Braintree Town boss in for new centre-half

By dward

POINTLESS after being beaten in all their first three Blue Square South games, Braintree Town manager Lee Patterson is aiming to sign up a centre-half in a bid to stop his defence leaking goals late in games.

Yesterday (Wednesday), he was in talks with a player from a Blue Square Premier club in the hope that he can complete a deal by the bank holiday weekend when the Iron face two tough games at home to Hampton & Richmond on Saturday and away to local rivals Chelmsford City on Monday.

"I hope we can sort it by the weekend but I won't name him until he's signed," he said confirming that he has released central defender Ben Chenery.

"Ben is a great lad and the parting is amicable without any animosity but he's not what I want in that position and we wish him well."

Asking Iron supporters to be patient he went on: "There's certainly no panic, confidence is high in the dressing room and amongst the players too and anyone who has seen us knows we've been unlucky in not picking up points.

"But we can't afford to give away late goals and I'll be looking for improvements in these next two games. I want to see us kick-start our season on Saturday at home and then we go to City on Monday and we know we have to be on our game there from the start.

"They're a good side as everyone knows but we're not frightened of any side in this league and we have to put right what has been wrong so far but there's certainly no cause for panic after only three games.

"We're in the results business and that's what it's all about but I'm confident we're getting it right even if it means moving one or two other players out and bringing in a new face or two."

Another blow to Patterson is the loss of skipper Bradley Quinton who has an ankle injury involving some floating bone that may require an operation.

"He's having a course of treatment at present that hopefully will solve the problem and if it does clear up then he could be in contention for the game against City," explained Patterson. "If it doesn't clear up then he will need an operation and that could well mean him being out for up to 10 weeks."

Patterson also feels that one or two players who missed some of the pre-season training at the club are also physically not up to the level they should be which has not helped in their first three games.

"But we're working on that and we had a very good training session on Tuesday and will have another tonight (Thursday) so everyone will be geared up for these two games," he added.

On Saturday's 2-1 defeat at Maidenhead he said: "Anyone who came to the game will know we should have got something out of it.

"We got off to the worst possible start conceding inside the opening two minutes although most of our players insist it was a push to allow the Maidenhead player a clean header.

"We responded really well, creating chances and passing the ball really well.

"Louis Riddle equalised after a great cross field pass from Ryan Moran. We dominated the remainder of the half and at half-time we were confident we could go on and win the game.

''I was pleased that we created several good opportunities to take the lead but instead gave away a needless free-kick and it put us behind after a slight deflection ended up in the bottom of the net.

"We did create a few more opportunities towards the end and were denied a point by a fine save from Shane Gore from Gareth Williams."