His side lost 3-1 after conceding three first-half goals to Josh Howell, Ian Davies and Seb Bowerman​ in a thoroughly entertaining local derby which saw plenty of goalmouth action at both ends in front of a crowd of 182.​ In a bid to get Robins back to winning ways - their last Hellenic League win was before Christmas - Pennicott-Bowen took the brave step of adopting a 5-3-2 formation.

“I felt we needed to try something different after our recent results as we hadn’t scored in our previous two games,” Pennicott-Bowen told the News.

“It was important to think outside the box and how could we become more offensive.

“We played with two strikers which we hadn’t done for a long time. The aim was to get Shane (Cooper-Clark) and Charlie (Evanson) to combine together.

“It didn’t quite go to plan, unfortunately, but I have no regrets about it.​ I put my hands up (in the dressing room) at half time and changed things around.” Pennicott-Bowen made two substitutions and switched to a flexible​ 4-2-3-1​ formation.​ He said: “We are more used to this; it was putting square pegs back into square holes basically.

​“We played a lot better and stopped them (Binfield) playing like they had in the first half.

“We certainly gave a good account of ourselves in the second half and I was proud of the boys for doing that. The players deserve some praise for showing character and taking the game to Binfield.” The Robins boss added: “I believe we saw a step forward for the team ​today because the last time we came here in the cup (Reading Senior) we were beaten 5-0.

“When we trailed 3-0 at half-time today there were people probably thinking it wasn’t going to be a similar result or even six or seven. But we went out and won the second half 1-0; so I thought it was a great response.” The goal after 72 minutes was scored by the league’s leading scorer Shane Cooper-Clark, taking his season’s tally to 26​.

Pennicott-Bowen is not concerned that Bracknell have not won for more than two months​, with the Robins barely dropping a place despite their recent poor form.

“The table doesn’t lie,” he added. “We don’t appear to have gone down in the table and we are still not too far behind the top group.

“We have some great challenges ahead of us and there is time to get another good run going. We owe it to the rest of the league to continue to do our best against all teams in the title chase.” Next up for Bracknell is a league clash with Premier Division table toppers Highmoor Ibis at Larges Lane this Saturday (3pm ko).

“They are going to be a good challenge for us,” Pennicott-Bowen continued. “I’ve told my boys it is good to challenge themselves against the top teams, as that is where we are aspiring to be.​“ The Robins boss will be hoping for a better result than when they met Highmoor in the Hellenic League Cup in December, losing 5-2, although it was a much closer game than the scoreline suggests.

“We are looking forward to the game,” said Pennicott-Bowen, who is likely to rely on the team that played the second half at Binfield.

The result leaves Bracknell Town ninth in the Hellenic Premier Division, with 10 games of their current campaign remaining.

BRACKNELL Town’s Walking Football team took part in their first competitive tournament at Bisham Abbey on Sunday.

They competed against teams from Milton Keynes, Aylesbury and Slough in the Berks & Bucks FA-organised event. Weather conditions were poor and Milton Keynes won the tournament just ahead of second-placed Bracknell.