BOSS Paul Holleran has urged Leamington to bounce back after they were put to the sword by a clinical Kidderminster Harriers who ran out easy 4-0 winners.
Brakes endured a torrid evening on Tuesday night and fell to their heaviest defeat of the season so far at the hands of a very good Harriers side who fancy themselves as National League North promotion hopefuls.
Dan Bradley put the visitors ahead after 18 minutes before Declan Weeks doubled Harriers’ advantage two minutes later.
Ashley Chambers added the third ten minutes before half-time as Harriers showed their ruthlessness in front of goal.
Lee Vaughan completed Kidderminster’s scoring just past the hour mark with a thunderous effort which crashed in off the underside of the bar.
With a trip to Nuneaton Borough on Saturday, Holleran has urged Brakes to quickly dust themselves down.
“It was probably the most difficult fixture we’ve had so far this season,” he said.
“We’ve lost some games but I think that’s the first one where we haven’t been in it.
“One of the minus points of this season is that we’re conceding poor goals.
“We try to make our home a difficult place to come, we try to be competitive, we try to play when we can, with a good tempo and try and put the leg work in, but sadly that wasn’t there for long periods.
“We spent long periods without the ball, we got frustrated and it drained us emotionally and we were flat.
“‘You’re going to lose football matches but there are ways to lose and I’m not sure that was a great way to lose a match.
“We’ll have a little debrief because our shape has got to be better but we’ll regroup and get going again.
“We’ve bounced back before and we’ll do it again.”
Defeat to Kidderminster followed Saturday’s 2-2 draw at Darlington, a game where Brakes came from 2-0 down with ten men to salvage a point.
Anthony Dwyer was given his marching orders in the first half but Leamington did not let a two-goal and a one-man deficit defeat them.
A Colby Bishop penalty reduced the arrears before Jack Edwards bagged the equaliser with 20 minutes to go.
Holleran claimed the point was the best the club had collected so far this season.
“The sending off killed the atmosphere a bit,” said Holleran.
“You could see at that point that we were a side that’s had a difficult month.
“It was important then that we settled the players down, we changed the system and we spoke about staying in the game in periods and being clever.
“It was a fantastic second half performance that was full of energy, full of desire and quality at times.”
