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Wednesday, October 08, 2008, 11:12
And Iron manager Lee Patterson admits he will take the rap for the defeat because it was his idea to start with a different formation than his players normally do.
"I tried to combat how I know City play with their numbers in midfield but it didn't work out so I changed it at half-time back to our customary 4-4-2," he explained.
"But unfortunately we were chasing the game, being two goals down by then, but full marks to the players, they kept going right to the final whistle trying to get themselves back in it."
Patterson added: "I'm bitterly disappointed at going out of both competitions because I would have been able to use the money that is generated from them to strengthen the squad.
"I felt we could have possibly pulled a goal back within the first 15 minutes of the second half because we had chances, including a Sean Marks header."
The Iron did manage a consolation goal in injury time through Gareth Williams but that was too little too late.
"But good luck to City in the next round and we must now consolidate and continue to pick up Blue Square South League points," Patterson explained.
"We're only 12 points off the play-off places and we are unbeaten in our last three league games.
"I want us to now build on that and move forward which I believe we can particularly with more key players coming back from injury," he added.
The Iron have no first team game this Saturday, having been knocked out of the FA Cup by Kingstonian last week, so several first team squad players will get a run out with the reserves in their home game with Haverhill Rovers.
"It will be for those who need to play valuable action, while those with what I call niggling injuries now have the time to get fit again without being pressurised into playing," Patterson declared.
The Iron's next first team match is at home to Newport County in the league on Saturday week and Patterson reflected: "They've (Newport) had an indifferent start to their league campaign like ourselves but have managed to now put a few results together so they will be on their game."
"There are no easy matches in this league but we shall need to be ready and fully prepared because I want to now see us put a run together and start moving up the table.''
Patterson was highly delighted with the three points his side picked up on Saturday when defeating the then Blue Square South leaders Hayes & Yeading United 1-0 on their own ground.
"It was an excellent result from a good, all round team performance yet ironically we have played better games and lost," he added.
"But the players were up for it from the start and we restricted them to just one shot on target all afternoon which is quite something."
Overall Iron's performance was impressive and vastly different to that in the previous week's FA Cup defeat.
They looked solid at the back, creative and strong in midfield and more dangerous in attack, and should have taken the lead in the 27th minute but Marks put his header wide of the target.
Danny Hockton forced goalkeeper Aaron Hughes to push the ball round for a corner but Braintree finally make the breakthrough on 55 minutes when Marks fired the ball home.
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