BRACKNELL Town manager Mark Tallentire hailed his players after seeing them produce an “astonishing comeback” to beat Hellenic League leaders Thatcham 5-2, writes Dave Wright.

His Robins were left rocking as the Kingfishers scored twice inside the opening four minutes of Saturday’s Uhlsport Hellenic League game at Bottom Meadow.

But it all changed dramatically in the second half, with a goal in the first minute sparking off their superb recovery which rattled Thatcham to such a degree that a loss of discipline saw them have two players sent off.

Leading scorer Adam Cornell took the scoring honours with a hat-trick, while there was a goal apiece for TJ Bohane and Seb Bowerman from the penalty spot.

It was a substitute, Joe Grant, however, who was given the credit for changing the game.

Tallentire also revealed he had said some harsh words to his players in the dressing room at half time.

“That’s not normally me, but we had to do something because we had been so below the standards we expect,” he said.

“We were awful. I questioned our mental state because I thought mentally we were not at it.

“We were lethargic and all over the place. Our shape wasn’t right, so I have got to take some sort of responsibility as well for our first-half performance for not getting it right.

“That said, shapes don’t win games, it’s players who do.

“But you have to give credit to Thatcham, as they didn’t let us settle, they were in our faces, winning most second balls and tackles.

“We had warned our fellas beforehand they would be quick out of the blocks and after 10 or 15 minutes we were looking shell-shocked.

“Nothing about our first-half performance was right, but we sort of woke up at half time.”

Tallentire also made a change with wide player Joe Grant replacing midfielder George Short, who had received a bang on his head and later went to hospital suffering from concussion.

He continued: “At half time, I set the lads a task of going out there and getting their first goal.

“I told them that if we could get one early, which we did, against this team then they would get the ‘here-we-go-again’ syndrome, and once we had scored you could see that in their players’ faces.

“We changed our shape as well and Joe made an amazing impact when he came on. He gave us energy and took the game by the scruff of its neck down that right-hand side.

“Once we had scored our first, I had an inkling we would go on to win the game.

“It was an astonishing comeback from the lads and they deserved all the congratulations they got after the game.”

This win over table-topping Thatcham — the fourth time they have beaten them this season — came just four days after they had ended second-placed Thame United’s unbeaten league record with a 2-0 win.

‘We need to keep our feet firmly on the ground’ Tallentire continued: “If you have got ambitions to be there yourself, you have to beat the best teams who are up there, but we need to keep our feet firmly on the ground.

“We mustn’t allow the highs to get too high and the lows too low and just move on to the next game.”

In addition to beating the top two sides, Bracknell also trained last Thursday for the first time on their new 3G pitch at Larges Lane.

“It was brilliant; the new pitch is fantastic and we can’t wait to get back there and start playing.”

Subject to getting the required ground grading from the league, their first match will be against Binfield on Tuesday, December 6.

While allowing spectators in for free at both of last week’s home games, Bracknell may charge a small entry fee though it will be kept to the minimum.

Chairman Kayne Steinborn-Busse will speak to the league as it is believed there is a restriction over how many times a club can allow fans in for nothing.

But he said: “If I have my way, every game would be free.

“I feel it is the best way to encourage more people to come and watch football at this level.”

Fifth-placed Bracknell Town are away to Division One West side Shrivenham in the Bluefin Sport Challenge Cup this Saturday (3pm kick-off).