Vanarama National League South Braintree Town 2 Chippenham Town 0 Ten-man Iron put up a tremendous backs-to-the-wall second half performance to maintain their two-goal first half lead and so collect all three points in this feisty encounter at Cressing Road and remain unbeaten after three games.

The home side had controlled the first half with Karl Oliyide opening the scoring on 19 minutes with a well taken goal set up by the industrious Scott Shulton in midfield.

The Iron kept up the pressure and on 31 minutes Phil Roberts was unlucky not to add his side’s second when his first time volley came back off the crossbar with visiting keeper Jared Thompson well beaten.

Roberts was not to be denied though because he duly added the Iron’s second on 44 minutes with an exceptional strike after a great passing move down the left wing by the Iron with final cross being met first time by the striker who drove the ball into the top of the net.

Just on half-time Iron keeper Nathan McDonald, rarely troubled all afternoon, pulled off a great save to deny Matt Smith.

Three minutes into the restart though it all went horribly wrong for the home side when central defender Christian Frimpong was shown a second yellow card for a foul leaving Iron boss Brad Quinton to reorganise, forcing him to take off two key midfielders – Shulton and Luke Allen – for more defensive players.

Obviously the tactical changes made the Iron not quite so dominant in midfield as they had been and they allowed the visitors to come forward but full credit to the defence they held firm and never let the visitors have a clear shot at goal.

The manager’s changes clearly worked because the home defence continued to frustrate the visitors every time they attacked causing few problems for keeper McDonald

The Iron were also denied a blatant penalty on 71 minutes when substitute Mahrez Battache was hauled down in the area but referee Aji Ajibola surprisingly to the home players ignored their appeals.

Quinton added: “I am pleased we won and collected all three points got and that we kept a clean sheet and full marks to the players for their second half efforts when we up against it.”