scorer in all competitions with four goals, along with Junior English. Injury prevented him from making more appearances, but his impact on the team was there for all to see. Junior's four goals all came in the league. 

3 - Danny Waldron, Jack Edwards finished on 3 goals. Danny’s all came in the FA Trophy, as did one of Jack’s. Jack Lane (2), Taylor Allen, Kaiman Anderson, Simeon Maye, Dan Meredith and Dan Turner were our other scorers.

20 - Four members of the Brakes squad played in every single game. They were: Jake Weaver, Jack Lane, Kyle Morrison and Stephan Morley. Josh Martin played 15 of his 16 games at right back, making for a very settled and competent defensive unit. What turned out to be our final game of the season saw Steph move on to 250 appearances for the club in his second spell with us. He is the third highest appearance maker in the current squad after James Mace on 402, and Jack Edwards, who is closing in on the 300 club with 288.

28 - The number of cards picked up in games during this season - 27 yellows and 1 red.

7 - The number of debutants for the club during this season. 5 made their first appearance for Leamington in our first game of the season.

330 - When making his debut at Chorley on January 12th, Dan Turner became the 330th player to feature for Leamington since the renaissance in 2000.

561 - The number of games Paul Holleran has now taken charge of as manager.

Photo Credit: Stefan Willoughby, Alun Roberts, Darren Clay & Dean Williams