Attacking flair will come, says Holleran

A tetchy 1-0 home win over Arlesey Town followed a hard-earned point at Hemel and, while admitting Brakes had yet to gel as an attacking force, Holleran said there was plenty to build on.

“The pleasing thing is that the defence looked strong, with the back four and Tony Breeden forming a good unit.

“Going forward, we haven’t quite hit the heights.

“Jamie Husband is not quite 100 per cent and Alex Taylor missed a lot of pre-season. We’ve also got Jacob Blyth coming back from injury.

“We know there’s more to come.

“But even though we weren’t a 100 per cent, they haven’t had a shot on target and we’ve hit the bar twice and had a perfectly good goal disallowed.”

Taylor and Husband were replaced just after the hour-mark and Holleran says their withdrawals, while robbing Leamington of their width, helped make them a more compact unit.

“We had a better shape when Michael Tuohy and Craig Owen came on.

“We had fresh legs and retained the ball a lot better.”

Brakes are back in action at the New Windmill tomorrow when they entertain Weymouth, who narrowly escaped relegation last season after being hit with a ten-point deduction for entering administration.

The Terras were beaten twice by Brakes last season and have taken just a point from their opening two games this term but Holleran does not see them as being a soft touch.

“They’ve made some shrewd signings,” he said.

“I spoke to Gary Roberts at Cambridge and he said his side had got out of jail in the first game of the season.

“It will be a difficult test, but as long as we’ve got that platform with the four at the back and the holding two in front, we’ll be okay.”

Dior Angus is set to rejoin the Brakes squad tomorrow after missing the opening two games due to a family holiday.