Post by admin on Aug 23, 2015 3:36:55 GMT
By Simon Spurgeon from the Braintree & Witham Times website
Apart from securing his second win as Braintree manager, Cowley was also pleased with another clean sheet for his team as they beat Southport 1-0 at the Avanti Stadium.
Dan Sparkes' first-half goal proved to be the difference as Braintree took three points from their Vanarama National League clash.
It means they are now unbeaten in three games after a draw with Tranmere Rovers and also winning at Bromley and Cowley is delighted that his team have conceded just once in those three games.
Especially as his team have had to contend with some defensive upheavals in the opening weeks of the campaign.
They have had to deal with losing Matt Fry to a knee injury, but the Iron’s defence has responded well to the enforced changes.
Cowley said: “It’s never ideal when you have to change your centre half partnerships and we’ve had to do that twice now (with Tom Dallinson coming in and Remy Clerima moving to right-back).
“Partnerships always take time to develop, but looking at chance counts, we gave Southport two – that was Will (Norris) coming out for one that he probably didn’t have to and then one from a free-kick.
“We were probably too soft from it physically so they set a stack up and we didn’t deal with it coming across the front well enough.
“It bounced down and their player probably should have done better.
“However, over 90 minutes, that was probably all they had.
“In open play, I thought we defended well and that’s with young players.
“Mark Phillips is probably the only real experienced player, especially in our back line, so we have a lot of young ones who are living and learning.
“That’s the reality of it.”
Apart from securing his second win as Braintree manager, Cowley was also pleased with another clean sheet for his team as they beat Southport 1-0 at the Avanti Stadium.
Dan Sparkes' first-half goal proved to be the difference as Braintree took three points from their Vanarama National League clash.
It means they are now unbeaten in three games after a draw with Tranmere Rovers and also winning at Bromley and Cowley is delighted that his team have conceded just once in those three games.
Especially as his team have had to contend with some defensive upheavals in the opening weeks of the campaign.
They have had to deal with losing Matt Fry to a knee injury, but the Iron’s defence has responded well to the enforced changes.
Cowley said: “It’s never ideal when you have to change your centre half partnerships and we’ve had to do that twice now (with Tom Dallinson coming in and Remy Clerima moving to right-back).
“Partnerships always take time to develop, but looking at chance counts, we gave Southport two – that was Will (Norris) coming out for one that he probably didn’t have to and then one from a free-kick.
“We were probably too soft from it physically so they set a stack up and we didn’t deal with it coming across the front well enough.
“It bounced down and their player probably should have done better.
“However, over 90 minutes, that was probably all they had.
“In open play, I thought we defended well and that’s with young players.
“Mark Phillips is probably the only real experienced player, especially in our back line, so we have a lot of young ones who are living and learning.
“That’s the reality of it.”