National League Braintree Town 2 Southport 0 The Iron’s diminutive midfield Sam Corne proved the match winner, scoring two goals to give the home side a comfortable win but manager Hakan Heyrettin admitted afterwards the 20-year-old’s name was not on the original teamsheet.
“I had initially pencilled in Harry Lee for that position but my backroom staff persuaded me to change it at the last moment so I put Sam in the team and he rewarded us with two great goals and three more important points for us,” said Heyrettin.
Goal hero Corne said: “I’ve been trying to cement my side in the team and was given the ideal chance today and I’m really pleased with my two goals and I think as a team we played much better for the whole of the game than last week.”
The former Welling Utd midfielder struck home his first goal on 42 minutes when he reacted quicker to a lose ball in the visitors’ area and went on to drive the ball home through a ruck of players.
He had a second goal on 57 minutes with a beautiful first time low shot from 25 yards right into the far bottom corner of the Southport net giving on loan Luton keeper Craig King no chance.
Once the second goal went in was almost all one-way traffic for the home side who should have added two more goals but both Reece Hall-Johnson and Michael Cheek just failed to connect with right wing crosses when unmarked in the area.
Hayrettin was full of praise for his central defender Manny Parry who was clearly man of the match adding: “Some people doubted me when I brought him but he has been magnificent again today and it’s quite remarkable that we’ve had so many central defenders injured he has to learn to play alongside five other central defenders in recent weeks because they have been out injured in recent weeks.”
Because of those injuries Hayrettin was forced to bring in 20 year-old central defender Christian Mbulu on a short term loan from Millwall. “Again he did well coming into a new side and soon fitted in with Manny at the back - I’ve never known a team of mine to have had so many central defenders injured in one go,” Hayrettin said. The win moves the Iron into 17th place. They host Woking on Tuesday night (7.45pm).
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