Attendance: 225

Team: Morris; Thompson (Barr), Walker (Crabtree), Rowland (Scott), Sidwell, Burgess (Bahi); Shearsby (Webb), Mort (Adams), Timms (Hanrahan); Nicholls, Blake (Stacey)

Goals: Blake, Nicholls

Leamington fielded probably their strongest starting eleven this pre-season against a Coventry Sphinx side who finished runners-up last season and have already lost three or four players and changed manager since last term.

The early exchanges were pretty even, neither team gaining any real upper-hand in midfield. The familiar 5-3-2 line-up was again in evidence, with Burgess and Thompson providing the width for the Blake-Nicholls duo up front.

With 26 minutes on the clock, Burgess battled hard down the right-hand side. Defender tried to tackle him and clear the ball but missed. Burgess shot across the goal and Blake stuck it away from a couple of yards.

Sphinx equalised right on the stroke of half-time, after a short spell of sustained pressure. Sidwell attempted to clear the ball, but it rebounded of the attacker's head and he stumbled through and fired the ball in off the far post.

Brakes were playing well and having good spells in midfield, but the visitors managed to break through on the left-hand side against the run of play after 78 minutes. Morris came out to meet the attack, but the ball was slipped past him.

With the game seemingly slipping away, Brakes pulled level within two minutes. A break down the left found Jamie Barr who looked up and found Paul Nicholls who scored with a diving header from eight yards out.

It was not to be Leamington's day, however. With three minutes left on the clock, Sphinx tried a speculative shot from 25 yards out. Before Morris had a chance to realise where it was going it had buried itself in the back of the net.

In truth Sphinx deserved the win - Leamington didn't seem hungry enough - but the amount of substitutions couldn't have helped the team settle into any sort of groove. Next week everything starts for real. Bring it on!