New-look Leamington hit eight goals in opening friendlies
Leamington completed two more signings and then hit eight goals in their first two pre-season games in a busy week for the Brakes.
The arrival of midfielder pair Dexter Walters and Kyle Belmonte made it 11 new signings so far this summer with only Owen Farmer now remaining from last season's relegated squad.
And after Farmer hit a hat-trick in Saturday's 5-1 against Lye Town, they made the short journey to Sutton Coldfield to take on the Northern Premier League Midlands Division Royals on Tuesday night and won 3-1.
Manager Scott Easterlow was absent from the touchline with the birth of his first child imminent.
Of the new arrivals so far, Jahdahn Fridye-Harper and Callum Cockerill-Mollett made their first appearances of pre-season.
There were four trialists in the starting line up, with a further five on the substitutes bench.
Leamington made a good start, and were ahead inside four minutes when the Sutton keeper picked up a backpass.
Trialist A quickly nudged the free kick into the path of Kyle Finn, and with the home defence not set, he fired into an empty net.
Looking to break quickly at every opportunity, Finn was played in by the same player again, but a Royals man got back well to block his shot out for a corner.
Finn is already looking like a shrewd addition by the manager, and he was involved again as Brakes surged forward, spraying the ball out to the left for Trialist B, who took his time trying to find the right angle for a shot, but was blocked off by a defender.
Dangerous crosses in from the Sutton Coldfield left were well defended by Nat Kelly and Kyle Belmonte, but Leamington were looking extremely lively, and eager to get forward and attack.
A Sutton man was booked for hauling down Trialist C as he latched on to a ball over the top. Trialist B fired the free kick just wide.
Fridye-Harper looked to have been fouled in the penalty area as another good ball forward found the right back.
A shot from the loose ball was blocked out for a corner on the right.
This was delivered by Finn, and found Cockerill-Mollett, who thundered home his header to double the Brakes’ advantage - the two former Tamworth men combining superbly.
After a satisfying first half performance, Leamington quickly picked up where they left off in the second.
Substitute Farmer fed Cockerill-Mollett on the left, and his low cross was swept home by Finn on 53 minutes.
There were a raft of changes on both sides after this, which is par for the course in pre season games, but it seemed to disrupt Leamington more than it did their hosts, who came into the game far more in the closing stages.
And after some wayward shots and further efforts that were blocked, Jacob Humphries was forced into his first real save of the evening.
However, he was helpless to prevent James McGrady’s low volley into the far corner with 15 minutes remaining after a ball over the top.
There were no further goals, but plenty more positives for Callum and Gary Ingram to feed back to the manager on the evening’s performance.
The opposition moves up a few notches on Saturday when Brakes welcome Walsall to Your Co-op Community Stadium.
LEAMINGTON: Jacob Humphries, Jahdahn Fridye-Harper (Trialist G, 55), Callum Cockerill-Mollett, Cameron Eubank (Trialist H, 72), Trialist A, Nat Kelly © (Trialist I, 55), Kyle Finn (17 Dexter Walters, 55), Kyle Belmonte (12 Oli Buckby, 67), Trialist B (Trialist F, 55), Trialist C (Trialist E, 72), Trialist D.