7 of the best for Bracknell's Men's 1st Team

Bracknell Men’s 1s overcame last week’s disappointing result with a ruthless 7-3 victory over Oxford Men’s 2s.

Fired up and knowing that a win would put them only a point behind Oxford, Bracknell started the game like a runaway train. This took oxford by surprise and led to Tom Pullen grabbing an early goal from close range thanks to some superb build up play. Still pressing and still dominating possession, it came as a real surprise when Oxford equalised capitalising on a slip in the defence to level the scores. This only seemed to spur Bracknell on and they soon had the lead. A long pass split the defence for Peter Scott to deftly stop the ball first time before round the keeper for his first of the day. Tom Pullen then added to his tally with an opportunist strike after the ball bobbled in defence Tom was first to react and give Bracknell a 2 goal lead. As the game settled down Bracknell began to play a more controlled game and started to really probe the Oxford defence. This led to midfield maestro Gary Steeples releasing Peter Scott who repeated his first trick of going round the keeper to grab his second and Bracknell’s fourth. Just before half time Bracknell made it 5 as skipper Sean Hardingham calmly converted a penalty stroke after forward Danny Ray had been taken out. 5-1 at half time, Oxford had been blown away and the match was effectively over as a contest.

The second half was not the goal feast the first half had been. Bracknell began to cruise and Oxford stepped up their performance. A deflected shot from Max Heaver early in the second half gave Bracknell their sixth goal of the game, but Oxford replied with two goals of their own, pegging Bracknell back. The game then degenerated slightly and sloppy mistakes from both teams meant that chances were few and far between. It remained for Danny Ray to give the second half’s champagne moment. Ghosting in from the right, Dan met a defence splitting pass to deftly deflect the ball past the despairing Oxford keeper and round off a great performance for Bracknell. The game pitted out as both teams began to tire, with Bracknell running out comfortable winners.

Whilst the second half never really lived up to the first, the damage had been done by a lethal Bracknell attacking display. Next up is a visit to 3rd place Newbury & Thatcham who will not be relishing playing a rampant Bracknell.