In this preseason friendly Step 5 side Fleet Town were invited to be the opposition at Larges Lane as both sides looked to formulate their best starting line ups for the season ahead writes Luca Calvert-Brydges and Nick Calvert.
The Robins had new signings Caden Genovesi in the starting eleven and fellow new boys Max Herbert and Dan Carr on the bench.
I challenged Luca to try and see if he could recognise the three remaining players in the Robins team from the last campaign and he was quickly able to pick out Mark Scott and Joe Gater, but it took him a little longer to name Justin Clayton.
We had seen Shane Cooper-Clarke play for Thatcham Town together so eventually he told me that I also thought that he had seen him play before. The rest were new to us.
It was clear from the off that the home side were stronger team as they retained more possession forcing Fleet onto the back foot, but it took a while until the first chance came when Nicholas Bignall appeared to be fouled but referee waved away the appeals.
The breakthrough finally came when Genovesi crossed into the box for Clayton to head up into the six yard area where both Cooper-Clarke and Bignall were waiting, but it was the latter who rifled it into the roof of the net.
The visitors did have a chance to equalise, but Scott made himself big and blocked the shot.
Bignall starred again as he won a penalty, but when he stepped up to take it he saw his penalty saved so it stayed at 1-0.
The lead was doubled when a ball was lofted into the box and Cooper-Clarke controlled it on his chest and shot goalwards. However the keeper got a foot to it and looked to divert it wide, only for Bignell to chase it down and make it 2-0.
The Robins won a thrown in which reached Cooper-Clarke as he turned provider by lofting a ball to the far post where Geoff Kibaki stole in to make it 3-0, and then before half time Cooper-Clarke & Kibaki worked together on the right for the latter to get his second.
Half time: Bracknell Town 4 – 0 Fleet Town
Fleet made three half time changes and that seemed to spur them on a bit allowing them to get an early goal in the second half bringing it back to 4-1.
It was much more scrappy in the second half and there was only really one more act to play out as Cooper-Clarke received the ball midway in the Fleet half before squaring it to Dan Price who quickly unleashed a shot that beat the keeper in the bottom left corner.
A decent work out for Bracknell Town, but it was obvious that there will be tougher tests to come this season.
Full time: Bracknell Town 5 – 1 Fleet Town
Bracknell Town: Scott, Gater (Sheridan), Bayliss, Brown (Herbert), Clayton, Mulley, Kibaki (Carr), Darboe (Price), Cooper-Clarke, Bignall & Genovesi. Unused Subs: Whiter(GK).
