BRAINTREE Town were left to rue a case of two points dropped rather than a point gained at the Rare Breed Meat Stadium on Tuesday evening after being held 0-0 by dogged visitors Taunton Town, who overall were well worth their valuable point in a bid to escape the National League South relegation zone, writes DAVID WARD.

In all honesty, this was one of the worst performances from the Iron this season as they lacked cohesion and any real creativity in front of goal and although in the second half they pressed hard to break the deadlock, they simply ran out of ideas.

Full marks to the Somerset side as they set their stall out from the start and although the Iron were the more dominant side in the second half, they let themselves down in the final quarter, where several goal chances simply went begging on the night.

Unfortunately, it's become a regular problem for the Iron of late in attack because they just don't have anyone with that killer goal instinct in the danger area and it again clearly showed in this match, where they could easily have had three or four goals with the chances they created.

Although now assured of a play-off place, it was key for the Iron to keep winning and hopefully finish in second or third position and so avoiding the lottery of the initial play-off stages.

But with two key rivals winning on Tuesday evening - Worthing and Maidenhead - that now looks slim.

Gazette:

To add to the Iron's misery on the night, manager Angelo Harrop was shown two straight yellows leading to a red for his verbal remonstration with referee Harry Park over the frustration of what must be said was some bizarre decisions for both sides made by the official during the game.

However, that was no excuse for this shoddy performance and in the end, they were in some ways lucky to have escaped with just a point.

Taunton won a penalty after only ten minutes in their first attack when keeper Jack Sims hauled down one of their forwards to concede a blatant spot-kick - fortunately Sims made amends by diving to his right and parrying away Ross Stearn’s penalty.

After a fairly even first half, Braintree were certainly in the ascendancy in the second half.

But chances from Tom Blackwell, Charley Wakefield, Trent Rendall, Joe Grimwood and substitute Shaquille Coulthirst all either flew over the bar or narrowly missed the posts.

It was certainly frustrating too for the Iron fans in the 709 crowd who had expected their side to come good again in a dominant second half.

But try as they did, it simply didn't work out that way in what was a really disappointing evening's performance.

Braintree will need to get back on track when they visit relegation-threatened Havant and Waterlooville on Saturday and hope rival play-off sides drop points, in their last couple of games.

Braintree: Jack Sims; Baris Altintop, Trent Rendall, Joe Grimwood, Leon Davies (Lewis Miccio 46); Tom Blackwell (Jayden Davis 76), Dom Odusanya, Alfie Payne, Charlie Wakefield; Freddie Sears (Shaq Coulthirst 63); Aaron Blair.