Easter Rise Required at Leamington For Promotion Chasing Brackley Town

With a 1-0 home win to Easter on Good Friday , Brackley Town FC are at the top of the league to Kidderminster on equal points. Kidderminster lead with a 20 goal difference to Brackley but face a harder match today at home to 5th placed Hereford. If Kidderminster slip up with a draw or loss today and Brackley beat middle of the league, Leamington Spa, they will go top with a chance of possible promotion as they move towards their final match at the end of the season.

A packed very vocal away end at Leamington FC full of Brackley Supporters

Brackley and Leamington greet each other for Brackley make or break promotion match.

With a more vocal support than normal from

its set of supporters, Brackley opened the first five mins cautiously taking few risks and allowing Leamington to get a few runs of their own on goal. In the 6th min, Leamington took advantage of Brackley’s opening nervous and cautious play and got a header shot on goal followed by another. In the 8th minute, Brackley retaliated with a diving head shot on goal of their own followed by a corner kick and goal mouth scramble which showed Brackley were prepared to take risks, get the gloves off and fight for a win in this do or die match. In the 11th minute, the Leamington goal keeper mishandled a dangerous ball on the left side which allowed the ball to hit the right hand post and dribble into the back of the goal giving Brackley an early one lead. Unfortunately for Brackley, promotion rivals, Kidderminster and Scunthorpe were also one nil up in their matches after the first ten mins. In the 20th minute, came the news that Kidderminster were two nil up against Hereford. Hereford could not afford to let this match go as they stood a chance of losing out on a play off place if Chorley also 1-0 in their match and got another to steal Hereford play off of place, if they did. For the remainder of the first half, all Brackley could hope for was that Hereford would fight their way back into their matches after whilst holding onto or extending their lead against Leamington. By the third quarter of the first half, the match had hit a bit of a lull with Leamington fighting back. In the 28th minute, Brackley got a run in and a close shot on goal to try and counter Leamington’s alarming ascendancy. In the 32 nd min, another scramble in the Leamington penalty area led to a possible foul and possible hand ball penalty cry from Brackley’s strikers but the referee was having none of it and waved play on. In the final mins of the first half, news came in that Hereford had got one back at Kidderminster giving Brackley some hope that the result lottery might go more their way in the second half.

At the weather got better in the second half, everybody was wondering if the same would happen for Brackley’s fortunes as the sun came out and started to shine.

Second half shines on the more vocal Brackley supporters after they have changed ends during half time

The opening 10 mins were rocky for Brackley as they allowed Leamington to get more back into the match and create dangerous uncalled for chances. As Leamington improved their play on the pitch, so did the vocal noise from their supporters keen to silence the away end. However in the 18 th minute of the second half, Brackley pulled off a surprising counter attack which quickly got through the Leamington defence to put the goal at the back of the net and extend their lead to 2-0. However despite the extension on the their lead the results lottery was not going their way, Scunthorpe and Chester had also extended their lead to 3-0 up in their matches and Kidderminster were now running away with it with a now 4-1 lead against Kidderminster.

With a good 1,108 attendance reflecting the high interest in this game, u fortunately for Brackley the match was not making anything more clearer or certain for them in terms of their promotion chasing. With Kidderminster and Brackley both facing easier matches in their final matches, nothing but a follow on Easter miracle would stop the inevitability of another 7th end of season play off fight to look forward to for Brackley. If the results lottery had gone more their way, an automatic promotion place would have looked possible, as it was the results lottery letting them down rather than their performance on the pitch in this match.