Post by admin on Feb 24, 2024 21:30:02 GMT
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Worthing 0 Braintree Town 1
by David Ward
Make no mistake this was a well drilled, well disciplined, well organised 90 minutes of football from the Iron at the Woodside Stadium on Saturday that destroyed the second placed home side who are also the league's current leading goalscorers.
There was no flux either in the Iron's victory because they dominated, controlled the game from start to finish continually pressuring the home side and in doing so foiling their renowned style of playing out from the back and which led them to making mistakes in the process.
It was from one of these defensive mistakes that the Iron grabbed what turned out to be the only goal of the game on 29 minutes when under pressure from Shaq Coulhirst the home keeper Oliver Wright and defender Alfie Young confused each other on the edge of their area.
It led to the ball running out a few yards to the unmarked Aaron Blair who calmly lobbed the ball back over the pair of them into the empty net.
In all honesty the Iron should have gone on to score at least two more goals before the break with the chances they wasted with again Coulhirst, Tom Backwell, Bair and new signing Dominic Odusanya all going so close with shots narrowly missing the goal or Wright making amends for pulling off three crucial saves.
It was much the same story in the second half with again every Iron player working their socks running, chasing and closing down home side players every time they received the ball and then when in possession putting in some fine attacking moves that at times had the home rearguard all over the place with their panic clearances.
Again the Iron should really have put the game to bed as the saying goes in a dominant second half display with again Blair, Reggie Lambe, Odusanya,and Blackwell all going clear on goal only to be foiled by either shooting wide or saves from keeper Wright.
At the other end the Iron defence was again outstanding and they never allowed the home side any chances to shoot on goal with both central pairing Ben Tomkins and Joe Grimwood snuffling out home attacks every time while keeper Jack Sims was really only called upon to make significant saves - once in the first half and then in the dying moment of the game as the home side pressed hard for an equaliser - but it meant five clean sheets in a row and the Iron now having had five wins in a row which last happened back in 2011.
This fully deserved win moves the Iron up into fifth place in the league and with two games in hand over their nearest rivals but as assistant manager John White said afterwards: "Nobody is getting carried away and whilst our recent wins builds increasing confidence amongst the players nobody is becoming arrogant."
He went on: "I do feel we are really building something with the team and we knew that it would really tough here because they are a good side, second in the league, top goal scorers and always hard to beat on their own ground.
"We set out a game plan before the game so every player including the substitutes knew exactly what their individual jobs were do on the day and they all stuck rigidly to it," he continued. "The only criticism as such I have is that we simply should have scored more goals in both halves considering the chances we created and with just one goal to the good we knew they would throw everything at us in the final ten minutes of the game.
"But we coped magnificently and they all showed great discipline from start to finish and they all put in an unbelievable amount of effort and energy in the 90 minutes," he continued. "It was great to see everyone putting in a shift and it paid dividends in the end even though the final scoreline doesn't really reflect the control we had over the game - who knows where all this can take us."
He added: "We now have two more tough games coming up with our midweek trip to in-form Bath City, then away to Welling Utd on Saturday and whilst confidence in the dressing room is high the management will ensure everyone keeps their feet on the ground and they have to work again as hard as they did in this match every time."