Bracknell Town 1 Bromsgrove Rovers 2

Southern League Division One West

By Peter McKinney

THE Rod Brown era at Bromsgrove Rovers was ushered in with a battling victory away to ten men Bracknell on Saturday.

Brown, who replaced Jimmy Mullen as Rovers boss on Thursday, January 5, saw strikes by Ben Porter and Kevin Banner cancel out Joe Williams' own goal.

However, the new manager will have an idea of the difficult task ahead of him as wasteful Rovers huffed and puffed to kill off ten men Bracknell, who had Jim Griffin sent off in the first half.

The former Redditch United and Stourport Swifts boss pinpointed two areas where Rovers need to improve.

He said: "I've never seen a team play so much football. They probably play too much football in the wrong areas. If they had someone to take their chances they would have won the Bracknell game easily.

"It's a very quiet team and I think more communication is needed if we are to cut out the silly mistakes, like the one that led to Bracknell's goal."

The new boss decided to partner Anthony Maguire up front with Ben Porter, but with a sparse bench, containing rookies Matthew Barnes-Homer, Duncan Willetts and Jorma Seabourne, he had little to choose from.

The visitors almost opened the scoring on 38 seconds when Matthew Johnson dissected Town's defence, but Ben Porter shot wide of the post.

To make matters worse Rovers found themselves trailing 1-0 when poor defending by Mark Benbow and Exodus Geohaghan allowed Stuart Tanfield to skip into the box. The striker's low centre was fumbled by goalkeeper Tim Clarke and Joe Williams miss-controlled the ball and back-heeled into his own net.

Rovers though wasted little time in levelling the scores. Banner was enjoying a lot of space down the left and he sent in a low ball, which Maguire calmly dispatched past Andrew Poyser in goal to make it 1-1 in the ninth minute.

Deserved

The goal was no less than Rovers deserved and spurred them on to forcing Bracknell back.

Exodus Geohaghan had two chances to score in the 15th minute. The towering defender headed Banner's corner just off target and then had a header saved by Poyerser moments later from another corner.

Rovers enjoyed a slice of good luck to take the lead in the 29th minute. Banner carved open Town with a low cross that Maguire hit firmly towards goal. The ball hit Griffin on the head and the ball bounced onto his hand in the box. Referee Mr Legg sent off the unfortunate midfielder and then awarded Rovers a penalty, which Banner fiercely struck into the right hand corner.

Porter guided a shot wide after good work by Wayne Dyer down the left wing three minutes later.

Clarke's blushes were saved when John Dyer shot wide of an open goal after his poor pass had set up the striker.

Michael Buck got down the right and sent in a cross, but Clarke was equal to Jermaine Hamilton's shot.

The hosts came out fired up for the second half and it took a good tackle by Mark Benbow on Tanfield to stop him as he approached Rovers' penalty area with menace.

Porter's shot was blocked and Maguire's follow up was just wide in the 62nd minute. Substitute Duncan Willetts then slid the ball to the late arriving Maguire, but he shot over. Willetts then had a thumping shot saved by Poyser.

As the game wore on Rovers were being pushed back and Hamilton shot wide in the 78th minute.

Dyer was unlucky not to add a third when his powerful volley crashed off both posts away to safety. Poyser was fortunate not to be sent off when he blocked Maguire with his hands ten-yards outside of his penalty area. Clarke then made up for his earlier errors when he denied Hamilton a leveller at the far post in injury time.

ROVERS: Clarke 6, Benbow 6, Williams 6, Hillman 7, Geohaghan 6, Adams, 7, Johnson 6, Dyer 6, Porter 6 (Willets, 66mins, 6), Maguire 6, BANNER 7.

BRACKNELL: Poyser 6, Buck 5 (Heriden, 54mins 5), Fenton 6 (Oldham, 50mins 6), Baker 5, Woolley 5, Griffin 6, Hayward 6, Taylor 5, Dyer 5, Tanfield 6, Hamilton 6.

Referee: Mr Legg.