BRAINTREE Town eased through to the final 16 of the FA Trophy by comfortably beating last year's runners-up Gosport Borough, who finished the game with nine men, 2-0 on Saturday.
A first-half penalty right on half-time from skipper Kenny Davis and striker Jordan Cox capitalising on a mistake by home keeper Nathan Ashmore 30 seconds after the restart, gave them a comfortably victory over the Conference South side.
Manager Alan Devonshire said afterwards: "Gosport are a decent side but we knew what we had to do and I think we controlled the whole game and in the latter stages we missed easy chances and should have won by a bigger margin.
"They got to the final last year and beat a few Conference sides along the way, so I was delighted with the way that we played particularly in the first 45 minutes.
"I thought we were excellent throughout as we controlled it and maybe the game should have been over by the interval.
"We got the second just after half-time and to be fair I thought we were comfortable. I don't think Nick Hamann [Braintree's keeper] had a save to make all afternoon.
"They got the second sending off with about 20 minutes to go for a really bad tackle on Matt Paine that was over the top, so there should be no complaints from them on that one.
"Both sendings off were correct and these things happen in football but even if they had kept eleven on the field I still feel we would have remained in charge and won the game."
Devonshire admitted it would nice to progress further and make it through to a Wembley final but his priority remains on reaching 50 points to ensure they stay in the Conference Premier.
"That's our sole aim and yes it's nice to have a decent cup run in what is a tough competition."
With the home striking duo of Matt Paterson and Justin Bennett having netted 43 goals between them this season the Iron knew they had to be on their mettle and defensively they were outstanding, led by man-of-the-match central defender Alan Massey.
"The gaffer had warned us at the start that these pair could cause us problems and they're proven goalscorers so we had to be on our game right from the start," explained Massey. "We did that and all the players did well and it was a good all round performance particularly in the first half when the sides were even."
On his new found central defensive partner this season, Remi Clerima, who replaced the departed Dean Wells, he said: "We've developed a good understanding between us and now everyone is back from injury we've a strong squad and every player knows that if they are not doing their job we now have replacements ready to come in.
"That's eight wins in the last eleven games and having a full squad available has reflected this. In the dressing room there's a really good team spirit and while all of us know that the league is our prime job, it's a question of all of us keeping our concentration game by game.
"We always seem to come on strong in the second half of the season and that's because the new players coming in have finally gelled well and understand their own roles which has created such a good team spirit."
But for some top stops by keeper Ashmore, Gosport would have been well-beaten by the interval.
He pulled off a great save from James Mulley on 20 minutes and five minutes later brilliantly denied a Davis spot kick after defender Robbie Matthews had handled a Simeon Akinola low cross from the byline.
On the half hour he again denied Akinola with a low shot coming off the foot of the post and then Cox wasted a golden opportunity when put through by Mulley only to skew his effort with Ashmore beaten.
The first half ended dramatically when Akinola jinked his way through the home defence only be brought down from behind in the area by defender Dan Wooden, who received a red card, and this time Davis made no mistake from the spot kick to give the Iron the lead.
In added on stoppage time the ball was punted up field and Chez Isaac was caught on the wrong side of Paterson as they both raced into the Iron area. Isaac lucky to not concede a penalty when his quick shirt tug on the striker was not spotted by referee Craig Hicks.
The game was over 30 seconds into the second half when a poor clearance from Ashmore went straight to the feet of Cox who made no mistake by sliding the ball into the net.
The home side's cause was not helped on 70 minutes when Mike Carter's two-footed lunge on Paine almost on the halfway line saw him given a straight red and from then on it was a case of damage limitation for the home side.
The now rampant Iron were disappointing in the way they wasted chance after chance in those final 20 minutes with Akinola, Mulley, Isaac and substitutes Dan Walker and Charlie Strutton, twice, guilty of failing to put some gloss on the performance.
In the end two goals were sufficient but in reality the Iron should have returned home with a scoreline more like 7-0.
"I'm not worried at least we created the chances and the key thing is we're in the next round and that's what counts," added Devonshire.
