Braintree came away with only one point but plenty of bangs and bumps from Saturday's bruising First visit to Stortford's new Woodside Park ground.

A heavily sanded and rough surface did not help matters but there really was no other excuse for some of the home side's aggressive tactics.

Right from the start the pattern was set with crunching tackles the order of the day and the situation was not helped by the referee failing to take quick action.

There was an early escape for Braintree when Stortford bulldozed their way forward and a goal-line scramble developed before Ian Renshaw finally hooked the ball clear.

With the physical element always in evidence the game rarely flowed and play provided little in the way of cultured football.

There were frequent stoppages and neither goalkeeper was pressed into serious action.

Between the posts for Braintree was veteran reserve goalkeeper Tony Cherry who had been brought in to replace the out of touch Nicky Rust.

Then with less than half a hour gone Braintree were dealt savage blows by losing two of their defenders with nasty injuries within five minutes.

First Gavin Cowan was crippled by a crunching assault from the robust Vinny John and was stretchered off while the home side protested in vain when the referee refused to allow a goal after the ball had finished in the net. Instead Braintree were rewarded a free kick.

Then soon afterwards Renshaw suffered a bad cut above the eye and took no further part.

To replace the pair Braintree had to bring on two forwards Lee Owen and Declan Perkins and this caused some disruption of the line-up.

Another goal-line clearance this time by Russell Tanner saved Braintree from going behind to a shot from Tony Comerford.

But almost immediately the Stortford number seven was to take no further part in the game when he was shown the red card in the 35th minute, for obscene language and gestures directed at the officials.

Such offensive behaviour by some of their players certainly did no credit to the home club.

After this incident at least there was some respite from the worst of the violence but there remained an under-current of bad feeling and as a result the quality of play continued to suffer.

Braintree's re-arranged formation battled bravely especially at the back where Bradley Quinton did well as a makeshift defender and both Alan Keeper and Tanner had good games in difficult circumstances while skipper Nicky Smith refused to be ruffled and remained a calming influence.

Braintree gave a first outing to new signing Martin St Hilaire but this was not the kind of game his cultured experience could be put to good use.

Ten man Stortford had two more players booked in the second half and it was one of these, Carl Fannon, who almost stole the points with a spectacular overhead kick which Cherry kept out.

Braintree's best spell came in a succession of corner kicks which however came to nothing apart from one occasion when the ball nearly crept in at the near post.

Overall this was one of those sub-standard contests that will best be soon forgotten.

Braintree Town: Cherry, Renshaw, Tanner, Cross, Keeper, Cowan, Jones, Quinton, St Hilaire, Smith, and Miller. Substitutes: Owen, Perkins and Naylor.

Forthcoming fixture: Saturday, March 4 v Barton Rovers, Ryman League at Cressing Road, (kick-off at 3pm).

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.