THERE was more joy for Bracknell Town as they defeated Hertford 2-0 at Larges Lane on Saturday to maintain their unbeaten run since Bobby Wilkinson took over as manager, writes Dave Wright.

Young centre-back Joy Mukena broke the deadlock with a header four minutes into the second half and Max Herbert doubled the lead just under 10 minutes later.

Town have now gone four Isthmian League games without losing and move up one rung to ninth in the South Central Division table with 31 points ahead of this coming Saturday's home game with the side immediately above them, Chertsey, who have just appointed a new coach, Ian Selley, the former Arsenal and Fulham midfielder.

Once again, there was plenty of proof that there are no easy games in this division.

Hertford, down in 16th place with just four wins to their credit, made life difficult for Wilkinson's men, especially in a frenetic first half, giving their hosts very little room to move the ball around and looking solid in defence.

But they themselves were also unable to make much progress, being continually closed down by the close-marking Robins.

Bracknell still managed to get in a decent number of shots, although most of them were from distance and flew wide or just too high.

Their best chance came after 37 minutes. Following good work by Scott Rees and Seb Bowerman, Nebay Haile got in a shot that was pushed away by keeper Nick Hayes in the direction of the unmarked Alan Musoke, but the striker stumbled and the chance was lost.

Fired up by strong words from manager Bobby Wilkinson during the interval, Robins came out for the second half fired up and they didn't have to wait long for the opening goal.

With tall centre-backs Dan Bayliss and Mukena putting the Hertford defence under heavy pressure, Bracknell won two corners in straight succession and, from Bowerman's delivery to the far post, Mukena headed past Hayes, the youngster on loan from Norwich City.

Despite now playing into the wind, Robins started to play more fluently and with extra confidence and Herbert flashed the ball wide from 25 yards.

But the crowd of nearly 190 did not have to wait long for the second goal with Haile threading the ball through for Herbert to finish off.

With Kensley Maloney left on the sub's bench, Herbert was wearing the skipper's armband, as he had done when scoring in the 2-1 win over Premier Division side Lewes in the Velocity Trophy last Tuesday.

Town got off to a dream start with right-back Dan Carr racing through to fire home the opening goal inside the first three minutes.

Lewes substitute Tegan Freeman was shown a straight red card for a challenge on Rees after 65 minutes and eight minutes later Herbert headed Town's second goal from Bowerman's left-wing cross.

The tie saw Shane Cooper-Clark make his return to the Bracknell attack after his long lay-off through injury.

Substitute Dayshonne Golding pulled a goal back in time added on, but it came too late to stop Town booking their place in the quarter-finals for the second year running.