INJURY-RIDDEN Braintree Town held Conference Premier leaders Barnet to a 1-1 draw on Tuesday night.
With manager Alan Devonshire down to just eleven fit first team players following striker's Michael Bakare road accident, the Iron turned in an outstanding display at Cressing Road.
It was a gutsy, workmanlike 90 minutes performance before a crowd of 1,167 that delighted Devonshire who praised his players for "putting in a magnificent shift"
He went on: "I knew we would be up against it as I was down to the bare 11 first team players following Michael's injury.
"We still had to have players out there with knocks but really they shouldn't play but I've six first teamers injured and I had no alternative," he explained. "What a problem I am going to have when they are all back fit again - but it will be a major relief and a nice problem too."
He went on: "I felt we gave them too much respect in the first 20 minutes and didn't get going but we sorted it out a half time and I think we were far the better side in the second half.
"Their defence couldn't handle our pace going forward, we created several good goal scoring chances and should have won the game," he continued. "But it's another clean sheet, another point towards my 50 point season target and I'm really proud of the players for the way they worked hard tonight against the league leaders and on Saturday against the second placed team FC Halifax."
Devonshire added: "We now go up to Gateshead on Saturday and I will be looking for a win, probably with the same team with the only one possibly coming back from injury in time is Dan Sparkes."
Against full-timers Barnet the Iron players struggled to get going in that first 20 minutes and it was no surprise when the visitors took the lead on 12 minutes with their tall striker John Akinde rising above the Iron defence to head home from a Curtis Weston right wing cross.
Using the long throw-in specialist Sam Muggleton the Iron defence always looked vulnerable when put the ball high into the penalty area but they home defenders soon learnt to cope with Barnet's direct approach.
The Iron did get the ball in the Bees' net on the half hour when Simeon Akinola flicked in Ryan Peters' scuffed shot, but the linesman's flag was raised for offside and they stayed 1-0 behind.
On 36 minutes the Iron equalised with a well worked goal thanks to a curling right wing cross from Chez Isaac which found the head of Jordan Cox who nodded the ball into the far right hand corner of the net giving keeper Graham Stack no chance.
The Iron certainly deserved to be level at the interval and from the restart they took the game to their visitors and put in an incredible commanding second half display.
With end-to-end play the Iron now looked better on the ball, had more composure and with Akinola and Cox finally dragging their markers everywhere it allowed both James Mulley and Dan Walker to break through from either wing.
First Mulley, then Walker and then Akinola all raced clear through on goal only to put in weak finishing shots which keeper Stack had no problem dealing with while up at the other end Iron keeper Nick Hamann only had one real difficult shot to cope with 12 minutes from time courtesy of a Weston pile driver.
Mitch Brundle moved up for a corner only to head over and then Akinola was desperately unlucky to see his drive charged down by a defender at the last moment.
The Iron's best chance for a winning goal came on 77 minutes when Akinola sent a right wing cross into the box to Cox who, with the goal gaping in front of him, had two strikes to put the ball in the net but failed.
In the dying second of the game Akinola almost snatched a late winner but his final shot on the run was well saved by Stack.
So it was a draw and a point each for both sides in a game that was highly entertaining to watch and a result that pleased the home fans more than the visiting spectators.
Braintree Town: Hamann; Peters, Habergham, Massey, Brundle; Mulley, Isaac, Davis, Walker; Cox, Akinola. Unused subs: Pentney, Case, Smith, Moore.
Referee: Wayne Barratt.