WITH pre-season not about results, Braintree Town manager Alan Devonshire will be looking for the positives in his side's 6-1 defeat at the hands of the Championship's Norwich City.
A battling display by the Iron against a classy Canaries outfit would have encouraged the Braintree boss as they prepare for another Conference Premier season.
For Devonshire's first home game of the pre-season campaign, he set-up his side in a 4-5-1, with new signing Dan Walker play wide right and Kenny Davis just behind Sean Marks.
On a perfect deck at The Amlin, both teams looked to play the ball on the floor and that worked in the Championship side's favour when they took the lead in the seventh minute.
Gary Hooper beat Sam Habergham down the right wing to pass inside the box to Wes Hoolahan. He slid the ball to the left into the path of Andrew Surman who neatly finished into the bottom corner.
Marks came agonisingly close to the equaliser when he latched onto a ball over the top in the 12th minute by Davis. But from a tight angle the striker could only prod the ball onto John Ruddy's post.
Just as Braintree were looking comfortable in possession, the Canaries struck again with a sublime free-kick by Kyle Lafferty. The Northern-Irishman curled a 25-yard effort over the wall and into the corner, out of reach of Hamann's despairing dive.
Trialist Ronnie Hawkins came close to getting the Iron's opening goal, when James Mulley pulled the ball back, but he could only fire his left-footed volley into the side netting.
Lafferty almost got his second in the 38th minute when he rose highest to meet a curling Elliot Bennett cross. The striker was unlucky as he watched his looping header go over Hamann but come back off the crossbar.
Norwich made eight subs at half time, with Ricky van Wolfswinkel among them. He got straight onto the scoresheet when Hamann rushed out and missed a through ball. The Dutch striker had the simple task of just walking the ball into the net to make it three.
And nine minutes into the second half it was 4-0 as Nathan Redmond let loose with a fierce effort towards the bottom corner.
Bradley Johnson then put the Canaries 5-0 up in the 62nd minute when van Wolfswinkel laid it to him to slot into the corner from the centre of the box.
But just seven minutes later the Iron finally got on the scoresheet. Davis floated the ball in from a free-kick and Jordan Cox's header deflected to Marks who finished from close range.
However, Norwich got the final say as van Wolfswinkel extended the lead with four minutes remaining, latching on to a Josh Murphy cross to tap in at the back post.
