Marlow had Bracknell on the ropes but couldn’t deliver a knock-out blow
Mark Bartley felt Marlow had leaders Bracknell on the ropes at one point during Saturday’s 31 defeat at Oak Tree Road, but their failure to take crucial second half chances cost them a chance of victory.
The Blues cancelled out Seb Bowerman’s early penalty towards the end of the first half, when Marlow were awarded a penalty of their own and
Nnamdi Nwachuku sent Michael Eacott the wrong way from the spot, but despite dominating the Robins in the first 20 minutes of the second half the visitors’ defence held firm.
That’s perhaps not too surprising, given that Bracknell had only conceded eight league goals coming into Saturday’s game and hadn’t dropped any points in 15 straight matches.
But there’s no denying the Blues had that miserly defence rattled on Saturday before substitute Duncan Culley scored twice late on to seal victory for them in an otherwise even game.
“First half I thought we weren’t at our best,” Bartley admitted.
“But we came in at half-time and tweaked a few things.
“The reality is that most teams set up to try and get a point against them, so they allow their full-backs to get on and pin them in. But we asked their full backs to do a bit more defending, which they did, and that stifled their attacking play slightly.
“We had some good chances at the start of the second half, better than half chances and we needed to take one of them. In these games, against the top sides, you need to take one of those, but we didn’t.
“Even then I thought we were still very much in the game, but we were disappointed with the set piece goal we’ve conceded, and their third goal has just bobbled in.
“They might have been celebrating at the end, but that’s easy to do when you’re 3-1 up. We had them on the ropes, and they weren’t doing that then.”