BRACKNELL Town manager Bobby Wilkinson stuck to his policy when relegating Seb Bowerman to the substitute's bench against FC Romania on Saturday, but in the end, it was the in-form forward who came to his rescue, scoring both goals in a 2-0 victory, writes Dave Wright.

Wilkinson will not put a player in his starting line-up if he has missed training during the previous week – as Bowerman had done due to his business trip to America.

But, with his side struggling to score and less than 20 minutes of the game remaining, the manager felt it was time to send on Bowerman.

The move paid off with the winger becoming a super-sub, scoring from the penalty spot – only to miss another less than three minutes later – before sealing victory with a late tap-in, taking his Isthmian League goal tally into double figures.

"I needed to get Seb on the pitch," reflected Wilkinson. "He had been away with work and hadn't trained, so was left out, but I made the decision to send him on and I got it right – it was a great substitution."

Bowerman prevented the Robins from being left red-faced. On paper, this was an away banker, yet they were struggling to break down a team which had shipped 72 goals in 22 games.

"This was a banana-skin game," commented Wilkinson. "Last week, I watched them in a couple of games on tape so I knew they would be tough and well organised.

"But we got through it thanks to a team effort. We were not at our best, but at this stage of the season, it doesn't matter how you play, as long as you get all three points."

Bracknell dominated the game, but were poor in the final third and created very few chances against the team languishing second-from-bottom of the South Central Division table following a 6-0 drubbing at Tooting & Mitcham a week earlier.

Despite failing to spark in the first half, Wilkinson didn't blast his players at half-time, revealing: "I stayed calm. I knew if we stayed organised we would create chances.

"If we had gone in 2-0 up at half-time, I still would not have been happy with the performance.

"You could not fault the players' work rate and commitment, but we upped our game in the second half and we got the result we wanted."

Wilkinson continued: "We are on a great run – that's 14 points out of 18 – and we have kept three clean sheets on the bounce now. We haven't lost since we came in and that is a credit to the players who have been working hard."

* BRACKNELL club secretary Ricky Simons has become the first winner of the monthly Berks & Bucks FA Star Awards, a scheme to recognise the work carried out by volunteers. One of four finalists, he received just over 40 per cent of the votes.