Bracknell Town suffer heavy home defeat

Nathan Minhas. Photo: Neil Graham / ngsportsphotography.com
Nathan Minhas. Photo: Neil Graham / ngsportsphotography.com

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After a couple of weekends away on holiday it was a home fixture at Larges Lane this afternoon with Bracknell Town hosting high flying Ware in the BetVictor Isthmian League South Central Division One in what had the prospect of being a good competitive match between two strong sides.

It was a freezing cold afternoon which I knew would leave both Luca and myself with cold feet and hands plus dying mobile batteries. By the end of the match it would appear that one side had also seen the energy drain from them as well.

The team sheet again showed some new names such as keeper Chris Rackley signed from Basingstoke Town and Matthew Berry-Hargreaves brought in on loan from Hungerford Town.

It was too cold for Luca to use his chosen method of writing the match report, so it was back to pen and paper for me this week and it only took 5 minutes for the visitors to take the lead when Liam Hope headed home the far post cross from Thomas Bruno!

Hope flicked a cross from Alaa Oujdi wide, and Bruno had a long shot blocked, before The Robins had their first chance when Carl Davies headed Seb Bowerman’s free kick wide.

The dominance of The Blues showed as they scored twice in two minutes to make it 3-0!

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Their second came on the 22nd minute when Joshua Williams saw his cross put out for a corner kick, and that set piece was fumbled allowing Louis Rose to poke it home.

Rackley was left all at sea as Harry Watkins ran onto a ball over the top and simply lobbed the ball into an empty net on the 24th minute leaving Bracknell a-ghast !

Bracknell did look to go on the offensive with a more attacking substitution as Dan Brown was replaced by Kai Walters to rejig the formation and it showed promise with Max Herbert having two efforts in quick succession, the first was blocked and the second brought the first meaningful save out of Callum Kitscha.

Sean McCormack hit a low cross into the box, but there was nobody there to capitalise. However on the 31st minute Nathan Minhas worked hard to win a corner kick and it was him who headed home to reduce the deficit to 3-1, was the comeback on ?!

The answer came deep into first half injury time when Williams again managed to leave The Robins defence flat footed, and in a deja-vu moment beat Rackley with a lobbed effort to see the teams head in with Ware leading 4-1 at half time.

Half time: Bracknell Town 1-4 Ware

It was obviously going to have to be some half time team talk by Geoff Warner who had returned to take charge of the team alongside Mark Tallentireand early signs were good as Walter worked well to give McCormack the chance to shoot, but Kitscha was equal to it.

Both Berry-Hargreaves and Herbert hit shots which went over the bar, and Kitscha had to save Dan Carr’s shot.

Minhas also had a shot which went over the bar, and then went down injured, but he was able to come back on to continue playing which was encouraging.

Ware made some substitutions which saw Ahmend Abdulla have a cross headed out which allowed Bruno to shoot from outside the area, but that was blocked.

Before the visitors finished with a final flourish as substitute Kyle Roberts flicked the ball into the net with his first touch rendering it 5-1.

Kitscha made a relatively straightforward save from Herbert’s shot, before a more spectacular one when he tipped tireless Bowerman’s goal bound effort over.

Ware made their trip back round the M25 even sweeter when Williams broke down the right to send the ball into the six yard box where Roberts gratefully tapped it home to end the match at 6-1.

Full time: Bracknell Town 1-6 Ware

There may have only been gap of five points in the table between these two teams before kick off, but the gulf the performances was quite stark which will leave The Robins with plenty to think about before they head to South Park next Saturday in BetVictor South Central Division.

As reported in another post on Football in Berkshire today, Chairman Kayne Steinborn-Busse announced that he would be stepping down from his role as Chairman of Bracknell Town Football Club after the end of this match, so it was quite some day for the club as a whole.

Bracknell Town: Rackley, Berry-Hargreaves, Genovesi, Bayliss, Davies (Capt), McCormack (Carr 60 Mins), Bayley, Minhas (Farren), Herbert, Bowerman & Brown (Walters 28 Mins). Unused Subs: Sheridan and Gater.

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