Vanarama National League North
Mill Farm Sports Village
Saturday 7th May 2022

Leamington slipped to a narrow defeat at play off chasing AFC Fylde but were far from disgraced on their first visit to the impressive Mill Farm stadium in their final fixture of the 2021/22 campaign.

Paul Holleran made one change to the starting eleven from Wednesday’s Birmingham Senior Cup triumph over Stourbridge, bringing Charlie Williams in in place of Joe Parker.

The young Burton Albion loanee had a shot blocked from a corner in the early stages, and was involved in much of what was good about the Brakes’ performance, particularly in the second half; but the key moment in this contest came on thirteen minutes.

The lead up was slightly unfortunate; Dan Meredith and Jack Edwards collided with each other, the ball running loose to Nick Haughton some 25 yards out, and without a moment's thought Fylde’s top scorer thumped a stunning first time drive past a startled Callum Hawkins into the top corner to give his side the lead.

Devon Kelly Evans curled a free kick over the crossbar after being fouled just outside the box, while at the other end former Brakes midfielder Sam Osborne thought he had doubled his side’s advantage when he ran on to score after Haughton had been clipped from behind, but the offside flag was raised, and in any case the Referee brought play back for a free kick, which was well saved by Hawkins.

There were now two former Leamington men in the home side after the Coasters swooped to take Kyle Morrison into full time football in March, and the defender was a whisker away from his first goal of the season when his looping header from a left wing corner almost looked to have crossed the line before Meredith cleared the ball away. Doug Taylor sent an overhead kick back towards goal, which was saved by Hawkins.

Fylde keeper Chris Neal punched a free kick off the head of Dan Turner, while Edwards was inches from connecting with a free kick towards the far post.

The hosts were unfortunate not to head in to the dressing room with a two goal cushion when Taylor connected with Will Hatfield’s right wing cross with a header that struck the base of the post and bounced back into the grateful arms of Hawkins.

The same player extended the Brakes keeper again soon after the restart with a fierce strike; Osborne doing likewise, before Adam Walker’s shot deflected off Danny Philliskirk for a corner, from which Jack Lane’s header was blocked on the line, with Joe Clarke off balance as he tried to force the ball home.

Another strike from distance by Osborne was directed straight at Hawkins, while good play by Williams saw him strike low towards goal, Neal initially spilling the ball before claiming. The youngster then sent a cross in from the right that was cleared as far as substitute Parker, who shot flew just over the bar.

Williams saw another effort saved at the near post by the Coasters stopper, before Hawkins denied Fylde substitute Stephen Dobbie with an outstretched leg before pushing a headed effort over his crossbar from the resulting corner as the game, and Leamington’s season, drew to a close.

This has been the first season at non league level to be completed since 2018/19, and it has been one full of highs and lows with some great results along the way, but ultimately Brakes have safely consolidated their position in one of the most competitive leagues in the pyramid, and will compete in the National League North for a sixth consecutive season in August.

‘I can take a lot of satisfaction from the performance,’ said Paul Holleran after the game. ‘We went toe to toe with them, although they were probably the better side over the course of the afternoon. We had some really good spells and some really good individual performances. A lot of players have clocked up a lot of minutes this week and they’ve been fantastic. It’s been a great week for us topped off with a good performance. We played a lot of football, made some good half chances and on another day we might have got something out of it.

‘I’ve just said to the players in the dressing room that when times were tough back in February and March we had to dig in and show a lot of character, and we found a way to not get sucked in to where Guiseley, Farsley and Telford have been. This week has been fantastic; the performances, the results, the cup win, and I thought that was a really good away performance and we deserved to get something out of the game, not that I’m disputing that Fylde deserved to win it; but for our efforts and our patterns of play second half - there were some impressive performances again.

‘I’ve been doing this a long time, and this group of players over the last few months have been exceptional.’

Attendance: 1,086 (36 Brakes)

AFC Fylde: 1 Chris Neal, 15 Kyle Morrison, 6 Alex Whitmore ©, 28 Harry Davies, 8 Danny Philiskirk, 3 Luke Conlan, 20 Tom Walker ( 7 Ben Tollitt, 58), 34 Will Hatfield (31 Danny Whitehead, 64), 11 Sam Osborne, 10 Nick Haughton (22 Stephen Dobbie, 77), 33 Douglas Taylor.

Subs not used: 25 Jamie Stott, 2 Luke Burke.

Leamington: Callum Hawkins, Dan Meredith, Stephan Morley, Joe Clarke (15 Melis Bushaj, 68), James Mace, Jack Lane, Charlie Williams, Adam Walker, Dan Turner (17 Manny Olaloko, 76), Jack Edwards © (12 Joe Parker, 64), Devon Kelly-Evans.

Subs not used: 14 Junior English, 16 Connor Taylor.

Referee: Mr Ben Wyatt

Assistant Referees: Mr Mr Joe Cunningham & Mr Matthew Young

Brakes Man of the Match: Charlie Williams