NICK Crittenden revealed that the Magpies had been struck down by illness prior to their 3-0 defeat at Leamington.

The county town side made the lengthy trip to face the Brakes without player-manager Mark Jermyn or first-team coach Stuart Heath in the travelling party, with both feeling under the weather.

On the playing front, Luke Holmes and Franklyn Clarke were also unavailable as hosts Leamington cruised to victory over the Avenue outfit.

“The boys worked hard and I couldn’t fault the efforts of them. We had been struck hard by illness,” said player-assistant Crittenden after the game.

“The manager (Jermyn) wasn’t there, Stuart Heath wasn’t there. We had Frankie Clarke pull out in the afternoon, we had Luke Holmes pull out in the afternoon with sickness as well.

“But it’s no excuse, we still had a decent XI out there with players that have been playing at this standard all season. We are disappointed by the result.

“They were a good side and we didn’t have a good game. We didn’t really create any chances.

“I thought Ben Watson did okay and Shane Murphy in goal did well in the first half. Other than that we were pretty much second best and we need to buck our ideas up.

“We have to pick ourselves up and face the same again on Saturday.”