A battling hard working display yielded nothing for Milan Butterfield and his Leamington teammates as they went down to a third successive National League North defeat in Worcestershire against Kidderminster Harriers.
With Butterfield starting the match on the bench Leamington were certainly not overawed in the opening stages however, and the ball deflected off Jamie Hood and wide from Joe Magunda’s blocked shot following the first corner of the game. This was swiftly followed by Ahmed Obeng driving at the Harriers defense from the right, his shot also blocked away from goal.
The home side had their best chance of the half when another slick passing move saw Joe Ironside play in Emmanuel Sonupe, who attempted to clip the ball over Tony Breeden, the former Harriers stopper getting something on it to concede a corner.
Ironside almost bundled the ball home in the last attacking move of the half, but was denied by a fine piece of improvisation from Jamie Hood as he almost nonchalantly flicked out a heel to clear the danger.
Breeden watched an early second half effort from Elton Ngwatala sail past the post, but there was more of the patient build up play from the hosts, with Leamington doing their utmost to stand firm and frustrate. Harriers continued to up the ante however as they tried to pass their way through, with Leamington barely able to get out of their own half in the opening ten minutes of the restart.
The pressure told with 64 minutes played as substitute Butterfield was rather harshly penalized for sticking a boot out to challenge Sonupe, who certainly made the most of it. Ironside stepped up to send Breeden the wrong way from the penalty spot.
Leamington began to come out of their shell a little now with the game beginning to slip away from them, and Hall was forced into his first action of the half when he punched away a corner from the left.
Kidderminster then sealed the game in stoppage time with a superb goal from Sonupe. With Breeden racing back having pushed up for a corner. Picking the ball up just yards inside the Leamington half, the diminutive midfielder looked up and curled a delightful effort into the far corner of the net from fully 40 yards.
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