A Brake With Tradition

With a move away from the traditional back-to-back Kidderminster games this season, for which we should probably be thankful, it’s a trip to Warwickshire on New Year’s Day as the Bulls look to bounce back from a sobering Boxing Day with a match against Leamington. Hereford will go into this one unbeaten for the whole year to date. 

The Brakes were promoted from the Southern League Central last season after finishing 11 points behind Telford and 15 behind champions Needham Market. They did it by being tactically astute (which admittedly is a phrase I’m using partially as a euphemism for being past masters at the dark arts) and maximising the return they get from their resources, courtesy of shrewd manager Paul Holloran.

Leamington have had a curious start to the season since returning to the National League North after just one year away. They climbed into the play-off places in November, but since then have lost seven of their last eight games, resulting in them now sitting in 18^th place, just five points clear of the relegation places. The single win in that miserable run, in typical topsy-turvy NLN fashion, was a 4-1 victory over then-leaders Curzon Ashton. 434 people watched that game, a figure that could be surpassed by the away support alone on Wednesday.

Despite current form, their home record is still very strong, with six wins and just two losses in their ten games at the Your Co-op Community Stadium.

Central midfielder and ex-captain Jack Edwards is now in his 11^th season at Leamington, a decade-and-a-bit that has presumably featured some high points, but he’ll be remembered most by Bulls fans for his entirely unwarranted assault on Luke Haines in 2021, leaving the latter temporarily blinded.

Dan Turner recently returned to the club on loan from Chester. His previous spell at the Brakes produced 26 goals in 75 games, earning him a move to Brackley which didn’t work out.

However, Cally Stewart is their big dangerman, with 14 goals already this season. The centre forward arrived from Coventry Sphinx in the summer and looks like a real find.

The Leamington pitch is rarely if ever one that could be described as manicured, and would give Ben Bowen nightmares, and it may have contributed to that strong home record.

As for the visitors, hopefully the defeat to Kidderminster can be put to one side and forgotten about to stop it affecting the momentum that had been building prior to it. Harriers look likely to now go on and win the league on the basis of current form, but if a Boxing Day hangover can be avoided the Bulls are still well in the mix for a play-off place finish, and have nothing to fear from the bulk of the sides in the division, including Leamington.

Ryan Bartley should hopefully now be recovered enough from his illness to warrant a starting place, completing a back four that had been looking imperious prior to his absence. Sammy Robinson can then move into the defensive midfield role that seems to suit him very well. With the Derby loanee set to return to his parent club after this game, it’s at least a reassurance that Aaron Skinner will hopefully be available soon to slot in as his more than capable replacement. However, that ‘soon’ won’t be soon enough for the trip to South Shields on Saturday, or several games after that, so if Paul Caddis can secure Bartley’s extended services to cover the entirety of Skinner’s rehabilitation that would be a big boost. There is of course the danger of Derby wanting Bartley to be farmed out again higher up the pyramid after such a successful spell at Edgar Street, to accelerate his development.

That imperious back four will have to be at its best here too, because for a bottom eight club the Brakes have, in Stewart and Turner, a potent front pairing.

With the Leamington pitch not usually being an ideal surface for passing a football on, going longer is almost subconsciously the preference, and that’s not an approach that necessarily plays to the strengths of Jason Cowley or Jaiden White, so Paul Caddis may consider a little bit of chopping and changing up top, with Willo, Ahkeem Rose and Adam Rooney all presumably fully fit and available as alternatives. It’s also going to be windy, so ‘winning ugly’ may be the name of the game.

Happy new year everyone. Here’s to a 2025 of floodlight erection and Blackfriars End progress. A 2025 of play-offs followed by promotion followed by somehow surviving at a level higher in a financially sustainable way. Finally, and most speculatively, a 2025 in which we beat Kings Lynn. 15 February folks – I know, I know…it’s a crazy notion.

COYW