Henry Landers shines as Leamington get the win over St Ives Town

Landers bagged a first half hat trick as Brakes made a timely return to winning ways ahead of a Christmas double of Warwickshire derbies.

Moving onto double figures for the season, Landers became the first player since Lance Smith three years earlier to notch a treble for the club.

‘Henry has been great for us,” he said.:” He’ll be the first to tell you that he’s really frustrated with his goals return, because he plays sort of high up around the number nine.

“There isn’t a game that goes by where Henry doesn’t get chances, and a lot of that is because he’s a good player, he’s an intelligent player, but today if you look at the three goals they are three different types of goals.

“He’s always involved, but that’s the thing we’ve spoken about in training these last few weeks; hitting these targets. He’s got fantastic technique. I’m hoping there’s a lot more goals to come from him, because we need that.

“When we play Tyrone with Callum and Henry either side we need Callum and Henry in the goals, so it worked really well. Him and Dan Meredith down the right hand side are really exciting to watch. He’s a good boy, Henry. I’m really enjoying working with him and hopefully there’ll be a few more goals.”

Delighted Holleran was also pleased with his side’s performance in victory.

He added: “We played really well first half. We had a slight advantage with the conditions, but it wasn’t as severe as in the Barwell game. Our combinations in wide areas,with the wing backs, were great. We scored, three, and probably should have scored more. They were all good goals, different types of goals.

“We started the second half like a train; Henry’s had another good chance with a header, but listen, these (St Ives) are a good side. They showed a lot of character - sometimes when teams are in that position in a game it can go wrong, but they showed a lot of character, they looked a threat.

“Their manager has made a couple of good subs, tinkered with his system, and it was a little bit more difficult for us then. I think because we are struggling to get on the pitch to give it a good roll and that it’s making it really difficult to get hold of the ball.

"We probably needed to get it down and play it a bit more in the second half, but the key thing is that we’ve limited them to very little.”

Leamington have been hit with the news that Jack Lane could be absent from the starting line up for up to 12 months, joining Junior English on the long-term injured list.

Holleran said: “Junior will be having his operation probably in early January. Even though it sounds bad with him having it around the top of his neck and maybe having to have a plate in there, his recovery is not too bad. He might be up and running again in six weeks.

"We’ve been advised this week that it is Jack’s ACL - so he is another one that is going to have to go under the knife. Sadly that is a long term injury. I’m gutted for both of the boys.”