Match Report: Braintree Town 1-0 Hampton and Richmond Borough

On the back of a nightmarish month of football for The Iron, Steve Pitt's team managed to make it two wins from two in the space of four days by beating Hampton and Richmond Borough 1-0 at The Cressing Road Stadium to avoid a Halloween horror show!

The game started off as a cagey affair between the two sides near the bottom of the table, with Hampton having possibly the better chances of the opening 30 minutes. A spell of good play from Braintree in the 37th minute led to Louie Johnson firing a shot from the edge of the box, which was too strong for Hampton's keeper Jamie Searle to handle and he could only watch as the ball came away from his gloves and into the back of the net.

From then on The Iron looked slightly more comfortable than the side now sitting deeper in the relegation zone, but the visitors now had nothing to lose and made major changes. The second half started with an immediate wake up call for Iron. In the 47th minute a cross came in for Wilson Waweru which was turned on to the crossbar and then the follow up from Hayden Barrett was somehow sent over the bar from a close range header. Minutes later Iron goalkeeper Ben Hughes had to stretch across the box to stop a dangerous low ball coming in for the attacker.

After weathering the storm in the opening minutes of the second half, Iron started to look more settled and produced some fine counter attacking chances with Alfie Matthews having a shot smothered close to goal in the 59th minute. In the 63rd minute, Matthews, bent an effort towards goal, narrowly missing the target.

On the 78th minute we finally saw the return of Ryan Clampin, whose last appearance came 203 days ago, away at Forest Green Rovers. Although only having 12 minutes on his Iron return, he showed the crowd of 507 exactly what they had been missing with his driving runs and smart decision making, drawing some key fouls for the team.

With the game heading to a close, Hampton piled the pressure on even more, operating a front line of six attackers against The Iron's back five. This nearly worked for the visitors as in the 89th minute a scramble in the Braintree box resulted in two key chances for Hampton being cleared away by the Iron defence. This all-out-attack formation for Hampton did however leave them exposed at the back and Leyton Orient loanee Zac Hambury had two late chances to kill the game off with one-on-one's but Hampton's defence managed to get back both times.

The Iron faithful were begging the referee to finally blow the whistle and got their reward after seven minutes added time in the end. This victory makes it two wins in a row for Steve Pitt's men, right when they needed it most!

Braintree Town:

Hughes, Thorpe (c), Namisi, Olarewaju, Mensah, Senior, Bolovan, Lewis, Johnson, Matthews, Sassi

Subs: Swann for Bolovan 78', Clampin for Thorpe 78', Akanbi for Sassi 83', Hambury for Matthews 83', Dyer for Akanbi 90+3'

Unused Subs: Hubbard, Isaacson

Goal: Louie Johnson ~ Assisted by Alfie Matthews

Man of the Match as voted by you: Alfie Lewis

Supporters Club Man of the Match: Amine Sassi

Attendance: 507