Ben Embery's worst fears of fresh injuries were confirmed when key Braintree defender Gary Waters was stretchered off during their victory over Heybridge.

Ex-Swifts centre-back Waters suffered knee ligament damage last night and is now doubtful for Braintree's Saturday's FA Trophy fifth round clash at Margate.

And this setback took the gloss of what was otherwise a fine 2-0 victory at Cressing Road for Embery's troops.

He said: "That's a big blow for us. We've got probably the biggest game in the club's history coming up and we need experienced players like Gary.

"And I don't mean just for his individual performances but also his leadership.

"All he did was go for an old-fashioned block tackle. It's one of those things and he'll be out for about three weeks."

Braintree keeper Paul Catley was called into action early on but he denied Kevin Budge, who was playing against his old club.

Bradley Quinton broke through in a one-on-one with keeper Kingsley Banks - returning after a six-week absence - but had his effort blocked.

Swifts enjoyed most of the possession but struggled to hurt Braintree in the final third.

Craig Davidson opened the scoring in the 31st minute when he rose to head home a Dean Parratt free-kick.

And four minutes from time, Parratt slid a through ball to Tommy Noble who tucked his shot under Banks.

Heybridge boss Dave Greene said: "We were very unfortunate as we totally dominated the game but gave away two silly goals."

"Our form going into the game was the second best in the league so it was very disappointing not to come away with anything.

"We're not safe yet. We'll need around 30 points but I think that from our remaining games we can win at least seven or eight of them."

Published Wednesday, February 20, 2002