PLAYING on an open and wickedly sloping recreation pitch is not what Bracknell Town usually expect on a Saturday afternoon, with freezing temperatures and flurries of snow making things even worse, writes Dave Wright.

And they were also given a few scares along the way by a spirited and, for at least an hour, enthusiastic Westwood United side from the second tier of the Thames Valley Premier League.

But the Robins, having seen their opponents forced to put up the goalposts before warming up, prevailed in the end by a 6-2 margin to reach the quarter-finals of the Reading Invitation Senior Cup.

On form at least, they are favourites to win the competition which has its final at Madejski Stadium.

They will no doubt find that venue much more to their liking than the Cotswold Sports Centre in Tilehurst.

With a near full-strength side but without suspended skipper Carl Davies, the Hellenic League high fliers started well enough with Joe Grant heading them in front after eight minutes.

But, if Mark Tallentire’s men thought it was going to be little more than a walk-over, they were soon made to think again.

In the 12th minute, Westwood equalised through Ross Storrar and they forced four corners in the opening 20 minutes of this second-round tie. Had it not been for the alertness of keeper Chris Grace, it could have got worse for Town.

They were also unhappy with some of the hosts’ tackling, one of which sent winger Seb Bowerman crashing over the touchline.

“Perhaps on another day the officials could have dealt a little bit better with one or two things that were going on out there,” remarked Tallentire.

Bracknell were clearly not at their best and, despite having most of the possession, they struggled to turn their superiority into goals.

Adam Cornell went close before Callum Whitty regained the lead with a header on the half-hour mark, while Grant had a ‘goal’ ruled out for offside.

Westwood, who have won seven and drawn one of their nine league games, made a bright start to the second half and Grace had to rush off his line to save as United threatened to equalise again.

But this spell was sweet and short.

Substitute George Short saw to that with Bracknell’s third headed goal of the game and it knocked the stuffing out of their hosts.

Cornell made it 4-1 on the hour mark and two minutes later he set up another goal for skipper Jamie McClurg.

Terence Bohane added Town’s sixth in the 68th minute, with Westwood getting a late second goal when Alex Rodrigues helped an Nikos Chrysikopoulos effort over his own line.