Wideman Wes Burns felt it was always going to be a case of wearing Bracknell down slowly before Town’s greater fitness and physicality showed in the latter stages, the Blues having run out 3-0 winners of last night’s FA Cup first-round tie at Bottom Meadow via three second-half goals.
The Welshman came on as a 71st-minute sub with Town already a goal up via Dan Bayliss’s own goal with Freddie Ladapo and Panutche Camara adding the second and third, Burns laying on the Guinea-Bissau international’s first for the club.
"I think it was a good performance from the lads,” he said. "Coming here, the boss said it will be a tough game, it’s going to be a different challenge to what we’re used to in our league.
"And credit to everyone, they came out, we gave our all and showed a little bit of patience.
"We knew that the first 10 or 15 minutes would probably be a little bit chaotic, they’re coming out swinging and running off a little bit of adrenaline because of the occasion and things like that.
"We knew it was seeing the 10 or 15 minutes of craziness out, which I think it was because every time they got a corner you could hear the crowds going wild, long throw-ins and things like that.
"It was a good performance all-round, patient until we got out first goal and after that it was pretty much just keep the intensity high, keep the pressure on and the other goals came.”
The 27-year-old knew it was never going to be the type of game where Town would find themselves 6-0 up at the break despite the four divisions between the clubs.
"No, definitely not,” he reflected. "I’ve played in many of these games, it’s always the same, especially coming away from home.
"They’ve got the crowd backing and things like that, it’s never easy. It’s always a case of not going 1-0 down because that gives them a little bit of life and something to hold onto.
"It’s always a case of just wearing them down slowly, we knew that ultimately the longer the game went on we’d be fitter and we’d be stronger and obviously that’s how it went.”
Regarding Camara, whose goal was celebrated warmly by the whole team, Burns added: "He’s been brilliant since he’s come in. When he came in, he had to have a little bit of time on the sidelines with injury but he’s just a great guy, smiles every day and the lads love him.
"As soon as I saw him on the other side of the box I thought I’d got to square it because it’s a guaranteed goal, something that he probably needs to get himself going. It was brilliant for him.”
No thoughts of scoring himself? "As soon as I’ve gone through, as soon as I’ve seen him, it’s the first thing I look for because usually it’s Freddie or it’s Jacko [Kayden Jackson] or it’s Chappers [Conor Chaplin] there.
"But with the angle that I was running in at, it would have been a hard finish anyway, so it’s always good to get a guaranteed goal, especially when you look across and it’s Panutche and you think it’s a brilliant time just to get him that little bit more confidence, a little bit of something to hold onto and give him that push to assert himself in the squad.”
Town now have a tie against National League North Buxton at Portman Road in round two.
"It’s just pretty much the same as this one,” Burns reflected. "But we’ll prepare for that game like we do every other game. We’ll prepare for it properly and it’s a great opportunity to get to round three.
"It’s going to be a very similar tie but obviously with it being at home it’s us with the chance to go and assert our game on them right from the off.”
The tie gives Town a chance of a rare run in the FA Cup and a first appearance in round three since their relegation to League One.
"Why not?” Burns said. "We’ve got Buxton now in the next round, it’s a good chance for us to go and get through to the third round and hopefully we’ll get a real big one to go and test ourselves.
"We said before this one, it’ll be nice to see who we get in the second round but now that we’ve got Buxton, it’s a real chance for us to get to the third round and see if we can really test ourselves against a real good Championship club or one of the real big boys in the Premier League.
"I think it’s a chance for us to see where we’re at in terms of a higher calibre team if we get that draw. In terms of our progression since the boss has come in, see where we’re really at.”