"THE most satisfying win of the season and one we fully deserved on the night" was how Iron manager Alan Devonshire summed up his side as they caused one of the biggest upsets of the season by beating the league leaders at the Amlin Stadium on Tuesday evening.
"It was a great all round team performance and I'm delighted for the players, the club and fans," he continued.
"In all honesty we should have won by a bigger margin because we had easily the more clearcut chances in both halves of the match.
"We set out stall out from the start and we knew what we had to do and that was to take the game to them, learning from our defeat up at their place in November," he explained. "They were quite arrogant against us again tonight being at the top of the league but we showed them what we can do and won the game comfortably.
"I felt defensively we were outstanding and we really controlled the game from start to finish."
There was certainly no fluke about this Iron win, almost a replica of last season's 5-0 thrashing of Grimsby at the Amlin Stadium, because they had more than enough chances to have bettered that previous victory over the Mariners.
With Dean Wells and Alan Massey outstanding in the heart of the defence and Kenny Davis and Matt Pain controlling the midfield the visitors never really got a look in throughout the 90 minutes.
The key to this victory though was the pace and dribbling of the two wide players – James Mulley and Luke Daley – who simply pulled the Mariners' defence all over the place running riot all evening.
Daley, having his best game since joining the club, proved to be the match-winner scoring a goal in each half and could have had a hat-trick, but his late second half strike hit the bar before being scrambled away.
He struck first on 26 minutes when a left wing Iron move saw Sean Marks' persistence coming in from the byline and pulling the ball back to Daley, who sent in an awkward bouncing half-volley that comfortably beat James McKeown in the visitors' goal.
Wells, Mulley, Davis and young Dan Holman had all gone close before the opening goal as the Iron maintained their dominance of the game.
The second half was a repeat of the first with the Iron always in the ascendancy, controlling the game and looking to score every time they went forward.
The crucial second goal came on 74 minutes from that man Daley again and although it was a bit fortuitous it was certainly deserved.
Daley took a left wing corner sending in a low cross to the near post where it evaded everyone, including McKeown, the ball sneaking into the net to give the Iron a second goal. The Iron chances kept coming and five minutes before the end Marks somehow missed a proverbial sitter having been set up from a left wing cross from substitute Dan Walker but he sent his header wide of the goal.
Braintree Town: McDonald; Peteres, Habergham, Wells, Massey; Mulley, Paine, Davis, Daley; Holman (Walker 72), Marks. Unused subs: Symons, Sparks, Watts, Wickham.
