Gettings; Dhesi, Sidwell, Gregory, Burgess; Ellis, Shearsby (Mort), Adams (Parisi), Timms (Agar), Blake; Nicholls
The trip to Lye Meadow no doubt provided a throwback to the old AP Southern League days for our older supporters. The Brakes sides of previous seasons have fought many battles on this ground, and there were some of the old heroes present to cast their eye over the class of 2003. Big Cliff Campbell, whom I have had the pleasure of meeting once before, when helping with an interview for the fanzine, and I believe a couple of others were at the game today.
Unfortunately, Alvechurch's ground isn't in the best of states in the present day, not least the pitch, which looked, 'well-used', to put it nicely!
The crowd of 302, swelled by the large travelling support included several young local children, the kind that try to outshout you and follow you to wherever you stand in the ground. Very irritating, but, we're well used to it now!
Brakes began the game well enough, and forced the early exchanges. Jonny Burgess had a good opening on the right of the penalty area on ten minutes, but lifted his shot over the bar. The rutted pitch was always going to cause problems to a team like Leamington, who like to try and pass the ball, and this resulted in a few misplaced passes.
A couple of free kicks were won as Brakes pushed forward, but they were forced back by the robust home defenders. I do not really have a great recollection of the first half, as I was trying to take pictures of individual players for the website, but the majority of the play was in the Alvechurch half, though the home side had a couple of efforts on goal, including one over the crossbar when the ball was not cleared properly.
But on 37 minutes they took the lead, with a goal from their waiflike number three, Neil Finan. From where I was standing, it looked like he spooned an attempted cross over James Gettings into the net, but I am assured it was a good goal. We felt it came against the run of play at the time. There was some unnecessary language from the Alvechurch number four directed at a section of our support along the touchline after the goal. Clearly he had been wound up by something someone had said. We hoped to be able to tell him where to stick his taunts later in the game...
We began the second half in good voice, in the hope that we could spur the team on to better things. The standard of officiating left a bit to be desired, and on more than one occassion the travelling support voiced their disapproval at another strange decision. One that stands out is Paul Nicholls clearly losing his footing over by the dugouts, and winning a free kick! Brakes did not play badly at all in the second half, but they just could not break down a stubborn Alvechurch defence enough to really have a clear opening on goal. Having said that, Gettings was probably stretched more than the home keeper during the half, and produced several good saves to keep us in the tie, which could prove crucial in the second leg, notably tipping a shot from the number ten over the bar, and getting down well to hold a low shot to his left moments later.
A Brakes player whose name escapes me had an effort just over during the second period, and some good interplay, with Nicholls chipping a ball across the box to Josh Blake, was headed down for Barry Sheasrsby to strike, but a defender was covering well.
The story of the game, really. Every time Brakes looked like getting an opening, there was someone in the way. 1-0 is not a disaster, however, and the second leg, with a big crowd and a better playing surface, will hopefully see the lads turn things round. Match report by Paul Edwards
NBB Man-of-the-Match: Gettings
