Braintree Town 2 Hampton & Richmond 1
Both Braintree Town and Chelmsford City are in the top four, of National League South, following their respective victories on Saturday.
The Clarets are second in the table, thanks to four wins from five league starts, the latest being a 2-0 win at Wealdstone when second-half goals from Chris Dickson and Lee Barnard (penalty) wrapped up the points.
Braintree, meanwhile, defeated Hampton & Richmond 2-1 at the IronmongeryDirect Stadium, bouncing back from their midweek slip-up 5-3 defeat at East Thurrock. In the end, they should really have won by a bigger margin.
With three players out – two with injuries and one suspended – manager Brad Quinton had to shuffle his pack by bringing central defender Osa Obamwonyi for his debut. He quickly formed a solid partnership at the back with Mark Okoye.
The game really turned on the second-half dismissal of visiting defender Jack Cook, who was shown a straight red card by referee Declan Bourne for hauling down Iron’s Dernell when clean through on goal.
By then the Iron were already two goals to the good, having scored a second goal on 53 minutes from the penalty spot, Billy Crook netting after Luke Allen had been hauled down.
The opener had arrived a minute before half-time, thanks to a superbly taken goal by Allen, after again brilliant midfield work by Crook.
After the sending off the Iron completely dominated play and in reality should have scored three or four more goals.
Manager Brad Quinton said: “Obviously I’m pleased with the win and the way the players responded from our first defeat in midweek, and I can’t complain about their attitude, work-rate, motivation and commitment.
“I know it’s an old cliché about it being more difficult to play against 10 men, but in reality we should have finished the game off with the number of chances we had.
“I’m also disappointed we gave away such a sloppy goal in injury time.”
That all stemmed from a bad mistake by Iron keeper Nathan McDonald, which allowed Charlie Wassmer to find the net with a scrambled header in the third minute of injury time.
BRAINTREE: McDonald, Muleba, Obamwonyi, Mugabo (81 Bettache), Okoye, Schulton, Allen, Crook (86 Campbell), Wyatt, Roberts (75 Barrington), Wynter. Unused subs: Maxter, Stephenson.
Attendance: 472
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