League & Cup Results 2002/03
home -> leamington fc era -> results 2002/03 -> match report
Romulus 1 Leamington 2  - 31/08/02 - Midland Combination Premier Division Taken from the Leamington Courier Online

GOALS from Brian Agar and Paul Nicholls gave Brakes a winning start to their Icis Midland Combination Premier Division travels on Saturday. They came from behind to take the points at Sutton Coldfield's Coles Lane ground, ousting the side who were occupying second place in the fledgling table.   A goal down after 22 minutes, Brakes took the lead before half-time and held out in the second half to stay close on the heels of leaders Rugby Town. With Josh Blake not recovered from an injury picked up on bank holiday Monday, Brian Agar partnered Paul Nicholls up front. In the early stages, it was Nicholls who had the best chances but, unusually for him, his shooting was off-target. With the wind at their backs, Romulus caused the visitors plenty of problems from long punts up field by goalkeeper Derek Dudley and it was from one of these that Matt Hawker scored via the post to give them the lead.   Brakes kept to their task and on 38 minutes the excellent Glen Webb combined with Chris Hammond and Nicholls to set up Agar for his first goal of the season. On the stroke of half-time, a cross from deep on the left by captain Steve Thompson was met by Nicholls, whose header went in to the top corner.   With Darren Timms battling hard in midfield and Simon Walker approaching his best form of last season, Brakes withstood everything Romulus threw at them in the second half. Nicholls could have extended the lead on 64 minutes when he picked up a through ball from Thompson but shot straight at the keeper.   Young Mark Rowland also had a good match in the centre of the defence and Nick Mort, returning to the side as a second-half substitute for Jag Bahi, almost scored on 78 minutes, shooting just wide. This was a solid performance against a side that will be hard to beat this season. Co-manager Barry Proctor was understandably pleased with his side's fourth win in five matches.   "We created a lot of openings early on and all credit to Paul for his goal, which was probably the hardest of his chances. We competed well in the second half and restricted Romulus to few opportunities," he said. The crowd of 172 was mainly composed of visiting supporters and was the largest Romulus had attracted for two seasons