Braintree Town Vs Macclesfield Town 3-3-15
A frustrating evening for Iron resulted in a single goal
from the visitors taking all three points in a game that Braintree would have
felt that they had the upper hand for the vast majority of the game. With Iron
dominating possession and goal mouth action, but failing to create clear cut
chances, a first half goal from Alex Grant coming from a loose clearance would
steal the game from Iron, who will have been disappointed not to have had the
ball in the back of the net at least once during the night.
Iron gained two good chances from dead balls early on, the
first of which Sean Marks failed to control when he chested a ball played in
from Davis into the goalkeepers arms. The second free kick on the left hand
side was floated into the box and nodded on by the defending visitors.
Paul Lewis had to resort to a long range effort from around
35yards out for Macclesfield’s first attempt, his shot floating innocently over
the Iron bar. Sean Marks had further efforts in the air before Matt Paine
blasted an effort from outside the box which drifted just wide. Iron were the
dominant side in the opening quarter of an hour, looking comfortable at the back
but failing to create the clear chance to fire themselves ahead.
After a relatively quiet 10 minutes in terms of chances,
Thierry Audel saw yellow for a high challenge on Sean Marks. Akinola’s feet
proved too quick for even him as we hit the 25 minute mark when he knocked a
ball past the final man unknowingly, failing to latch onto the pass to himself
which would have seen him through on goal. It was Akinola again who would cause
problems for the visitors, picking up a ball with his back to goal. Akinola
found space to turn and shoot hard and low, but watched his effort skip past
the post and out for a goal kick. As the game grew older, Akinola found the
ability to create plenty of space for his pacey runs, which worried the
Silkmen’s defence as they failed to keep up with both the forwards mind and
feet.
Against the run of play, Macclesfield made the most of a
corner from 25 yards out on 38minutes to deal a cruel blow against the run of
play. A floated ball into a congested area lead to confusion in the Iron box.
The hosts could clear only as far as Alex Grant on the edge of the area, who
dropped a shoulder and placed the ball cooley into the bottom left hand corner,
handing the visitors a goal advantage before the break.
Without many faces familiar with first team football on the
bench, Devonshire decided against changing things at half time, and it was only
Kenny Davis’ shot from way out which presented any form of chance early on.
Davis set himself up from around 25yards out, but failed to test Taylor five
minutes into the second half.
Braintree began to pile pressure onto the visitors, with
some great work between Sparkes and Habergham to set up Marks with a lofted
cross, whose looping header fell onto the roof of the net. Sparkes tried his
luck from 20yards out with a hard shot that forced Taylor to parry and collect
the rebound, which he had plenty of time to do.
Paul Lewis picked up a yellow on the hour mark for a cynical
foul, and Brundle fired the resulting free kick toward the top corner with an
effort equally match by a solid looking Rhys Taylor in goal.
Though Iron remained on top, they could have been punished
further on 70 minutes when they failed to clear their lines. A loose ball
bobbled from man to man around the Iron box, eventually poked clear to relieve
the danger. Habergham was then called into action, stealing the ball from
Holroyd before he could unleash a shot from 6 yards out in a shaky spell for
the home side.
Cowen picked up a yellow for bringing down Akinola 25 yards
from goal, but Sparkes could not level the scores when his attempt flew over.
With seven minutes left of the 90, Brundle floated a ball in which was tipped
over by Taylor. The resulting corner was pinged at the keeper, and a scramble
in the area saw a loose ball launched clear to keep the visitors a goal to the
good.
Iron could not further push the equaliser, and the clock was
run down to hand the away side all three points on the night. Against the run
of play for most of the game, but with Braintree failing to take their chances,
the opportunity for one goal to devastate the Iron was always on the cards.
Alan Devonshire commented after the game on the performance.
“I can’t fault what they are giving me. It’s one of those days at the moment in
the last three or four games. If we keep doing what we are doing we will be
fine.”
“I just said to them in there keep your heads up and we go
again on Saturday. We should have Chez back and Barnard back on Saturday so we
will have more bodies back.”
“The injuries we have had again has crippled us. At the end
of the day if there were two games to go and we had to win the last to I would
be worried. We’ll knuckle down again and go on Saturday.”
Braintree Town: Hamann, Brundle, Habergham, Clerima, Massey,
Paine, Davis, Peters (Maybanks 72), Sparkes, Akinola, Marks
Subs: Pullen, Moore, Pentney
Macclesfield Town: Taylor, Halls, Audel, Pilkington, Lewis,
Holroyd, Fairhurst, Moke (Rowe 79), Cowan, Grant
Subs: Branagan, Rowe, Bailey Jones, Turnbull
Referee: Nick Kinseley
Assistants: Christopher Francis and Mark Potkins
Fourth Official: Carl Pearse
Attendance: 445
Match report by Chris Pargin
