A COACH carrying Braintree Town Football Club supporters broke down on the way to the biggest game in the club's history.

The Iron were on their way to Grimsby for the first leg of their National League play-off semi-final on May 5.

Unfortunately, the coach got stuck at a Grantham lorry park around an hour and fifty minutes from Grimsby with a suspected overheating problem.

Thanks to the help of the driver Paul Brown a new coach was arranged, but fans started fearing they might not arrive in time for the 7pm kick off.

James Colasanti, a Non league Football reporter who was travelling with the Braintree fans, was live tweeting the events.

He said: "You get a mixture of characters in that situation, some will look close to tears and you get others who are a bit lighter hearted, and then you have people who the onus on them is to sort it out."

Andrew Freemantle, Chairman of the Braintree Town Independent Supporters Club said: "We pulled into the ground at about 7.02pm.

"Luckily some other supporters had helped to ensure that all of the tickets were ready to be handed in and we did not even have to go to the ticket office.

"We did not miss any action and were in the stand by 7.05pm, it could have been a lot worse."

47 fans boarded the coach from Cressing Road, which is over half of the estimated 82 Iron supporters who made the game.

The fans witnessed their team pull off an upset by beating favourites Grimsby one nil thanks to a second half penalty Kenny Davis.

Mr Colasanti said: "In terms of a football result it was just what the doctor ordered.

"The club would have been happy to have gone there and got a draw."

Mr Freemantle said: "The vast majority of supporters would have been happy either way to be at the biggest game in the clubs history, but winning more than made up for the problems we had getting there.

"There is no doubt in my opinion that by far the most noise was from the Braintree fans, even though we must have been outnumbered by 60 to one."

If Braintree make it through after the home tie on Sunday, they will play at the iconic Wembley stadium for the chance to enter the Football League for the very first time.

Mr Freemantle said: "It is almost a frightening prospect, it is difficult to comprehend, but we are well prepared already.

"It is obviously something which all football supporters aspire to and Braintree have never got to Wembley.

"I imagine that most of the supporters never thought that it could happen."

If they do make the final, Braintree might need more than one coach to get their fans there.

You can find the updates from the coach, or commentary on Sunday's second leg by following @JCNonLeague.