Another rather meaningless pre-season friendly saw Braintree slump to their third defeat in a week when they went down to Essex Senior League side Concord Rangers at Canvey on Saturday.

Despite taking an early lead, Iron failed to impose any real authority on the game and manager Ben Embery would have gained little satisfaction from a generally sloppy performance.

After five minutes Braintree got away to the perfect start when Leon Gutzmore put them ahead.

But this proved to be a false dawn and thereafter Iron seldom threatened to make much of an impression.

Concord bounced back and after having one effort disallowed for an offside decision the home side drew level midway through the first half.

Some slack marking at the back left Micky Desborough exposed and the goalkeeper had little chance.

The usual procession of players back and forth from the substitutes bench served no useful purpose other than giving all members of the squad a slice of the action and certainly did nothing to contribute towards unity on the pitch.

As a result there were few signs of any further response from Braintree and the only goal of the second half came from Concord who grabbed the decider.

Towards the end there was an unpleasant incident involving several players with the referee having to take action to avoid further trouble.

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