SUPER-SUB Seb Bowerman was Bracknell Town’s hero as they picked themselves up off the floor to win 4-3 at Shrivenham in the Bluefin Sport Hellenic League Cup last Saturday, writes Dave Wright.

The winger came off the bench after the Robins had conceded three goals in the opening half-hour to their Division One West hosts.

Bowerman pulled one back before the interval and went on to score all four goals, the first three of them coming from the penalty spot.

The Robins, who will now travel to Longlevens in the next round, had conceded ground advantage to Shrivenham.

But just 12 spectators paid at the gate and they must have thought they were going to see a shock result when Rob Lincoln after eight minutes, Kias Bonner-Shea (25) and skipper Jamie Prictor (27) blasted the Shrews into the lead.

With Chris Grace away and two other ‘keepers on the sick list, Bracknell introduced a new goalie in Tician Feher, a young Hungarian from the John Madejski Academy in Reading.

Manager Mark Tallentire also rested other players and early on must have wondered if he had made the right decision.

“Yes, I did become a bit concerned with the ease they were hitting us on the break,” he said.

“We had most of the possession — we were quite on top — but they broke away to score the first goal.

“We went back up their end and missed a couple of opportunities, but once again,they broke away, we didn’t deal with it properly and the guy curled in a fantastic finish.

“They then added a third when Tician got dispossessed disposed with the ball at his feet and you started to think it’s not our day.”

But with Khalid Senussi appearing to still be suffering the effects affects of a minor road accident the previous day, Tallentire took him off and sent on Bowerman.

He opened his side’s account after 34 minutes and went on to complete a penalty hat-trick by scoring from the spot in the 43rd and 70th minutes before finishing it off with the winner after 74 minutes.

“In the end we did the job we went there to do,” added Tallentire.

“We are getting results, we are working well and showing we have a lot of character and capable of scoring goals.”

The Bracknell boss will be hoping for another away win when they travel to his old club, Burnham, on Saturday (3pm kick-off).

The Robins won 5-2 at The Gore in a League Cup tie back in early September, but Tallentire is expecting a much tougher game this time against the Blues who remain to the bottom of the table but showing much-improved form in recent weeks.