Still unable to match their successful home League form when travelling, Braintree went down to a fourth away defeat on the trot when being soundly beaten at Gander Green Lane.

Never recovering from a disastrous start when they went behind inside the first minute Iron were invariably second best to a much more focused Sutton side.

It did not help that Ben Embery's line-up was again severely affected by an absentee list now stretching to seven regulars, all out for various reasons.

With an already limited senior squad the manager had to give a first outing to Steve Blaney and it was unfortunate that the new signing should be involved in a defensive mix-up that presented Eddie Akuamoah with a gift goal with only 40 seconds on the clock.

From then on it became an uphill struggle for Iron as the home team called most of the shots.

While being forced on the defensive for much of the time Braintree did have their chances and one in particular saw Andy Potter come close to an equaliser when his close range header was cleared from under the crossbar by Paul Honey.

On balance Braintree had done reasonably well to remain one goal behind at the interval but it all went wrong again at the start of the second half.

Only a couple of minutes had elapsed before Sutton struck with their second goal as Braintree appeared not to have been switched on again after the break.

The marking was not all it could have been following a corner kick and Ryan Palmer was left with time and space to pick his spot and give Paul Catley no chance. Almost immediately came a third goal for the now fired up homesters with Rob Haworth getting through virtually unchallenged to leave Catley helpless to do anything about it.

For a while Braintree tried to reorganise themselves and did produce several good moves with Blaney in particular making his presence felt down the right hand side but insufficiently to cause Sutton any great deal of trouble.

Iron's nearest attempt at reducing the arrears came with a speculative 40 yard shot from Dean Parratt who deserved better than to see the ball graze the outside of the post with the target wide open.

Sutton came back to finish strongly with a number of near misses but the only addition to the scoreline came in stoppage time when a Nicky Simpson header earned a late consolation goal.

Braintree: Catley, Howard, Davidson, Potter, Waters, Reinelt, Simpson, Parratt, Rippingale (Blackery), Smith (Albone), Blaney.

Forthcoming fixtures: Boxing Day, Wednesday, December 26 v Heybridge Swifts, Ryman League, Cressing Road, 11am. Saturday, December 29 v Grays Athletic, Ryman League, Cressing Road, 3pm.

Published Tuesday December 18, 2001