Aldershot Town 1 Braintree Town 0

There was heartbreak for Braintree Town in the dying moments of Saturday’s clash at Aldershot, as the home side snatched a late winner with a superbly taken free-kick by Adam McDonnell with just seven minutes to go, so ending the Iron’s recent unbeaten run.

The added irony was that it was the hosts’ only shot on target all afternoon, while at the other end the Iron were far more dangerous in front of goal, creating six decent goal-scoring chances but failing to take one.

“We paid the price for not taking at least one if not two or three more of our chances because we created more all afternoon and should have won the game,” rued caretaker manager Hakan Heyrattin.

“I’m really disappointed because we played our high tempo game and continually caused their defence problems throughout the game. All the players did well but we need to do better. There’s a very thin line between winning and losing a game and today we were unfortunately on the wrong side.

“If we had taken one of our chances and scored then I am confident we would have gone to win,” added Hayrettin.

The first of Iron’s chances came on 25 minutes when on-loan striker Virgil Gomis lifted the ball over home keeper Will Mannion, only to see the ball kicked off the goal line by defender Gabriel Osho.

Moments later Reece Grant looked certain to score from close range but he headed the ball into the side-netting.

It was a similar story in the second half, with the Iron making most of the running. Another chance for Gomis saw the striker pivot on the edge of the penalty box only to see his shot charged down.

The visitors kept up the pressure and on 75 minutes Gomis had another great opportunity to score but his shot was saved by the outstretched legs of Mannion.

However, the Iron gave away an unnecessary free kick just outside their area on 83 minutes and up stepped McDonnell to strike an impressive curling shot which deceived both the defensive wall and keeper Ashlee Jones.

BRAINTREE: Jones, Muleba, Lyons-Foster, Ellul, Gabriel, Della-Verde (sub Cass, 88), Sagaf, Amaluzor (sub Pattison, 56), James, Grant, Gomis. Att: 1,618