BRAINTREE: Dressing room dressing down gets Iron fired up

A HALF-TIME dressing down was the catalyst for Braintree Town's excellent 2-1 away win at play-off rivals Thurrock on Tuesday night, according to assistant manager Jason Broom.

Goals either side of the break from Sean Marks and top scorer Sean Purcell secured the win to lift the Iron to joint third in the Blue Square South and right in the play-off hunt.

"We are delighted with the result," enthused Broom.

"The second half performance was excellent, but we are disappointed with the first half, there didn't seem to be any urgency in our play and we really got in to them at half-time and to be fair to the lads they responded superbly – it was a massive three points."

Broom feels the lacklustre first half display might have been down to a series of long recent away trips to Newport County and Weymouth, but later this month the Iron have go to Bath City on March 20 before another trek to Havant & Waterlooville just two days later.

"I can't really believe they would do that to us," added Broom.

"Those fixtures are really difficult and the ones a few weeks ago really killed us but we just have to get on with it."

Despite an unkind run of games, Broom is pleased that with 10 games to go Town have already beaten last year's points haul of 52 – with 55 so far this term.

"It shows how the club has improved from last year," he said.

"We believe in what we are doing and the season had already been a success after 10 games, but we have managed to keep that going and it's important now to keep that ticking over and keep picking up points.

"We have got competition for places all over the park when you look at it and the spirit is really good, if someone is not in the team they are on the bench cheering them on.

"We have also been very lucky with injuries so that's helped."

Braintree are likely to have a fully fit squad to choose from at home to Dorchester Town on Saturday with only Paul Goodacre struggling with a knock, but he should be fit.

Meanwhile, there could be a signing in the offing, but club management are mulling over the move.