THIS was a fine and fully deserved away win for Braintree and was just the tonic for absent manager Alan Devonshire who was forced to miss his first game of the season ill in bed.
Devonshire though would have been delighted by the way his troops responded playing some good football, dominating most of the game and scoring two outstanding goals.
With skipper Kenny Davis, celebrating his latest call-up to the England C squad, putting in a strong performance in midfield and central defender Dean Wells capping another outstanding game with a 67 minute wonder goal from a 60-yard free-kick, the Iron never looked in any danger of not returning home with all three points.
Also impressive was on loan striker Dan Walker, the 22-year-old from Luton Town making his full debut for the Iron, who deputised for the absent Sean Marks and was unlucky not to find his name on the score sheet.
Iron assistant Keith Rowlands said: "It was a fantastic all round team effort and the players were tremendous bearing in mind they hadn't played for a fortnight.
"We deserved to win and we kept pressing them right from the start and everyone really worked hard.
"Dean's goal was outstanding, particularly at this level, and Dan Holman scored an excellent goal which we know he's capable of doing.
"Dan Walker also did well coming into the side and the only disappointment was the way in which we conceded the two goals and we need to put that right."
Admittedly the Iron took the lead with a fortunate goal on 16 minutes when home keeper Ben McNamara failed to deal with a cross properly and his defenders struggled to clear the ball. James Mulley was on hand to head the ball home from close range.
The home side retaliated and created a couple of good openings with Wells having to kick the ball off the Iron goalline with keeper Nathan McDonald beaten.
They did equalise on 41 minutes which was down to poor defending from a corner as Braintree allowed Simon Forsdick, the smallest player in the home side, to glance a header past the stranded McDonald.
The second half though saw the Iron really take control of the game going back in to the lead on 48 minutes with a fine goal from Holman.
He chased a long ball, catching the home defence out in the process, before driving a great shot past McNamara to score a great solo goal.
When Wells had driven his free-kick over the head of the despairing McNamara just past the hour it looked like game over.
But four minutes later slack Iron defending allowed Delroy Gordon to head home from a corner.
Any hope they might stage a late revival was swiftly rebutted when substitute Bradley Dack proved how quick he is, reacting sharply to a partial save by McNamara from a Holman shot to score from close range.
The final scoreline was a true reflection of the game and again shows the Iron this season play better away from home, this their sixth away victory.
