Match Report
Bracknell Town 3 Yate Town 0 Esprit (76, 90+3), Dotse (86)
Southern League Premier Division South
Saturday 14th February 2026
Yate Town, left Berkshire with nothing, despite domaining periods in the opening half when they had opportunities to take the lead but two defensive mistakes in the closing quarter of an hour, plus a wonderful third goal by the hosts, ended with them being punished for not being better in both boxes.
Yate Town manager, Darren Mullings, was forced into changing the side that lost narrowly to Dorchester last Saturday, with Marlon Jackson out injured. Corey Evans started in his place, with new signing Joe Keeping, from Bishops Cleeve, coming in on the bench in place of Jake Hicks.
The game got off to a slow start on the 3G pitch and the first attempt on goal was when Bracknell’s leading goal scorer, Seb Boweman, saw his free kick cleared but a minute later another free kick, taken by Gebe George, just cleared the Yate Town crossbar. With just over a quarter of the game gone, Will Larvin had to go off injured and was replaced by Oli Jenkins.
Yate Town started to gain more possession of the ball and Alex Monks saw his shot from 20 yards fly just wide of the post and shortly afterwards an excellent run and cross from Corery Evans flew across the six yards box and despite an attempt form James Taylor to latch onto the ball, Bracknell goalkeeper Zaki Oualah managed to get to the ball first.
Alex Monks lets fly from just outside the penalty area.
Yate Town had an excellent chance to take the lead after 34 minutes following an excellent through ball by James Ollis set Rex Mannings free but his low shot was saved at full stretch by Zaki Oualah and was eventually cleared from danger by the Bracknell defence.
Rex Mannings shoots but this chance is saved by the Bracknell goalkeeper.
Corey Evans was again involved in a move that eventually led to Oli Jenkins having his shot saved by Zaki Oulah, the ball going out for a corner. Yate Town had finished the half strongly and would regret not taking these opportunities.
Bracknell Town started the second half strongly and after Harry Murphy had been brought down by Lewis Hall the free kick came to nothing. Max Herbert saw his angled shot go just wide and a free kick by Seb Bowerman went straight into the arms of Yate Town goalkeeper Aaron Sainsbury.
Following a corner, Bracknell had a goal disallowed for a clear foul on Aaron Sainsbury and Yate Town responded with Corey Evans’ effort flying just wide of the far post.
This Corey Evans effort flies just wide of the post.
The game seemed to be heading for a goalless draw when after 76 minutes a shot by Jordan Esprit that was straight at Aaron Sainsbury slipped from the keeper’s grasp and ended up in the net to put the hosts in front.
Ten minutes later a second defence mistake saw Aaron Sainsbury’s clearance hit the oncoming Jahiem Dotse and rebound into the empty net.
Despite both Chris Zebroski and Oli Jenkins going close near the end it was Esprit who rounded off the scoring with a sublime finish into the top corner from 20 yards.
This game clearly showed the fine margins between getting points and not getting them. Yate Town were not clinical enough when they spurned chances and defences lapses, on the day, meant that they fell short.
The Bluebells have no mid-week fixture and take on Farnham Town at the South West Interiors Stadium next Saturday 24th February.
Yate Town: Sainsbury, Taylor, Larvin (Jenkins (24), Ball, Hall (Keeping 79), Monks (Tomlinson 79), James, Moody (Taylor-Clarke 76), Evans, Ollis (Zebroski 68), Mannings
Unused subs: None
Booked: Moody (12), Hall (53)
Bracknell Town: Oualah, Johnson-Schuster, George, Prosper, Murphy (Dotse 54), Herbert, Esprit, Bowerman (McGregor 60), Coomes Mazzone (69), Kennedy (Gregory 46), McDowell
Unused subs: Harris
Bookings: Kennedy (40)
Attendance: 375
Referee: Christopher Poole
Photographs by Jack Palmer