BRAINTREE TOWN’S FA Cup dreams are over for another year following a 3-0 home defeat to Tranmere Rovers in the first round, at Cressing Road.

A first half strike from Joe Thompson and second half goals from Cole Stocker and substitute Max Power saw Rovers book a home tie with Chesterfield in the next round.

Iron put up a spirited fight and Luke Daley spurned two good first-half opportunities to cancel out Thompson’s close-range opener, before Stockton shrugged off Adam Bailey-Dennis to fire home a spectacular second, early in the second period.

Town were mainly restricted to half chances in the second half though Bailey-Dennis had a header that was cleared off the six-yard line.

Power wrapped up the game in injury-time as the side from the Wirral hit Braintree on the break.

After the game, Alan Devonshire said: “We needed 11 players on form tonight and we probably had six or seven,

“The others did not let us down but they were below standard.

“Luke had a good chance to equalise and I thought he should have scored. We needed to take our chances, especially at 0-0 so we would have had something to hold on to.”

See Wednesday’s East Anglian Daily Times for a full match report.