Vanarama National League South Eastbourne Borough 2 Braintree Town 3 The Iron came back from a two-goal deficit to put in a sparkling second half performance to win and claimed all three points in their season opener at Priory Lane on Saturday, writes David Ward.
It was just the kind of performance new manager Brad Quinton had demanded from his all-new Iron side and he was particularly pleased with their attitude and commitment having gone two goals down within a three minute spell midway through the first half.
“We started well, created chances early on but were then caught out by individual errors leading to two quick goals against the run of play but crucially we pulled one back before the interval and again we had a couple of decent chances to have come in on level terms,” he explained. “The players responded magnificently in the second half, kept to our game plan and I knew we could go on and win.”
Against the run of play the Iron went behind on 19 minutes when a wayward backpass from Phil Roberts fell straight to the feet of Yemi Odubade who strolled through to beat keeper Nathan McDonald.
Three minutes later it went from bad to worse for the Iron when from another through ball into their area it led to a defensive mix-up allowing Nathan Pinney to turn an chip the ball into the net.
Needing to retrieve a goal back before the interval it came on 29 minutes when the hard working Scott Shulton broke well from midfield and fired home a low 25 yard shot past home keeper Bailey Vose.
Within a couple of minutes of the restart Iron’s cause for an equaliser was helped by second yellow card for home defender Kiran Khinda-John for hauling down Oliyide en route to goal.
With a minute the Iron scored their equaliser courtesy of a lob shot from Roberts as he made amends for giving the home side their first goal.
The expected third Iron goal came on 54 minutes thanks to a near post effort from Billy Crook following yet another excellent save by Vose.
Once in the lead and with the man advantage the Iron continued to dominate play on their way to a fine win.
Braintree now return home to host Dartford on Tuesday evening (7.45pm).
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