‘Soft touch’ Leamington must learn lessons fast

A spirited comeback, which saw Brakes level at 2-2 mid-way through the second half, could not mask their defensive vulnerabilites and Holleran said lessons needed to be learnt, and fast.

“It was a defensive horror show. Away from home we’ve become something of a soft touch.

“We’ve studied the DVD, broken it down and spent two hours on the training pitch trying to get it right.

“We showed a bit of character to get it back to 2-2 but then you look at where the sitting midfielder is for the third...

“All we had to do is manage the game for ten minutes (after we equalised) but we left ourselves wide open. The attacking player has had nine touches and no one has engaged him.”

Holleran has set Brakes a 20-point target from their final 16 games to guarantee their survival and they can take great strides towards it with four home fixtures in their next five.

Tomorrow’s visitors Solihull Moors come into the derby clash on the back of a run of five defeats in six, but Holleran does not necessarily agree that it is a good time to be playing Marcus Bignot’s side.

“They’ve had a wobble and lost some tight games by a goal, but they are the fine margins in this league.

“If you look at their quality on the pitch they’ll still fancy themselves to get into the play-offs.

“And, with the locality and them getting a couple of our players in the summer, it adds up to a really interesting game.”

Jamie Tank will return from injury tomorrow to face Moors, with Dominic Langdon’s short-term deal having expired.