Braintree Town lose at Slough Town in National League South

'Shambolic' is the only word to describe this dreadful performance by the Iron at Arbour Park on Saturday because the whole team were clueless in in how to play against a far more determined home who were quicker to the ball, found their men better, were far stronger when it came to tackling and simply knew where to score goals.

Braintree manager Angelo Harrop said: "I have no complaints because on the day they were by far the better side and we simply didn't play at all.

"I'm really disappointed with the performance of my players and the result because we seem to lack energy and had no desire and it's hard to take after such a fantastic performance in winning at Dartford on Tuesday.

"I can take losses but not having the desire and heart and that's particularly disappointing and also upsetting for me.

"I'm not going to knock these players because they have been magnificent so far this season and we now need to regroup and get back to our style of football with desire and commitment for our next home game against Weymouth on Saturday.

"They are young players and they have to learn from it as I've just told them in the dressing room.

"It's always easy to moan at players after a performance like today but that's not my way and I told them they must each analyse what they didn't to right today and make sure they get it right for the next game.

"I'm confident we'll bounce back straight away and we are at home and in front of our own fans who like today have been magnificent in showing their support to the players."

Braintree's defence simply couldn't handle the home side's two young and stronger strikers while the midfield were constantly outfought while in attack it was all power puff causing no problems to the home side's rearguard and perhaps summed by the one statistic of the game - the Iron failed to have one shot on goal all afternoon.

There's no excuses in blaming player fatigue with two games a week at present - it's exactly the same for the opposition - but it's all about having the desire and commitment to win these kind of games and on this showing both those ingredients were sadly missing from the whole Iron team against the Rebels.

Tactics are a key element of any game at any level and in this match the Iron simply didn't get it right from the kick off as they failed to combat the home side's well trodden route of sending high, long balls to the front whereas the visitors' best play is keeping the ball on the ground, pass well, send the quick players scampering down the wings and crossing balls into the danger area.

The only time Braintree did this was six minutes from time when a great such right wing pull back and with the ball fell straight to the feet of the unmarked Aaron Blair on the edge of the area but he ballooned it over the bar and out of the ground which aptly summed the Iron's performance all afternoon.

The home side went ahead with a quick one-two between their strikers in the fourth minute and with the Iron defence completely static the ball was whipped into their net in other words schoolboy defending.

It was to set the tone for the afternoon where the Iron were clearly second best and had no answer to the home side's quick running and passing.

And although they did improve slightly in the second half again the lack of a proper marksman up front to hold the ball up, as did the now departed Will Davies, was so obvious and it's one position the Iron need to rectify immediately.

The home side did score two late goals in the 79th and 90th minutes to give the final scoreline some respectability for their dominance and they fully deserved their victory.