Team: Gettings; Dhesi, Gregory, Sidwell, Burgess (Thompson); Adams, Mort (Shearsby), Timms, Ellis; Agar (Parisi), Nicholls
They came with a growing reputation and left with their stock increased further.
Make no mistake, this fast, purposeful Castle Vale side deserved all three ICIS Midland Combination Premier Division points and all three goals. But their task was made easy by a spineless performance from a Brakes side who barely managed a shot on target all night.
Jason Cadden and Barry Proctor's men easily won the corresponding fixture in September. Unfortunately for them the side they met on Tuesday was unrecognisable.
Remoulded with a crop of ex-Midland Alliance players and morale-boosting thrashing of leaders Rugby Town, Castle Vale tore into Brakes from the start. They were ahead inside five minutes when Malcolm Power burst through a static defence and lobbed the unprotected James Gettings.
The visitors should have doubled their lead soon after, but the impressive James Wilson just failed to make contact with a Ben Usher cross.
Usher did the job himself on 20 minutes, shaking off the attentions of defender Tom Sidwell before placing the ball beyond the reach of 19 year old Gettings.
Brakes had no answer to any of this. Second to almost every ball and seemingly unable to string passing moves together, they could hardly have complained if Matt Tomlinson's shot had gone in rather than hit the bar on the stroke of haIf time.
Harj Dhesi caused a miId stir in the Castle Vale box with a free kick soon after the break, but almost at once Gettings was picking the ball out of his net again. Chris Kavanagh got the goal, finishing well after the defence was again Ieft for dead.
Proctor and Cadden threw on substitutes Steve Thompson, Barry Shearsby and Ryan Parisi in quick succession as they looked for an unlikely way back.
The lively Parisi hit a post and striker Paul Nicholls ended a long spell of inactivity with a shot over the bar, but that was about it.
Even when Castle Vale took their foot off the pedal in the closing stages they rarely looked in trouble against a side usually renowned for attacking football.
Proctor said, "We never got going and we didn't compete. We need to bounce back for Saturday when we have another tough match away to Continental Star"
Cadden added, "There are a few people who need to look at themselves very hard. We'll take it on the chin and learn from it." Match report by Simon Steele
NBB Man-of-the-Match: Ellis
