Danny Cowley wants his players to go out and claim the recognition they deserve, as the part-timers bid to secure a National League play-off spot in front of the BT Sport cameras this afternoon.

The Essex side need just a point from their home clash with Altrincham to secure a spot in the National League play-offs, following a stunning season in which they have beaten the odds time and again in a division containing a host of clubs with big budgets and rich Football League histories.

With the game being screened live by BT, Cowley sees it as the perfect stage to not only secure their play-off place, but to show the watching football public why an unlikely team of part-timers are in the thick of the race for promotion to the Football League.

“It’s great that BT Sport have chosen our game to broadcast, it adds even more profile to the game and to the event and we are looking forward to them being there,” he said.

“We are fifth in the division and I think there are a lot of people outside of Braintree asking how and why we are fifth in the division, considering it is made up of so many massive clubs with great histories.

“This is a chance for us to show that we deserve to be where we are, having done it for 45 games. We may not have a romantic name or history and be working off limited resources and facilities but we’ve got some really good players.

“I’m so happy for them because they can sometimes go under the radar in terms of the coverage they get, but their names are going to be in the limelight this weekend because they deserve it.

“I can’t emphasise how diligent, hard-working and passionate these players are, and we’ve been so demanding and relentless in what we expect from them.

“They’ve never whinged, they are honest people and it’s been a privilege to work with them. I just want them to get what they deserve.”

Cowley is confident he and his players’ preparation will be enough to see them through, but insisted they are wary of an Altrincham side who themselves need a win to have a chance of staying in the National League.

He said: “For us it’s been an incredible journey but if you work as hard as you possibly can from Monday to Friday then you wake up on a Saturday knowing you have done all that you can. That takes the pressure off a little.

“We’ve done it all, left no stone unturned and we’ll go into Saturday’s game as positively as we can with all our energy in the right place.

“We have a clear game plan of how we’re going to approach it but we have a lot of respect for Altrincham, they are a good team with good players who can change a game and they will come into this buoyed by a really good 5-0 win over Welling.

“They will be highly motivated as they are fighting to stay in the division but for us, we’re focused and putting our energy into the way we play.

“We are never outcome orientated, we never put too much energy into the outcome because, if you do that, then sometimes you can forget the process.

“We’ll have a clear game plan, we have a clear set-up of how the players are going to play and we know where their strengths are.”