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