National League South Wealdstone 3 Braintree Town 1 The Iron players will have to learn to cut out silly, individual defensive mistakes and show more physical prowess against the opposition if they want to fulfil their aim of promotion and an immediate return to the National League.
It left manager Brad Quinton a frustrated man on the touchline as he criticised his players for their first half performance, adding: “It was simply disappointing and again we were three goals down before we really started to get going in the second half. We can do better than that.
“You can’t give silly goals away at any level of football.”
Admittedly the home side’s opening eighth minute goal was a tad fortunate after the Iron had unnecessarily given the ball away in midfield.
It fell to the feet of Ryan Sellers whose long range shot deflected off team mate Taofiq Olomowewe into the net, with keeper Nathan McDonald stranded.
The Iron retaliated well with first Christian Frimpong going close with a header and Billy Crook firing a shot straight at the home keeper and then on 20 minutes after some good right wing build up Karl Oliyide was left unmarked in the home area and should have buried his header.
But it was another poor defensive mistake on 32 minutes by defender Osa Obanwonyi, who failed to clear the ball with a header just inside the Iron half, leaving Daniel Fitchett a clear run through to drive the ball past McDonald.
And it went from bad to worst for the Iron a minute into the second half which effectively killed off any slim hopes they had to getting something from the game.
Again defensive errors saw a cross allowed to come in from the right wing and a poor punch out by McDonald saw the ball fall straight to the feet of Daniel Green, who promptly lashed it into the top corner of the net.
As the half continued the Iron did play much better and were rewarded on 65 minutes when defender Joseph Ellul moved up into attack and headed home a left wing cross for his first goal for the club.
But that was as close as they could get, despite numerous chances – the Iron lacking a cutting edge in front of goal.
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