Boreham Wood 0 Braintree Town 1

Michael Cheek squeezed home his ninth goal of the season to earn Braintree Town a deserved victory at 10-man Boreham Wood tonight.

Goal poacher Cheek bundled the ball over the line from inside a jam-packed six-yard box, in the 62nd minute, to propel The Iron out of the National League relegation zone.

It was his sixth goal in Iron’s last five matches, and it was a precious one.

The Wood were reduced to 10 men in the 57th minute, when centre-half David Stephens was given his marching orders for two bookable offences, the second on man-of-the-match Reece Hall-Johnson.

Haken Hayrettin’s side struck with the winner, just five minutes later, although in truth they had looked the better team even before Stephens’ rash challenge.

As a result, The Iron are out of the bottom four, leapfrogging Southport on goal difference following last night’s three pointer – the original match, three weeks ago, had been postponed because of a frozen pitch.