BRACKNELL Town manager Mark Tallentire admitted he is still looking to find the right blend among his players following their 2-0 Hellenic League Premier Division defeat by Highmoor Ibis, writes Dave Wright.

Following an excellent 4-1 win at Oxford City Nomads last Saturday, the Robins were brought crashing down on Tuesday in their first game at Sandhurst’s Bottom Meadow – their temporary home ground.

“We are very disappointed, particularly coming off the back of a good win on Saturday,” said Tallentire.

“We didn’t really perform tonight.

“The pitch was a bit bobbly and we couldn’t really get the ball down to play our usual game, so we sort of played into their hands a bit.

“The goals we gave away were pretty average; we didn’t defend them very well.

“So all in all, we’re are pretty deflated, but we will move on and look to bounce back.

“I believe it is a matter of finding the right blend in the right areas of the pitch – that it is the only thing that is missing at the moment.

“We have got to make sure we work on those areas which we feel that are letting us down a little bit.

“Hopefully with a bit of hard work we can turn things around.”

Tallentire must also be a little concerned over his team’s defending as they could not cope with the pace of Highmoor’s Anthony White, who struck the goals in the 36th and 66th minutes.

“We shouldn’t be giving away goals like that and expect to beat teams like them,” said the Bracknell manager.

With the game goalless, Bracknell lost experienced midfielder Carl Withers with an ankle injury.

“When he went off we lost an important cog,” said Tallentire.

“He is quite a clever player. He picks up really good positions and knows what to do when playing that sitting role in midfield.”

Bracknell’s best chance of cancelling out Highmoor’s first goal came just after the hour. Adam Cornell, who had netted a hat-trick against Oxford, was involved in a goalmouth scramble which saw keeper Nathan Silver and Jamie Porter keep the ball out of the net.

But Tallentire commented: “I don’t know how the ball did not go in. Adam should have scored.

“If we had equalised, the goal might have given us the leg up we needed and maybe we would have gone on to get something out of the game.”

But their hopes of salvaging a point ended when White scored his second. His header was palmed away by keeper Chris Grace, but White followed up and made no mistake.

Grace is one of several Bracknell players not available for their FA Cup preliminary round tie at Egham this Saturday.

The injured Withers is a “serious doubt”, but Callum Whitty is expected to play despite suffering a cut close to his eye when caught by a Highmoor elbow.

Ascot United are also in FA Cup action this Saturday, taking on Southern League side Didcot Town at The Racecourse Ground.

Providing a replay is not required, the Yellamen will host Binfield in a league match on Tuesday.

Binfield have made a flying start to the season, hammering Lydney 4-1 on Saturday and Burnham 4-0 on Monday with Liam Ferdinand scoring twice in both.

“That’s nine points out of nine, so we probably need just another 26 points to be safe from relegation – that’s our first target,” joked manager Roger Herridge.

The Moles are away to Royal Wootton Bassett this weekend.

Wokingham & Emmbrook, who lost 2-1 at Didcot Town Reserves in their opening Hellenic League Division One East game, are away to Chinnor this Saturday.