Clinical finishing has gone a long way towards Bracknell Town’s magnificent start to the season, which has seen them take maximum points from their opening six Bostik League games, writes Dave Wright.

But assistant-manager Gavin Smith believes it is also ‘big moments’ at the other end of the field which have played an equally important part in his team’s success.

“It’s happened again,” he explained following Robins’ 5-0 win at Ashford Town on Saturday.

“Matt Day kicked the ball off our line and we went straight down the other end to score with a really good goal from Joe (Grant).

“Then in the first five minutes of the second half, they had a couple of corners and (Mark) Scott pulled off an unbelievable save and then we broke away to score again. Big moments like these are winning games for us.

“There have been three or four other times one of our defenders made a goal-line clearance or Scotty has pulled off a great save and we score shortly afterwards, so it is very much a team effort from us.”

Smith, who was in charge at Ashford as player-manager Carl Davies was away, said it took his team time to get into their stride against their Middlesex hosts.

Leading through that Grant goal at half-time, the Robins came under pressure at the start of the second half, conceding two corners and seeing Scott pull off a great save, but on 50 minutes substitute Gavin James doubled his side’s advantage.

“We again showed how clinical we can be with our finishing,” said Smith, who saw Grant go on to complete a hat-trick before Liam Ferdinand rounded off an impressive second-half performance.

“Once we got going in the second half, we ran away with the game, but I think we had fewer scoring chances than we had in previous games. The week before, we had lots of chances against Northwood, but only managed to put two away.”

Bracknell, who last Tuesday had won 4-2 at Aylesbury in the first round of the Berks & Bucks Senior Cup with centre-back Day scoring twice, are setting a strong pace in the South Central Division following six wins from as many games.

“There’s no reason why we can’t keep our run going, but we are taking it only one game at a time,” commented Smith.

“We have a very good squad, we believe in all of our players. There is a healthy competition for places and so we are able to rotate a bit as we need to give everyone a chance to keep them match fit.”

Bracknell are without a game this week. Their home game with Egham scheduled for last night (Tuesday) was called off as their opponents were involved in an FA Cup replay and they have no fixture arranged for this coming Saturday having received a bye in the FA Trophy.

“This was disappointing as we were looking forward to playing Egham as we would back ourselves against anyone at home,” added Smith.

“We want to keep our run going as it’s good to get as many points on the board as soon as possible. We have set targets for the team and we will see how we are off at Christmas time, that will be the telling point.”

Former Robins player Smith is delighted to be back at Larges Lane in a new role of assistant to Davies, having been appointed before the start of the season.

“There were a few teething problems to start with, getting to know people again, knowing what your role is, but now we have clicked, it’s going really well and I am loving it,” he concluded.