BRACKNELL Town were beaten 2-0 by Harrow Borough in a friendly at Larges Lane on Saturday, but player-manager Carl Davies was left far from disappointed, writes Dave Wright.

For the second week running, he was able to field two different sides and it was the more experienced team who played in the first half that made the bigger impression.

Davies commented: “It was 45 minutes of hard running for all the 22 lads. They (Harrow) had the advantage of keeping a lot of their players on for the second half, which helped them. They had the momentum and they carried it on as you would expect.

“We had a whole fresh 11 on for the second half and they had to start from the beginning.

“We did change the shape a bit after the drinks break, and we got more into it and created a couple of chances. Their keeper made a couple of good saves, but we should have scored.”

Over the 90 minutes, the Robins introduced five new signings along with a couple of possible new additions.

He added: “There is certainly competition for every place in the team now.”

And it’s understood they have not yet finished their business in the transfer market.

Ashleigh Artwell looked particularly impressive in the first half, making some darting runs, Mitchell Parker delivered some dangerous balls into the Harrow area, while Liam Ferdinand gave a characteristic hard-working performance.

The Evo-Stik South Premier South side, however, created the better chances before taking the lead within 90 seconds of the start of the first half.

New keeper Mark Scott did well to block the first attempt, but Harry Rush followed up to push home the rebound.

While much of last season’s first team regulars played the opening 45 minutes, the one that took over after half time had players appearing together for the first time and they were pegged back by the visitors who had made fewer changes.

Scott made a couple of decent stops, but was beaten for a second time in the 58th minute when, from a swift counter-attack, his defence was split open and Anthony O’Connor raced through to slot home.

Robins had opportunities to get back in the game, creating a few chances which saw Adam Cornell and Dan Read both going close.