By Gordon Humphris

FC HALIFAX TOWN 0 BRAINTREE TOWN 0

Skrill Premier

Braintree Town manager Alan Devonshire was understandably delighted with his players and the excellent team effort shown by all of them as they ended a long week on the road with a draw at FC Halifax Town.

The point that the Iron’s players earned moved them up to fourth in the Skrill Premier table and they now know what they need to do to secure a finish in the play-off positions this year.

Devonshire said: “It’s in our hands now.

“The first goal is to pass 66 points and then we will go from there game by game.”

The Iron made their second midweek journey, taking the A1 Great North Road to West Yorkshire.

The home side were in a rich vein of home form and played hosts to a visiting Braintree Town side that were one point and one place above them in the league.

The Iron have been no strangers to long-distance travel this week, but possess a seemingly endless team spirit and the part-timers had been coping well and getting results.

Both sides started nervously at Halifax as the importance of the game took effect.

Neither side made an impact as defences countered any assaults on either goal.

Dean Wells proved to be the visitors’ man-of-the-match, not allowing much past and shutting down top scorer Lee Gregory.

By the same token, Dan Holman and Sean Marks were equally stifled at the other end.

Holman had one excellent chance in the first half, though.

After beating the off side trap, he was one-on-one with Matt Glennon in the Halifax goal, only to skew the ball wide much to the relief of the home crowd.

It was a tense affair and in the end a draw was a fair result.

The end result was probably far better for the Iron who ended their week’s travelling on a far higher note than Halifax.

Having had a good run of home form and a convincing win against the league leaders at the weekend, the Shaymen expected the win but a goalless draw was the justified result.

For Devonshire and his travel-weary team the result was very good, though, and made the final leg of the journey home that much easier.

However, injuries have been sustained, with Dan Sparks getting a knock to his arm, Kenny Davis had a toe problem and Ryan Peters was hobbling at the death of the game.

Devonshire will be hoping all or at least some of them can recover for tomorrow’s visit of Salisbury.