Brakes boss: We deserved a point
Paul Holleran was pleased with his Leamington side’s response to a tough defeat on Saturday as they earned a 1-1 draw at Needham Market on Tuesday night.
Saturday saw the Brakes lose 3-0 at Scarborough Athletic, but Henry Landers’ goal in Suffolk on Tuesday contributed to a useful point on the road on what was an arduous trip east.
And the boss was pleased with what he saw overall.
Holleran told the club’s media: “Coming into the game we knew it would need to be a gritty, determined and focused performance.
"A Tuesday night, coming down here; the logistics of it are very difficult. Needham are another club, like ourselves, that are struggling with their pitch, so we knew the game would probably lack quality, which it did, but the lads ticked all the boxes that we asked for.
"I thought we were much more aggressive tonight; we won a lot of individual areas. I was encouraged with our first-half performance and we started the second-half really well. We had all the kind of half chances; never really felt in any danger in the game, and then all of a sudden, a very clever lofted ball in a channel, really we’ve had two bites of the cherry and we haven’t dealt with it, and it’s in the back of the net.
“We know from previous experiences with Needham how many clean sheets they’ve kept at home over the last few years, and how many games they’ve won 1-0. You know it’s going to be hard to open them up with quality because of the pitch.
“I’m so pleased for the players, because their performance deserved something tonight and it showed their character as well, that they just kept going - a bit of quality - a decent ball into the box, we kept the ball alive, boxed the area off well, and when it fell to Henry - you couldn’t wish for it to fall to a better player at the moment, and it was a fantastic finish. It’s got to be good to beat that goalkeeper, as we well know. It’s the first time we’ve got anything against them.
“I think the performance deserved more if I’m being honest, but it’s like a winning draw for us tonight. I think psychologically coming down and coming back from behind, everyone would have left that ground tonight looking at Leamington, looking at that performance tonight and how structured and hard working it was - that’s what you’ve got to do in this league sometimes on a Tuesday night.
"We’ve done that on the last few Tuesdays, whether it’s Warrington, Buxton and again tonight. I thought we deserved a clean sheet tonight, for our efforts. We should have been ahead after 25 seconds, but we’ll take that.
"It was one night where I was desperate for the players to get something, so I was really pleased that they did. It was thoroughly deserved - there were some really big performances tonight. They needed to bounce back from Saturday, and also needed to put in a proper Leamington performance tonight, which I think they did.”
Leamington now return home on Saturday to take on play-off hopefuls Chorley, before another Tuesday night away trip sees the Brakes go to Southport next Tuesday night, who are currently level on points with Leamington having played a game more.