Braintree manager feels the pressure

By dward

BRAINTREE Town manager Lee Patterson admits he's under pressure to turn things round after his side suffered their fifth Blue Square South defeat on Tuesday.

The Iron lost 1-0 at home to league-leaders AFC Wimbledon and yesterday (Wednesday), Patterson told the Chronicle: "We're in the result business at the end of the day and at the moment we're not getting the results we should be.

"We've lost five of our first seven games and that's simply not good enough and it does put me under pressure because I'm the manager and the person responsible.

"I'm certainly not going around feeling sorry for myself and neither are the players and we're in this together and we will get it right.

"But we need to start picking up points because I know the side is better than our league position of fifth from bottom shows.

"It's frustrating because we've created goal scoring chances but not taken them and we then get caught out by giving away free-kicks and getting done by set pieces."

On the Wimbledon game, Patterson said: "Forget about the 18 corners they had because they don't count as goals and on the night I think we had three chances and they had three but we didn't put ours away.

"On Saturday we had four clear-cut chances at home to Team Bath and scored all four to win 4-1. It's that fine a line at this level because if you don't take your chances you will get punished.

"I felt on Tuesday that had Sean Marks scored with a great chance in the first minute it would have been a different game – we would have had our tails up and they (Wimbledon) would have lost confidence.

"Overall I felt we didn't deserve to win but we definitely deserved to draw and pick up a point.

"They got a free-kick on the edge of the area which wasn't one in my view and from that their player hit an unstoppable shop into the top of the net and we're one down."

The Iron certainly matched Wimbledon better in the second half and Patterson admitted: "We pressurised them higher up the pitch and you could see that they were then not so confident and started to give the ball away.

"I know it's frustrating for supporters because we're not winning but we'll get it right.

''What's gone has gone and you have to be positive and look forward to putting things right in the next game."

The Iron go to Eastleigh on Saturday for another league game and Patterson said: "It will be another tough game but they all are.

"Thankfully we have no new injuries and I'm looking for a confident win and three points because I don't like seeing us near the bottom of the table."

On Tuesday the Iron entertain Hampton & Richmond Borough in the Setanta Shield with Patterson confirming he will be fielding a full first team.