Lincoln City vs Braintree Town 23/8/14 - Times report (350 Word limit)

Iron boss Alan Devonshire expressed the disappointment in his team after watching them go down 3-2 against a Lincoln side who were forced to play with ten men for the vast majority of the second half. Suggesting that changes in personnel would not be shied away from if required, Devonshire called on his players to bounce back immediately to prove their worth to the team.

“I’m disappointed in certain players, and if I have to go and get some new players after Monday I will. The problem is, if one comes in, one goes out. I’ve told them in there today, I’m not happy at all. I know where we’re short and I know what needs to be done. It’s down to me as a manager to get it sorted and to try and get the players in that I’ve been after for a while now”

Sean Newton gave the home side an early lead at Sincil Bank, which was to be doubled by Hamza Bencherif to put Braintree two goals behind within 21 minutes. With Iron creating little in the first half, their fortunes seemed to change at the start of the second when Jordan Cox was pulled back by Tony Diagne in the area.

With Diagne seeing red for the infringement, Kenny Davis converted from the spot to halve the deficit. He did so in vein however as Ben Tomlinson added a third for the hosts just twelve minutes later. Alan Devonshire rang the changes with Sean Marks and Dan Walker replacing Michael Bakare and Sam Habergham twenty minutes from the end as his squad struggled to capitalise on the man advantage. Devonshire’s squad concerns will have been heightened by seeing both Brundle and Sparkes come off for periods to receive treatment.

It was the wounded Mitch Brundle who was then to close the gap once more in the last minute of normal time with a deflected shot from outside the area. However, it was too little too late for Iron, who have now suffered six defeats in eight against the Imps.

 

By Chris Pargin

Braintree Town vs Macclesfield Town Match report - 3/3/15

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

FA Cup 1st round: Braintree Town VS Chesterfield match report 9-11-14

Braintree Town Vs Chesterfield FA Cup First round 09-11-14

A great FA Cup occasion at Cressing road saw a very good League One Chesterfield side prove too difficult for the Iron to overcome in order to progress to the second round proper. Six goals was the difference between the two sides who sat 52 positions apart in the football tier at the start of the game, but Iron created some good chances in the game. Though well beaten on the day, Iron showed glimpses of promise in their performance in some areas against what they knew would be a massive test at Cressing road on Remembrance Sunday.

Iron had the early chance with Sean Marks played through by James Mulley in the centre of the pitch. Mulley beat the Chesterfield back line with a single ball, which Marks controlled well and fired hard and low towards the bottom right hand corner. Goalkeeper Tommy Lee had to be on top form to palm the ball behind five minutes in.

From the early chance, Chesterfield responded with a ten minute spell of pressure, the majority of play taking place deep inside the Iron half. Braintree coped well, looking solid defensively and dealing with any test that the Spirites gave in the initial quarter of an hour. However, following a free kick into the visitor’s box where a foul was given on Sean Marks against Tommy Lee, Chesterfield created the necessary chance to open the scoring. Beaten down the right hand side, Iron allowed Eoin Doyle space in the centre of the goal to reach a pass played along the six yard line from Clucas. The ball was squeezed beyond the outstretched Hamann, which Doyle tapped in unchallenged and with ease to put Braintree a goal behind 20 minutes in.

The breakthrough signalled the end of Braintree’s good defensive performance, and the floodgates were to open in this match, with Chesterfield contining to threaten through Doyle who narrowly missed a pacey ball in from Morsy, which would have been certain to double the lead. The second did come just ten minutes after the first with a great strike from Jay O’Shea just outside the Iron box. Turning with his right, O’Shea turned in a curling effort, which found the top corner giving Hamann no chance and the Iron a mountain to climb within half an hour if they were to progress to the 2^nd round.

Just before half time, Akinola turned Ian Evatt, and looked to be through on goal. Having been beaten by Akinola’s acceleration, Evatt went to ground, pulling down Akinola in the process and escaped with a yellow due to a covering defender being available on the far side. The free kick in was nodded down by Sowunmi to Alan Massey, whose shot was scooped up by Lee. Straight down the other end, some sloppy defending allowed Sam Clucas to scuff a shot in from close range, being on his own again inside the 6 yard box. Similar to the first, simple football played around the Iron defence allowed a ball across, which this time Hamann got to but could not prevent, and Clucas was the man presented with the opportunity to tap in unchallenged.

Devonshire made a double substitution at the break, with Marks and Brundle making way for Cox and Strutton. Strutton had an immediate impact, catching a great shot with his right which was palmed away by Tommy Lee. The goalkeeper was the centre of controversy moments later, when outside the box he charged down Jordan Cox who appeared to be through on goal. As Cox went to ground, the referee immediately blew the whistle for a free kick just outside the area, but strangely no word was said to the goalkeeper, nor a card shown for the challenge.

Down the other end, and against the run of play since the break, a Gary Roberts solo effort from outside the area extended the lead to four in the 53^rd minute. Tandayi Darikwa ran at the Iron defence, and through a challenge found a looping ball to Roberts. Roberts looked up and nestled the ball into the top left hand corner with a great attempt from outside the area, showing the quality that the League One club has. The Spirites were to have the ball in the back of the net yet again when Jay O’Shea thumped a Gary Roberts through ball past Nick Hamann, but O’Shea was ruled offside and it remained 4-0 with half an hour to play.

The Iron never gave up, with Jordan Cox looking lively up front with Strutton, coming back to receive the ball when possible. Cox did just that, playing the ball out to the right hand side and getting himself into a good position looking for the return. Iron played the ball across the box searching for the opening, and it was eventually Akinola on the other side that found the space required to pull the trigger; a shot fired at Tommy Lee that was palmed away. Cox met the return with his head, which flew over the bar and behind for a goal kick.

On the counter, Chesterfield punished Braintree yet again in the crulest of ways with fifteen minutes remaining when Remi Clerima turned in an own goal when trying to meet a cross in from the left. Gary Roberts tore down the left hand side and provided the cross, but as Remy slid to turn the ball behind, he instead deflected it past the ‘keeper Hamann to further extend the lead.

Iron fans held their breath as Akinola cut in to shoot down the left had side, only to be denied by the head of the Chesterfield man on the line. But the day was finished with a final goal from the league side, when Eoin Doyle bagged another just before full time, slotting past Hamann with ease. Moments before the full time whistle, Doyle was put through on the right, and took his chance well, side footing into the bottom corner to wrap up the day which saw Chesterfield ease past Braintree with six goals and no reply.

Iron boss Alan Devonshire showed his discontent on the result, which did see his side match up against a far superior league side. In terms of positioning, the distance between the two is the same as that of Chesterfield and Manchester City at the start of the game. However, Devonshire pulled no punches following the game stating that he was “bitterly disappointed” with his side.

“We did alright for five minutes, started well and then after that we were poor. I’m bitterly disappointed, I feel that the players have let the club down. They are better than that, you know that, you see them week in week out and I’m trying to put my finger on it… I don’t know. I am bitterly disappointed with that performance, and all we can do is move on.”

“We didn’t go with runners and sloppy mistakes, we couldn’t clear the ball. How many times did we scuff it ten yards to them? It’s just poor. I don’t know what they want. It’s the first round of the FA Cup, the TV cameras are here, have a go lads and show them how good you are. I’ve got to apologise to the fans because I feel they were brilliant today and we were poor.”

“I said to them in there that they were playing against League One players, but we made them look like Championship or Premier League players today. We need to roll our sleeves up now because we have a game against Dover on Tuesday who had a great win yesterday.”

“At the end of the day we have had enough chances to score. Charlie (Strutton) had a chance and Jordan (Cox) had a chance that should have been in the back of the net like it was at the other end. There finishing was good but at the end of the day we also gifted them some goals as well. Especially the third one which I just felt at half time had killed the game, it was so sloppy. We’ve got to learn quickly.”

“I don’t know if the confidence is low, but we can’t feel sorry for ourselves. We’ve got to roll our sleeves up and make sure we get another thirty points in this league to make sure that we stay in it. There are a few people coming back now, so I will have a choice to make. I could probably drop them all after today, but there will be a few changes after today because that was poor.”

Braintree Town: Hamann, Peters, Habergham, Sowunmi (Clerima), Massey, Isaac, Davis, Mulley, Brundle (Strutton), Marks (Cox), Akinola

Unused subs: Sparkes, Paine, Walker, Pentney

Chesterfield: Lee, Darikwa, Evatt, Ryan, Morsy, Clucas, Jones (Humphreys), O’Shea (Gardner), Raglan, Roberts (Boco), Doyle

Subs: Wright, Ariyibi, Banks

Referee: Brendan Malone

Assistants: Ian Fissenden and Chris O’Donnell

Fourth Official: Darren Blunden

Attendance: 1206

 

Match Report by Chris Pargin

Braintree Town Vs Norwich City pre-season friendly match report 15-07-14

Braintree Town Vs Norwich City match report.

Braintree Town: Hamann, Case, Habergham, Isaac, Paine, Massey, Mulley, Davis, Marks, Walker, Hawkins

Norwich City: Ruddy, Johnson, Martin, Turner, Howson, Lafferty, Hooper, Hoolahan, Bennett, Olsson, Surman

Braintree kicked off their home pre-season campaign in a changed white strip, unfamiliar to Cressing Road, with Norwich’s away strip yet to arrive in time for the fixture. A strong side was fielded by the Canaries, who ran out 6-1 winners on the night. Both sides made the most of the squads at their disposal, making mass changes in the second half with Alan Devonshire introducing some trialists in the fold against the Championship opposition.

Wes Hoolahan won free-kick just outside the 18 yard box, which was fired straight into the arms of Nick Hamann by Bradley Johnson early on. At the other end, Chez isaac’s free kick was deflected over for a corner, which he delivered near post to the head of Alan Massey. A stooping Massey could not test the keeper, turning the ball over for a goal kick.

The next Norwich attack was to lead to the opener, as Hoolahan was played in from the right just in front of goal. Looking like he was going to shoot, Hoolahan coolly found Andrew Surman to his left unchallenged, who had enough time to open his body and slot the ball into Hamann’s bottom left corner.

Sean Marks came close to equalising just two minutes later for the Iron, receiving a ball deep inside the Canaries’ half. Marks beat the keeper with his right footed effort, but could not beat the post as his shot bounced off the woodwork and out to safety.

On the 26^th minute Kyle Lafferty extended the lead for the away side with a fine free-kick from 25yards out. Lafferty curled the ball around the Iron wall, sending Hamann scrambling across goal, but unable to meet the shot which found the side netting.

Some great build up play from Norwich led to a cross in from the right by Elliott Bennett. A towering Kyle Lafferty directed his header from inside the Iron box onto the crossbar, leaving the trailing by just the two goals going into the second half.

Norwich City second half: Dunn, Whittaker, Bennett, Turner, Garrido, Redmond, Howson, Johnson, Murphy, Van Wolfswinkel, Grabban

With mass changes at half time from Canaries manager Neil Adams, second half introduction Ricky Van Wolfswinkel needed just one touch to open his account, passing the ball into an empty net with Hamann committed out of his box from the off.

Nathan Redmond added another ten minutes later with a thunderous strike from outside the Iron box. Just past the hour mark, Norwich added a fifth through Bradley Johnson after making another two substitutions. Norwich’s fresh legs began to run away with the tie, with the home side introducing only Jordan Cox and Michael Bakare until this point.

Jordan Cox was played through from the left hand side, and looked likely to open the scoring for the Iron but appeared to be held back by the covering Norwich defender. However, the referee waved away appeals to leave the home side searching again with Norwich introducing an eleventh change minutes later.

But the Iron wasn’t to search for their opener for too much longer when Sean Marks found the net with a header. An Isaac free-kick delivery across goal was headed back to Marks, who glanced across goal to guide the ball past Dunn to the delight of the home support.

Norwich added a sixth minutes from the end, with the Iron now a much changed side also as Devonshire took the opportunity to take a look at what was on offer for the season ahead. Josh Murphy whipped in a ball from the left, reaching Van Wolfswinkel at the back post who added a tap in to his tally for the night.

A decent game by both sides pleased a good turnout at Cressing road, with the strong Norfolk following taking a 6-1 win on the night.

Match report by Chris Pargin

The hidden world of non-league football

Just a few leagues below the £300,000 per week earning, champagne sipping poster boys of the Premier league live the stars of the non-league. The jugglers of the part-time football career receive little by comparison in the way of financial rewards, so much so that the vast majority work a second job to pay the bills. Though low paid in comparison, anyone that’s been to a standing terrace with hundreds rather than thousands of spectators in attendance will know that the effort that the lower league players put into performances equals, if not exceeds that of many of at the top of the football tree. If this is the case, is money really a motivator?

Footballers are always in the media for how much money they earn from the game, and don’t get me wrong, in my opinion the majority are majorly overpaid. “The average wage for a top flight player being around £30,000 per week”[1]. This is more in a week than a fully qualified nurse with the NHS would earn in a year. The NHS website shows the starting band for nurses as between £21,478 and £27,901[2], in what is surely a much more important role in the world. Sticking to the profession of football, if money were the main motivator, those at the top of the football pyramid would be by far the most motivated, putting in the most effort and making the greatest sacrifices.

Herzberg suggests that money has an ability to demotivate, but as long as the minimum requirement is achieved, will not be a great motivator.[3] As displayed in “Braintree Town’s marathon week in the conference”[4], Braintree captain Dean Wells travels 1374 miles playing the game he loves in conditions that Herzberg may even see sufficient to demotivate. However, Dean Wells states within this article “The work rate of the lads, considering the number of games we've had and the travelling, is superb. If we were in mid-table and just going through the motions, you could be disheartened. But the position we're in, we can't afford to have those thoughts.” This would back up Herzberg’s theory of achievement, recognition, advancement, work itself and even personal growth as being greater motivators. Personal growth in particular here is relevant with Dean Wells making the step up to full time football following the season in which he was selected in conference team of the year.

 

For three out of four weeks, Braintree played three matches a week last season. It is hard to imagine this being enforced in the Premier League, such is the difference between league and non-league football. Many would see the reason for this difference comes back to power. The power of one of the top clubs in the highest tier in English football is far greater than one of those much further down, and this is not just because of the financial influence that one of these clubs has. Braintree Town manager Alan Devonshire seems to believe that other clubs in the same division would not have been treated in the same way.[5] Though not stated, it is suggested that there is an imbalance of power in the Conference, with the better known ‘larger clubs’ favoured over those perhaps historically lesser known. Perhaps these sides that bring in more spectators, spread the word of the league further and are more recognisable by Football League follower’s uses personal influences against the authorities.

Though so many differences can be seen between league and non-league clubs, the players are still there to play the game that they love, putting their all into performing for reasons other than the widely mediated financial gains, and creating the game that we love from top to bottom of the pyramid.

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[1] Sky news (2013) available at http://news.sky.com/story/1100132/football-finance-premier-league-wages-up-9-percent (accessed 16/06/2014)

[2] NHS Careers agenda for pay April 2014 available at http://www.nhscareers.nhs.uk/explore-by-career/nursing/pay-for-nurses/ (accessed 16/06/2014)

[3] NetMBNA.com (2002-2010) available at http://www.netmba.com/mgmt/ob/motivation/herzberg/ (accessed 21/06/2014)

[4] BBC football (2014) available at http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/26818712 (accessed 21/06/2014)

[5] BBC football (2014) available at http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/26785223 (accessed 21/06/2014)

Braintree Town Vs Concord Rangers Match report 29-4-14 Essex Senior cup final

Essex Senior cup final

Though the scene was set for Braintree to add some silverware to a successful season, the opportunity passed Iron by when they went down by two goals to one in the Essex Senior cup final. An impressive team goal finished by Sam Collins was capped off with a cool strike from James White for Concord Rangers, sending Braintree back up the A12 empty handed in their last competitive game of the campaign, with James Mulley adding a consolation in injury time.

Braintree showed their intent from kick off, striking the woodwork in the opening minutes with some nice play down the left hand side. Marks and Holman linked up well, switching the play to James Mulley in an advanced position just outside the box. It was an opportunity possibly too early for James Mulley, who scuffed his shot across goal and onto the opposing post. Down the other end, Gary Ogilvie picked up the ball from a throw on the left wing for Concord Rangers, running at Ryan Peters and cutting in at the by-line. Penalty appeals on mass from the men in blue with Ogilvie going to ground in the area were waved away and the ball collected by Hamann.

However, Concord made the next chance count and opened the scoring through Sam Collins on 17 minutes. Gary Ogilvie was to thank for a fantastic ball across field from the Rangers left hand side, floating into space for Collins to attack. Latching onto the cross and in plenty of space, Collins struck across goal, finishing well past Nick Hamann to put the Conference South side ahead at Victoria road.

Jamie Butler did well on the stroke of half time to retain the hard fought lead, reacting well with a double save to force Devonshire’s men to face a tough team talk as Barry Holderness blew the whistle.

Ten minutes after the break, the Beach boys were screaming for a penalty again when Matt Paine stuck out a leg on the edge of the area. But with the referee ignoring the calls for the second time, Braintree broke down the left, providing Jordan Cox with possession inside the opposition box. Cox looped a ball into the middle of the box, which was met by James Mulley who nodded over.

Davis went into the book on the 65^th minute for a stamp on the grounded Toby Stokes, leading to a dangerous looking free kick from 25 yards out. It was Collins who struck, demanding the most from the outstretched Nick Hamann who prevented a wonder goal from the scorer of the first. However, Hamann could parry only as far as James White, who put the ball in the back of the net to double the lead for Concord Rangers.

With fifteen minutes to go, Bradley Quinton delivered from a corner into a mass of shirts, who watched helplessly as the ball trickled past the post for another corner which was put clear. Iron could not create in the game as they had all season in the league, but added a consolation through James Mulley moments before the referee’s whistle. A corner in by Bradley Quinton fell to Mulley, who this time headed home, but it was far too late for a comeback with the referee blowing the signalling an end to the tie from the restart.

Braintree Town: Hamann, Peters, Habergham, Isaac, Paine (Daley), Davis, Marks (Cox), Holman, Sparkes (Quinton), Massey, Mulley

Unused Subs: McDonald, Wells

Concord Rangers: Butler, Gordon, Glozier, Cawley (Lampe), King, Goodacre, Cawley, White, Ogilvie (Easterford), Collins, Stokes

Unused Subs: Alzapiedi,Taaffe, Amole

 
Referee: Barry Holderness
Assistants: Wade Norcott and Thomas Ramsey
Fourth Official: Stuart Cheek

Attendance: 448

 

Braintree Town Vs Dartford Match report 18-04-12

A Kenny Davis wonder strike claimed all three points for the Iron who kept their playoff dreams alive against Dartford. Braintree are now just one point from the playoff place with two matches remaining, the next coming on Easter Monday in the televised fixture at Barnet before the final home game against Grimsby Town next weekend.

The game started fairly evenly, with both sides struggling to put passes together early on and a scrappy beginning to a match with so much riding on it for both sides. Going into the fixture, Dartford sat third from bottom, inside the relegation places by just one point. Hoping that results would go their way, a win at the Amlin could go a long way to saving their Conference Premier league status. The Iron came out with the opposite objective, sitting one place outside the playoff positions, three points shy of their midweek opponents Gateshead. All as still to play for with two games to play following this tie, in what has already been a fantastic season for Alan Devonshire’s side.

With nerves on show early on, a foul on Stevenson thirty yards out presented the hosts a chance to put a ball into a dangerous position with just ten minutes played from the resulting free-kick. However, Noble and Stevenson where clearly unsure of what to do, trying to trick the Iron but looking more like fooling each other with both players running past the dead ball. The resulting ball in was easily cleared.

From a corner at the other end, Isaac put in a spinning ball which made its way to Marks with his back to goal. Just yards from the goal line, Marks laid off Davis rather than attempting a shot on the turn, but the ball escaped the Iron skipper and was played clear by the Darts.

Peters had a let off on the twenty minute mark when he controlled a ball played across his own box. Finding himself hounded by Noble, Peters lost possession with Noble finding himself through on goal down the left hand side. Opening his body well, Noble did everything right but lost composure and scuffed his shot well wide to spare the blushes of the Braintree right back.

The breakthrough came on twenty five minutes when Dean Wells headed long to the chest of Sean Marks. Receiving possession with his back to goal once more, Marks decided again to lay off Davis just outside the visitor’s area. Davis made no mistakes this time, striking to the ball sweetly from just outside the box. Alan Julian could get nowhere near the save, as he dived to his left to see Davis’ sweet strike nestle in the back of the orange net.

Braintree looked to double their lead five minutes later with two corners in succession on the left hand side. Marks turned to shoot having found the ball at his feet from the first, with the ball being put behind through a Dartford defensive header. The second looked dangerous also but found its way clear in a period of pressure for the Darts.

With Dan Sparkes running alone at the Dartford defence, Lee Noble was drawn into bringing Sparkes to ground, finding the referee’s book in the process. A floating lob by Isaac caused the away goalkeeper problems, who flapped at the ball to put it over the bar in the last effort before half time.

Dean Wells picked up a booking in the second half for blocking a ball through with his arm, resulting in a Dartford free kick. The ball was played in from deep by Lee Noble towards Mikel Suarez, who looked to connect with a diving header but came up just short of turning the ball in. Hamann was called into action just minutes after with a drilled shot from outside the area, but got down low well to scoop up the effort heading to his bottom left hand corner.

James Mulley ran half of the length of the field to set up substitute Jordan Cox with a chance from eight yards out. Mulley cut in from the right hand side, knocking a ball along the floor into Cox’s path who couldn’t control or turn the ball in, scuffing one of his first touches without threatening the visitors.

Alan Julian pulled off a great save with little more than fifteen minutes on the clock to give his side a chance of taking something back to Kent. Jordan Cox was the man to test the ‘keeper, getting onto the end of a corner played in from the right, meeting with his head from just ten yards out. Julian flung out and arm diving to his left to turn the ball away keeping the deficit to a single goal.

Braintree sat deep with five minutes of added time, and Nick Hamann could have singlehandedly rescued Braintree’s playoff hopes just before the final whistle. The Darts played the ball into Mikel Suarez, who saw his shot kept out by Hamann diving to his right. The rebound was played straight into Jim Stevenson who forced the second of a treble save from the Iron stopper, who could breathe again when the ball could not be bundled over the line. With the referee blowing for full time on the goal kick, Hamann’s treble save could be vital in sending the Iron into the playoff mix in the final game.

Straight after that impressive run of stops, Nick Hamann reflected on the performance. “I think we did really well today. We wasn’t at our best, but I think we defended well all game. I didn’t have a lot to do. It’s important for the goalkeeper to always keep their concentration and never switch off. Playoffs would be unbelievable and we have given ourselves the best chance. A great team performance.”

Alan Devonshire also spoke “I tell you what, no wonder I’ve gone grey being the manager of this team, but I’m delighted. It’s about getting the result today. Nick’s pulled off two great saves but to be fair I don’t think he had a lot to do. It was a quality goal and we needed that for the game. It was a scrappy game, we knew it would be that. The pitch isn’t the best and we know the way Dartford play. It was just about getting the result today. We had chances to get the second goal, but listen we’ve won and we roll on Monday. It’s nice to be in there. With Gateshead drawing, we’re a point behind them with two games to go and what an achievement to be in there with two games to go. Hopefully with one game there might be something on there on the last game which would be fantastic.”

Braintree Town: Hamann, Peters, Habergham, Massey, Wells, Isaac (Daley), Paine, Davis, Sparkes (Cox), Mulley, Marks

Unused Subs: McDonald, Holman, Laurent

Dartford: Julian, Cornhill, Noble (Bradbrook), Collier (Swallow), Mitchel-King, Burns, Harris, Stevenson, Suarez, Sterling, McAuley

Unused Subs: Holloway, Woodyard, Clark

Referee: Declan Ford
Assistants: Andrew Tonks and Ian Smedley
Fourth Official: Lee Forester
 
Attendance: 1200