Battling Brakes will keep fighting to change results

It is now five games without a win and four straight defeats – all by the odd goal – for Leamington after they were beaten 2-1 in midweek by Bradford Park Avenue.

It is a spell of form that has forced them to look behind them in the table as they now sit sixth from bottom.

“We’re up against it. We’re well aware of that,” Holleran said.

“There are sides below us who will now have us in their sights. But we have also got a bit of a cushion and a couple of home games coming up so we need to turn it around.

“There have been lots of good things recently but we’re just not managing to come away with the right results.

“It’s been frustrating to come out of games with nothing – although to be fair Tuesday night was slightly different.

“We’re were a bit unfortunate to come in 2-1 down but I’ve got no complaints about the second half.

“They were definitely the better side and deserved the result.

“We looked a bit leggy but we hung in and defended well. The result was a fair reflection, though.”

In all, 22 of Leamington’s league games this season have had no more than a one-goal margin either way.

Twelve of those have been draws but on only two occasions have Brakes ended up taking full points.

“I think that stat shows – bar one or two – we’ve always been in matches but, for whatever reason, too often we haven’t come through,” the boss explained.

“We’ve got to get through it.

“We’ve got to roll up our sleeves, keep fighting and scrapping and hope that can help the bounce of the ball go for us.

“We definitely haven’t helped ourselves in certain situations – there are times when we could have been a bit cleverer and managed the games better.

“But we’ve also not had the luck or the reward we’ve deserved.

“It’s a nine-game season now. We can’t worry about what has happened before – we have to look forward and keep fighting.

“We’ve certainly put a lot of graft in and worked hard and we’ll keep doing that until we come out the other side of this little spell.”

One of the ‘odd-goal’ results that did go in Brakes’ favour came against Chester – their opponents this weekend.

And Holleran added: “Chester have had their troubles on the road but have been strong at home.

“It’s another tough one for us but we’ll go there and fight for it.”

Brakes have strengthened by bringing in former Lincoln City midfielder Elliot Hodge.