Leamington boss happy with character of side after draw at Curzon Ashton

Paul Holleran was happy with the character of his side after battling for another away point.

The visitors were forced to do plenty of defending before the final whistle, as the hosts continued to create chances.

But the Brakes showed the bottle needed to cling on to another useful away point.

“I think we struggled to start with,” said Holleran afterwards.

"Their shape caused us problems with being penetrating, but we realised that and got a grip of it then, a bit like Saturday.

"I thought we did really well towards the end of the first half then; there were half chances at both ends.

“Second half it was a bit nip and tuck for periods but you’ve only got to look at the quality coming off their bench.

"You look at their squad and you’ve got to give them (Curzon Ashton) credit, they’ve played a big game here on Sunday afternoon but they’ve finished the game strongly and we’ve really had to dig deep in the last twenty minutes.

“We’ve got a few bodies missing and we were trying to get one or two back up to speed and you could maybe see that a little in the final part of the game, but what we do have in abundance is character, and lots of players that want to try and get over the line.

"It’s a really good clean sheet, that’s the key thing, but we’ve had to dig deep second half to get that point.”

The hosts registered the first effort of the evening on target when Tom Peers sent a header into the arms of Callum Hawkins.

Hawkins then made a good save from Peers before Simeon Maye tested the keeper with a rasping drive.

Connor Hampson headed over for the hosts before Connor Dimaio fired wide when it seemed easier to score.

Theo Streete headed over his own crossbar to concede a corner from which Devon Matthews rose highest to head towards goal; Hawkins claiming the ball safely at the second attempt after clawing it away from danger.

Two more awful miscues from the hosts let Leamington off the hook a little towards the end, and while Jack Lane met a free kick from Kelly-Evans at the far post in added time, heading into Renshaw’s arms, Brakes could be satisfied with a well earned share of the spoils.