Holleran won’t set his sights too high

Paul Holleran is refusing to get carried away by his side’s fine run of form, despite their latest three points closing the gap on title favourites Salisbury City to 12.

Brakes can narrow that to six if they win their two games in hand on The Whites, who are due to visit the New Windmill on March 19

And, with leaders Truro a further point ahead having played five games more than Brakes, Holleran admits even the players are talking about automatic promotion following a sequence which has seen his side win 12 and draw two of their last 16.

“We’ve got some really hard games coming up and it will be difficult to catch Salisbury and Truro with the resources at their disposal,” said Holleran.

“But if Rowe and Corbs can keep firing and we carry on keeping clean sheets you never know where we might end up.

“The players are talking about in the dressing room, which is a good thing as it shows their confidence.

“But we can’t get carried away.

“We probably did that last season and we ended up finishing tenth.”

There was little to separate Brakes and Swindon in an opening half bereft of chances on Tuesday night.

Luke Corbett forced an early corner off keeper Will Puddy as Leamington threatened to break through, and Jamie Hood pushed up to power in a header from the resultant corner that was blocked.

Supermarine began to win the midfield battles as the clock ticked towards half-time, exerting some pressure on the Brakes defence without unduly troubling Tony Breeden’s goal.

Leamington fired an early warning shot as the second half commenced, Lee Downes driving in a low shot that was held by Puddy.

Puddy kicked his clearance off the floor and it was headed straight into the path of Luke Corbett who was free on the right. The Brakes striker charged into the penalty area before presenting Rowe with a simple tap-in to open the scoring.

Swindon were incensed by the goal, with Rowe having been in an offside position when the initial header was made, and they began to lose their discipline.

Rowe was suddenly finding space and burst down the right before feeding his strike partner inside the penalty area. However, Corbett should perhaps have let the ball run for James Husband behind him, who would have had a clean strike at goal.

With visiting players still screaming at the referee following the award of another free-kick, Leamington almost added a second when Alex Taylor’s deflected shot struck the post. The winger then hit the rebound across the face of the goal.

Rowe’s clever flick almost put Corbett in the clear, but a last-ditch challenge from Swindon skipper Leigh Henry denied him. Jamie Hood towered above a packed penalty area to head just wide from the corner.

There were 13 minutes remaining when Michael Tuohy pushed up into the attack and a neat stepover took him into the box before he was felled.

Corbett smashed the spot-kick into the top corner to double Leamington’s advantage.

Brakes continued to push forward in search of more goals and Hood raced up to support and breakaway, but after heading the ball over Puddy, the keeper was bailed out by substitute Joe Harris.

Jacob Blyth and Jamie Sheldon made late appearances from the bench and caused more problems for the visiting defence.

Good work by Sheldon gave Husband the chance to deliver the coup de grace with time almost up. There was still work for the winger to do, but he made light work of weaving past two or three challenges, only to steer his shot wide of the far post.

Brakes: Tony Breeden, Scott Lycett, Michael Tuohy, Lee Downes , Jamie Hood, Liam Daly, Alex Taylor, James Rowe (Jacob Blyth, 88), Neil Barnfield, Luke Corbett (Jamie Sheldon, 89), James Husband. Subs not used: Guy Sanders, Seb Lake-Gaskin, Lee Williams.

Swindon Supermarine: Will Puddy, Danny Allen (Sam Morris, 80), Matt Robinson, Gary Horgan, Leigh Henry, Ashan Holgate, Ben Wells, Mitchell Bryant, Jacob Erskine (Joe Harris, 62), David Bampton, Nick Stanley. Subs not used: Jon Beldon, James Rae.