BRAINTREE TOWN 1

BARROW 0

(Blue Square Bet Premier)

IF a side can not play very well for most of a game but still battle their way through and walk off the pitch with a 1-0 win then their can be no complaints from the manager, players or even fans.

Certainly that was the reaction Iron manager Alan Devonshire gave after this, at times controversial, encounter at the Amlin Stadium on Saturday where the visitors not only had two players sent off but lost the plot as well as their discipline.

"It's a win for us at the end of the day which is all that mattered, putting us on 42 points and closer to our target of 50 points," he summed up. "It wasn't pretty at times but it was job done."

The controversy started as early as the third minute when the visitors' Andy Cook was sent off by referee Robert Merchant for a raised elbow on Dean Wells, spotted by one of his assistants, although initially there was confusion between the two officials as Adam Boyes was shown the red card which was quickly rescinded before it was re-issued to Cook.

It left an angry Barrow joint manager David Bayliss saying: "It was a diabolical decision because he sent the wrong man off and how could assistant see the incident which was right across the other side of the field?"

It meant it was a backs-to-the-wall job for the visitors and even with a man short they were the better side in the first half, mainly because the Iron were dreadful, slow, sloppy in their all round play with passes going astray and no overall cohesion.

The visitors could have been two goals up at the interval as schoolboy defending saw Adam Bailey-Dennis present an easy chance to Boyes on 32 minutes which he missed and a minute later a dreadful clearance from keeper Nathan McDonald saw the ball rebound off Boyes narrowly missing the goal.

Thankfully the Iron bucked up their ideas after the break and two turning points changed the course of the game.

First on 58 minutes there was a double substitution with the off-form Chib Chilaka, playing in the place of the suspended Ben Wright, replaced by Andy Yiadom, playing his last game for the club before moving to Barnet, and Brad Quinton on for Nicky Symons to add some quality ball control, passing and a calming influence needed in midfield.

The second was on 70 minutes when McDonald pulled off a great save from a header from Danny Hone and had the visitors scored then the match could have had a different outcome.

In between these two key moments Sean Marks incredibly fired over an empty goal from close range after a tremendous left wing burst to the byline by Aswad Thomas who pulled the ball back into the path of the Iron striker.

The winning (and controversial) goal came on 78 minutes when Jai Reason floated over a free-kick from the left, which was met at the far post by Wells, who headed back inside to Thomas who swept it first time low and hard into the net just inside the near post with the visiting rearguard left static.

There was uproar from the visitors who felt the ball had already gone out before Wells knocked it back but not so according to the assistant that side.

Incensed by this latest injustice there was arguing and protests from the Barrow players with surprisingly only Paul Smith booked for his dissent.

Six minutes from time the Iron scored a legitimate goal when Quinton's free-kick was pushed on to the woodwork by keeper Shaun Pearson and Marks reacted the quickest to put the ball into the net.

Sadly the assistant involved with the controversy over the goal flagged for offside when Marks was clearly in an onside position when he made his move.

A minute into the five minutes of added stoppage time Quinton was again unlucky when another of his free-kicks hit the woodwork and was scrambled clear.

There was more controversy when Barrow's substitute Joe Jackson was shown a straight red for raising his hands and pushing Wells to the ground after the ball had been cleared from the Iron defence.

So an entertaining if controversial end to a game that over the 90 minutes the Iron just about deserved to win.

Braintree debutant, 19-year-old winger Brendan Kiernan, on a month's loan from AFC Wimbledon, had a quiet game amid all the controversy but showed some neat touches and has pace.