Leamington	0-0	Coventry Marconi SS
Timms Shearsby Att: 449

Ten man Brakes hold on for nearly an hour

Team: Day; Thompson, Gregory, Sidwell, Walker, Adams; Shearsby, Mort, Webb; Nicholls (Agar), Timms

Brakes capped September with a third successive poor display in front of a bumper crowd. No quarter was given by a Marconi team who have only let in a miserly five goals in their 8 previous outings. With Josh Blake still out with ankle trouble, Timms again partnered Nicholls in a makeshift front line.

The match started explosively, with both teams having good chances to score in the first three minutes. In the first 90 seconds the ball was swung over from the right, and the in-form Shearsby saw his header well-saved on the line by the visitors' goalkeeper. Within two minutes, Mort had to head the ball off the goal line after his own poor back pass to Day left the latter in trouble. Day was again called on after 5 minutes, tipping a looping shot just over the crossbar.

Both teams were pretty evenly matched in midfield, and some heavy duty tackling from the Marconi number 2 saw the first of five yellows for the visitors. Things went from bad to worse after 33 minutes. A bad tackle on Shearsby saw him react and aim a head-butt at a visiting player who raced over to taunt him. The referee had no choice but to send him off for violent conduct - a charge which could earn him a two to three week suspension, as well as a fine.

Brakes re-shuffled, pulling Timms back into midfield and leaving Nicholls as the lone striker. Leamington held out till half-time, mindful that a superhuman effort would be needed to salvage a point from the match.

The expected onslaught from Marconi never appeared in the second half. A free kick five minutes in hit the wall, and this was about as close as they came to scoring, choosing to sit back as if happy with a point.

Leamington did go close on two occasions. A free-kick floated in by Mort was flicked on by Timms and headed just over the bar for a corner by a defender. From the corner, Webb found himself unmarked in the middle of the box, but failed to get enough purchase or direction on the header which scraped the post and went out for a goal-kick.

With quarter of an hour to go, the tiring Nicholls was replaced by Brian Agar. Leamington continued to fight for every ball, and at times looked the better team on the pitch. Marconi seemed struck by a lack of desire and purpose, resulting to long balls which were mopped up time and again by Simon Walker.

On the face of it, a good point salvaged by Leamington - ably assisted by a team that didn't want to go for the victory which was surely within their grasp. Leamington remain in the top five, and a slight gap is starting to open beneath them.

NBB Man-of-the-Match: Simon Walker

Match report by Simesy