BRACKNELL Town took a much-changed team to Hungerford for their friendly game last Saturday and did well to restrict their National League hosts to just a 1-0 win, writes Dave Wright.

Having played all their previous friendlies at home, this was also their first pre-season game on grass and a parched surface at Bulpit Lane was not really conducive to quick, flowing football.

And, after having to contend with a scorching sun for the past month, there was also an extra problem here of a strong, swirling wind blowing the ball around in the air.

The tricky conditions contributed to a Bracknell performance which failed to match those previously against Wealdstone, Harrow Borough and Banbury United, but the main cause was the team they were forced to field, with several players together for the first time and they struggled to click into gear as a unit.

They had only one recognised striker, Adam Cornell, on view and last season’s leading scorer, starved of a decent service, failed to dent Crusaders’ strong rearguard.

Their three new signings from Thatcham, Gavin James, Liam Ferdinand and Josh Helmore were all missing, as were Ryan Parsons, Joe Grant, Dave Hancock, Tom Willment and Ashleigh Artwell.

So there were plenty of reasons for Bracknell falling some way short of their best.

However, there were still some positives to emerge, particularly the industry of midfielder Kensley Maloney, who was always willing to chase back to assist his defence, and their new youngster, Sal Abubakar, showed glimpses he possesses plenty of promise.

Town would have lost by more but for a couple of timely tackles from Carl Davies, particularly when he managed to nudge the ball away from Harvey Bradbury after he had seized onto Matt Day’s weak back pass and rounded keeper Mark Scott.

Earlier, at the other end, Town’s player-manager was inches away from getting on the end of Jamie McClurg’s free-kick, while fellow defender Joe Gater and Cornell were both not far away from breaking the deadlock in the first half, However, Hungerford also went close as half time approached and they carried on that momentum after the break, leading them to score in the 55th minute.

Chris Grace, who had taken over from Scott at half time, was soon called into action, tipping a long-range effort from Romone Rose over the bar.

But he was left with no chance on 55 minutes, when Matt Jones, with a slight suspicion of offside, was played in by a good ball from one of Hungerford’s five un-named trialists and had time to pick his spot wide of Grace.

The nearest the Robins came to equalising was when Seb Bowerman’s free-kick had young keeper Jokull Andresson throwing himself across goal to push the ball away.

Bracknell complete their pre-season friendlies this Saturday by visiting Evo-Stik South Division One Central club Thame United.