BRAINTREE Town claimed their first away win of the season after beating Eastleigh 2-1 in the National League, writes DAVID WARD.

Make no mistake, this was a fully deserved victory and it was really down to a workmanlike second half from all the players where they dominated play.

Perhaps the only surprise for the loyal 28 Iron fans in the crowd of 1,946 was that their side didn't win by a bigger margin.

Despite going a goal down midway through what was a fairly evenly-contested first half, Braintree certainly upped their game after half-time.

They dominated the second half and always looked the more threatening side when going forward, causing Eastleigh's defence all kind of problems.

However, it took an own goal eight minutes from time to secure a much-needed win that moved the Iron out of the relegation zone.

Braintree manager Angelo Harrop said: "I'm absolutely delighted with the result and it shows what hard work, commitment and continued pressure from our players on any opposition shows what we are capable of achieving.

"We showed what it means to fight for every ball, put pressure on out opponents and to fight for every ball.

"We know that to come to a place like a well-established and organised club like Eastleigh with their pedigree was going to be hard but we set our stall out.

"The players responded in the right way and I felt in the second half we were so clearly the dominant side and I was confident we could win this game, which we did.

"Again, we now need to build on this for our next game at home to AFC Fylde on Saturday and continue with the tempo, the aggression and commitment from everyone that has ensured we won this game.

"We have some young players like Rio Davidson-Phipps who came on in the second half and showed what intent and potential we have in the squad.

"Winning games as everyone knows is about giving confidence to players and we saw that today after out good midweek win in the National League Cup.

"Today they scored a very good goal in the first half but I'm so pleased with the way we came back and came back strongly and deserved to win.

"We were certainly more direct than recently and it paid off and had we taken our second-half chances we would have own more comfortable.

"We've in a way taken the shackles off the players and let them go forward and really express themselves."

Eastleigh had no answer to Braintree's second-half play, which was a credit to the management team in how they set the side up for this tough away encounter.

Despite falling behind, Iron equalised on 54 minutes through Tom Blackwell, playing probably his best game of the season.

And despite several other chances later on, the Iron's winner came from a Paul MacCulum own goal on 82 minutes, following a long throw from from ex-Eastleigh player George Langston.

Braintree visit Saffron Walden on Tuesday in the Essex Senior Cup, kick-off 7.45pm.