LEAMINGTON surrendered a half-time lead to lose 2-1 at home to Alfreton Town as the Brakes finished the match with nine-men.
Ben Usher-Shipway’s first league goal for the club put Leamington ahead at the break only for Alfreton to strike twice in the second period.
And the home side had Jack Edwards and Jack Lane sent off in an ill-disciplined second-half performance whilst Matt Rhead was dismissed for the visitors at the Your Co-Op Community Stadium.
The result leaves Leamington in eighth place in the National League North table.
Leamington were gifted the lead on 13 minutes when Alfreton goalkeeper George Willis failed to collect a long ball over the top which allowed Usher-Shipway to steal in and finish into the bottom right corner past a defender on the line.
At the other end, Bailey Hobson’s neat footwork on the edge of the Brakes’ penalty created space for a shot only for the striker to fire over the crossbar.
The Brakes’ injury problems up front were dealt a further blow when loan signing Tom Hewlett was forced off shortly before the break with a hamstring injury but was able to take a seat in the stands for the second half.
Alfreton’s veteran striker Rhead drew yellow card challenges from Lane and Adam Walker before the 38-year-old was then booked for dissent in first-half injury time.
And the visitors equalised on 51 minutes when Dwayne Wiley crashed home a first-time effort into the left side of the goal from 20-yards out.
Leamington were rocked and almost conceded again when substitute Dayle Southwell forced Oliver Hawkins into a fabulous one-handed save with his first touch of the ball.
And Alfreton completed the turnaround on 70 minutes when Hobson found the bottom left corner just moments after Edwards was denied by Willis at the other end.
Things went from bad to worse for Leamington when Edwards was shown a straight red card within 60 seconds of the restart for an alleged elbow on Wiley.
However, the teams were evened up with 10 minutes left to play after Rhead left Stephan Morley in a heap to pick up his second booking and receive his marching orders.
The Brakes were unable to create another meaningful chance and finished the game with nine-men when Lane was shown a second yellow card in injury time after he attempted to play at the ball as the Alfreton keeper launched the ball up the pitch.
Leamington boss Paul Holleran said: “It was a bitterly disappointing second half, we didn’t back up a good first half performance and in the end we’ve been naive, structurally poor and have displayed poor discipline as well.
“It’s probably the first time in a long long time that I can say that the group have let themselves down, they’ve let us down and they’ve let the club and the supporters down in the second half.
“There’s no getting away from it, it was an ill disciplined, weak, performance.
“There have been some really good performances here this year but I’m not looking forward to watching that one back. With the two red cards as well it hasn’t been a good couple of weeks for us.
“It’s a relentless division. Every game is tough and asks a lot of questions of you, and we haven’t found enough answers today.
“We’ve got to regroup, we’ve got a tough run of games coming up now and we’ve just got to get going again.”
The Brakes are next in action away at Chorley on Saturday, October 15 with kick-off at 3pm at Victory Park.
