Saturday 7th January 2006
Southern League Division One West
Bracknell Town 1 Bromsgrove Rovers 2
by Phil Baker

After a tumultuous and dramatic week for the Rovers off the pitch, there was a sense of relief amongst fans to get back to the real business of playing football. New manager Rod Brown was in the dugout after Jimmy Mullen resigned on Thursday night citing his dissatisfaction of assistant Bernie Mackay being dismissed by the board of directors.

The away team should have taken the lead on 30 seconds when Ben Porter fired over after receiving a precision pass from Matt Johnson playing in midfield for Scott Hadland who left for Halesowen Town during the week.

Rovers then dominated the game for the next 10 minutes keeping Bracknell well pegged back in their own half. However, it was the home team that took the lead on 10 minutes when a fine cross from Stuart Tainfield found its way to Joe Williams who managed to skew the clearance into his own net.

It was only 5 minutes before the equaliser came and that followed a superb cross from Kevin Banner on the left to Anthony Maguire who had plenty of time to fire hard past Andrew Poyser in the Bracknell goal.

Rovers then gained the lead on 29 minutes when a well worked move between Maguire and Banner saw the ball end up with Matt Johnson who beat the home 'keeper only for the shot to be stooped by defender Jim Griffin on the line. Referee Mr Legg agreed with the away supporters behind the goal that it was a hand ball and awarded the visitors a penalty, duly converted by Ken Banner whilst issuing a red card to the hapless Robins defender.

Both teams had chances for the remainder of the half but did not manage to get anything into the net.

Come the second half, Bracknell made two early substitutions on the left to stifle Rovers' dominance on that side and despite having a man to the advantage, the Greens found it difficult to penetrate an improved and stubborn defence.

Most of the action though came in the last five minutes with four good efforts for Rovers including one from Wayne Dyer that hit the post whilst at the other end pressure from the Bracknell attack forced Tim Clarke in the Rovers' goal into making two good saves to deny an impressive Jermaine Hamilton.

A good start for the new boss but the opposition by their own admission are not going to set the division alight and Rovers will need to play better against teams higher in the league. They have collected 10 points from the last 4 games thus keeping alive a reasonable chance of reaching the play-offs.

Rovers: Tim Clarke, Mark Benbow, Joe Williams, Steve Hillman, Exodus Geohaghan, Carl Adams, Matt Johnson, Wayne Dyer, Ben Porter (Duncan Willetts 66 mins), Anthony Maguire, Kevin Banner.
Bracknell Town: Andrew Poyser, Michael Buck (Ross Herridge 50 mins), Dave Fenton (Jordan Oldham 52 mins), Neil Baker, Ben Woolley, Jim Griffin, Danny Haywood, Gavin Taylor, John Dyer, Stuart Tainfield, Jermaine Hamilton.

Referee: Mr A Legg

Baker's Man of the Match: Kevin Banner