Braintree Town will virtually guarantee their National League status, into a seventh season, if they can complete quickfire back-to-back home victories tomorrow evening, against struggling Woking (kick-off 7.45pm).
Fresh from a valuable 2-0 home win over basement dwellers Southport on Saturday, The Iron will open up a decisive 10-point advantage over fourth-from-bottom Woking if they can beat the Surrey visitors, in the process extending the gap between themselves and the drop zone to 10 points.
Completing a league double over Woking, following a 3-2 win at Kingfield Stadium last October, would boost The Iron’s points tally to 48, with seven games still left.
In recent years, Welling stayed up with just 45 points in 2014-15, while Guiseley avoided relegation with 49 points last season.
A brace of goals from midfielder Sam Corne eased Braintree to victory over Southport, much to the delight of manager Hakan Hayrettin.
“Full marks to all the players for working together and getting three vital points, and also keeping a clean sheet,” enthused Hayrettin.
In fact, this was Iron’s fifth clean-sheet in their last nine league games, an impressive statistic and one that suggests the Essex club are capable of finishing in a comfortable mid-table position.
This new-found miserly defensive record is all the more remarkable when considered that they have had countless injuries to centre-halves, to the extent that 20-year-old Christian Mbulu, signed on a short-term loan from Millwall, was the latest to make his debut on Saturday, alongside man-of-the-match Manny Parry.
Meanwhile, Heybridge Swifts are in action in Ryman North tomorrow evening, away at play-off chasing Thurrock.
The Swifts have still not pulled away from the relegation zone, although they were on the verge of recording an away win at Romford on Saturday, until conceding two injury-time goals in a 3-3 draw.
Jody Brown’s men are four points clear of the drop zone, with seven games remaining. Tomorrow is their game in hand, although it’s a tough one against fourth-placed Thurrock, who suffered a surprise 2-1 defeat at lowly Soham Town Rangers on Saturday.
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