Leamington Hibernian 0-3 Droitwich Spa

Droitwich Spa picked up another three points on a difficult surface in an ill tempered contest at strugglers Leamington Hibs.

From the start, Droitwich signalled their intent and enjoyed the lions share of possession for the vast majority of the afternoon.

Both sides struggled to get to grips with the surface in the first half, and this lead to many wayward passes from both sides, however Hibs were not shy about getting stuck in with some strong challenges throughout and this was certainly not a game for the purists.

Spa's long ball approach in the first period didn't really bare any fruit, however they could have been three goals up by half time as James Lemon headed over from a matter of yards out from a Smith corner, Bridges fired wide when well placed and Bradley Burgess hit the post from a tight angle as Danne Masterson in the home goal only had one save of note to make in the opening fourty five minutes. And a fine one it was too as he tipped wide from a defelected Jack Allerton effort.

In fact it was the hosts who came closest on 35 minutes as Matt Oliver made a superb double stop to deny Jake Montgomery and Luke Swinnerton, but that was as good as it got for Hibs.

Leamington were lucky to have 11 players on the pitch after Max Crisp was clattered from behind and following this Kyle Ball's throttle of the midfield man was only awarded a yellow card right in front of the sizeable Droitwich support.

Spa came out for the second half looking alot more dangerous as they got the ball down and tried to play a passing game.
Lemon pulled a save out of Masterton before a mesmerising run from Max Crisp took him past three players, but as he got to the byline he was sythed down unceremoniously by Ben O'Driscoll and after some deliberation with the assistant referee, the man in the middle pointed to the spot.
Louis Bridges stepped up and confidently despatched the penalty to give Droitwich a deserved lead.

Hibs then enjoyed their best spell of the game, keeping the ball well and causing the Spa defence a few problems but without testing Matt Oliver.
Bradley Burgess was then fouled just on the edge of the area, and from the resulting free kick James Lemon ghosted in between the two central defenders to tap home from close range.

This knocked the stuffing out of the hosts, as Lemon came close on two occasions, substitute Macauley Finch hit the post from a tight angle and Mike Seeley even tried to get in on the act with a 25 yard effort.

Lemon made it 3-0 soon after though with his second of the afternoon - another set piece from Jamie Smith picked the frontman out as he headed home unchallenged to make the game safe.

Macauley Finch was then shown a straight red card within ten minutes of coming on, presumably for saying something out of turn to the match official.

Adam Granger then took his chances with a strike from 40 yards which crashed off the hosts' bar and was cleared to safety.

Droitwich were not at their best in this one but did enough to get the win in testing conditions. Just four games remain for the Saltmen - all of which against sides in the top six.