Hackett bids to inflict more play-off misery on Brakes

Saturday’s Zamaretto Premier Division defeat at Truro left Brakes just two points clear of Chesham in the final play-off place with two games remaining.

And, with both Brakes and Chesham facing tricky away trips tomorrow, to Oxford City and Weymouth, respectively, the race for fifth place looks likely to hinge on the final day and a meeting with their bitter rivals.

“We’ve got nothing to play for but we won’t be taking it lightly,” said Hackett, who played alongside Brakes’ assistant manager Lee Williams at Bournemouth.

“Three games in five days is not ideal. But we owe it to every club in the division to give everything we’ve got.

“We will be rotating, but I’ll be putting a team together to beat Leamington.

“It promises to be a real humdinger and we’ll be up for it.”

The Glassboys hold the upper hand in recent meetings, with Brakes fans still scarred by the 2008 play-off defeat, which saw Lewis Solly produce heroics in the Stourbridge goal.

A 2-1 win at the New Windmill last season suggested Brakes may have ended their hoodoo, only for Stourbridge to reassert their dominance with a come-from-behind 4-3 win at Amblecote in March.

However, Hackett admitted that rather than providing the platform for a play-off push, the victory only served to expose a lack of depth in his squad.

“It was the most amazing game, the way it twisted and turned,” he said.

“From 2-0 up to 3-2 down, we were on our knees.

“But we turned it around and got lucky.

“It took a lot out of us and we haven’t been great since.

“We haven’t got the strength of the squads that the top six have and we got caught short with injuries after the Leamington match.”

Paul Holleran has no such injury worries ahead of tomorrow’s trip to Marsh Lane, but will be without Lee Downes and Jamie Hood, who are both serving the first of their three-game suspensions.

Hood did not travel to Cornwall, with his wife due to give birth and Holleran looks set to continue with the centre-back pairing of Liam Daly and Stephan Morley tomorrow.

“We worked on it in training and I thought Stephan and Liam worked a treat in there until the sending-off [of Neil Barnfield],” said Holleran, who is set to to welcome back Guy Sanders once Barwell have tied up the Evo-Stik League First Division South title.

“They give us a good balance with Stephan being left-footed and Liam being right-footed and we’ve still got more than enough in the locker to get the results we need.”

n Leamington are asking fans attending the Easter Monday fixture against Stourbridge to assist the club by car- sharing where possible.

Other measures are also being considered dependent upon tomorrow’s results.