BRAKES manager Paul Holleran says his side must “find the answers” to the questions being asked of them, after Leamington slipped to a second-successive defeat in National League North.
Saturday’s 3-0 home reverse against Farsley Celtic, in which Adam Clayton and Nathan Cartman added to Jimmy Spencer’s first-half strike, was Leamington’s fourth defeat of the season and drops them down to 13th.
Holleran called it the perfect example of a game of two halves, and said the outcome could likely have been much different had the Brakes made full use of their first-half chances.
“You’ve seen a first half performance that resembled what we’ve been trying to do in training this week to get a reaction from Altrincham and it was really crisp and smooth,” he said.
“We’ve probably had five, six golden opportunities.
“But when you’re playing a team like Farsley with the quality they’ve got, you know that in those spells you’ve to punish them because goals change games.
“To come in 1-0 down after probably one of the most positive 45 minutes here in my time or in a long time at the club, was disappointing.
“The second half I think you’ve seen a side full of experience and quality, they’ve been let off the hook, and they took full advantage of it.”
A single change was made to the side that had lost in Altrincham last time out, with Jamie Hood coming in for Cieron Keane, while Jordan Murphy and Junior English both missed out due to injury and illness respectively.
Kaiman Anderson went closest to opening the scoring when his shot was saved by Kyle Trenerry but creeped towards the goal line – before being cleared at the last.
The hosts then had the ball in the net after Jack Edwards converted from Josh March’s centre, only for the offside flag to rule out the strike.
Edwards was denied once more, this time by the woodwork, when Trenerry pushed the midfielder’s goalbound effort onto the bar with a fingertip save.
With further chances going to waste, Farsley hit the front through Spencer’s low drive to take a one-goal lead into the half-time break.
Before Holleran’s words at the interval even had time to take effect, the hosts found themselves 2-0 down.
Clayton diverted a shot from Thomas Allen to wrong foot Jake Weaver, rendering the Birmingham City loanee powerless to prevent the visitors from doubling their advantage.
Weaver was able to get down to block Spencer from adding his second of the match, but was beaten for a third time in the final 15 minutes when substitute Cartman slipped the ball past him to finish the scoring.
Leamington dust themselves off before hosting step four side Chasetown in the FA Cup second qualifying round on Saturday (3pm).
