Holleran still not looking past Poole for the title

Leamington manager Paul Holleran is refusing to count his side into the Southern Premier Division title race despite four points from the Easter weekend maintaining their three-point gap to top spot.
Daniel Dubidat came in for his Leamington debut at Stratford.Daniel Dubidat came in for his Leamington debut at Stratford.
Daniel Dubidat came in for his Leamington debut at Stratford.

Tomorrow’s hosts Redditch lead the way, with Poole a point further back having played a game less and Holleran is still looking no further than Tom Killick’s side for the destination of the championship.

“I still feel it’s in Poole’s hands,” said Holleran.

“When you look at the games they have got, especially the home games, it’s theirs to throw away.

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“We’ve just got to keep the pressure on and I know how hard it is to shake off teams.

“When we went up last time we couldn’t shake Stourbridge off - I used to go to bed dreaming of Gary Hackett.

“We’ve just got to keep pushing on.

“After the weekend a little bit of a gap has opened to the top five.

“Weymouth were on a bit of a roll but lost both games, while Redditch, Poole and Hungerford lost games.

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“In fact there was only us and Hitchin who were undefeated.”

Easter Monday’s 1-0 win

at Stratford followed on from a battling draw against play-off rivals Chippenham to complete a promising weekend for the men in gold and black and Holleran said at this stage of the season, it is points not performances that are important.

“We struggled for cohesion in the second half on Monday but what we did do was show a lot of resilience and we had two or three chances to get that second goal.

“Not losing to Chippenham was key, though. The spirit we showed was great.

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“And to go on and get a result on the bank holiday made it a decent weekend.”

Holleran was able to bring Callum Gittings and Daniel Dubidat into the starting line-up at the DCS Stadium, with the recent signings both playing key roles in the success.

And, with former Birmingham City youth product Khaellem Bailey on the bench and ex-Brake Jon Adams and Rob Elvins in reserve having been signed on deadline day, Leamington are not short of options going into the last six games.

“The way things are, we’re not sure how long people are going to be out or whether we’ll pick up any more suspensions,” said Holleran who saw James Fry ruled out for the campaign last week with a broken jaw.

“But now we’ve got a few extra bodies around.

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“They won’t be available every game, but we’ve already seen the benefits of bringing Callum in, with that extra quality he’s got on the ball and Dubidat, with the pace he gives us.

“It was great to be able to freshen things up after Saturday.”

Brakes follow tomorrow’s match Redditch with a trip to Weymouth on Tuesday evening.

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