Braintree Town skipper Kenny Davis feels his side are in a better position to cope with fixture congestion after their experience last season.

Braintree Town skipper Kenny Davis feels his side are in a better position to cope with fixture congestion after their experiences of last season.

Iron travel to Woking on Saturday and then entertain Cambridge United on Tuesday, before entertaining Lincoln at Cressing Road next Saturday.

Having endured a catalogue of postponements due to weather and cup commitments it’s set to be a busy second half of the season for Iron – similar to last year.

Then, however Iron were in the bottom half of the table and had much to do just to guarantee survival, today they are in a much stronger position.

“We coped last season and we were in a tricker position then with no-where near as many points as we have now,” said Davis.

“There is no need to panic as far as I’m concerned. I would rather play in matches, rather than just training all week.

“You can build up fitness by playing games, it makes your body strong.”

And Davis is hopeful Iron can continue a push up the table. The top five and play-off positions are not far away from 11th-placed Iron, who already have 38 points.

“One look at the table and you can see we have two, three, even four games in hand on teams above us and we are only four points behind the top five,” he added.

“That’s where we are looking.”

Braintree may well continue to punch above their weight when one considers most of the Skrill Conference sides are full-time, however, there is little doubt they are now highly-respected among other Conference sides as Alan Devonshire’s team enjoy their third season at this level.

“This year we have got more respect from other sides,” Davis added.

“When Luton came to play at our place, they didn’t go with three up front hoping to walk over us, they put a man in front of the back four. They came to get something out of the game first. That’s the sort of respect we are now getting.

“Of course it is hard for us to be as fit as the full-time teams, but we look after ourselves away from the game, so that isn’t a big issue.”

Today’s opponents Woking last played on Boxing Day where they suffered a 3-1 loss at the hands of Salisbury.

Prior to that however, Garry Hill’s men had won three league fixtures in a row, helped in no small part by Ipswich Town loanee Jack Marriott who scored nine goals in nine games for The Cards.

Woking will have to do without him now however as he has returned to Town and then been loaned out to Gillingham, who are at Colchester on Saturday.

Iron and Woking have already played this season at Cressing Road, Iron winning 2-0.