BRAINTREE Town manager Brad Quinton insists the level of performance by his team in Saturday’s FA Cup tie with Royston Town will have made it easier for him to make changes for tonight’s replay fixture.

The second qualifying round meeting ended in a 2-2 draw at Braintree and the two teams will have to go again to see who goes through to face a trip to Vanarama National League North side Brackley Town in the third qualifying round.

The first encounter was one where fortunes ebbed and flowed throughout, but Braintree left the pitch feeling very disappointed and Quinton said his players’ displays were well below his expectation levels.

He said: “We go again - we’ll work hard, we’ll dust ourselves off and we will be honest with ourselves because that wasn’t acceptable on Saturday.

“Barring that game, we haven’t seen performance levels like that.

“I talk about how good we are as a team and as individuals but that was not acceptable and as far as I’m concerned, it can’t get any worse than that.

“But it has made it easier for me because a lot of people of late have been wanting to play and have been knocking on my door.

“We knew how Royston would play in going from back to front, but the expectation from us was that we would press hard and force them into doing that.

“However, we stepped off and enabled them to play some football in midfield.

“No midfield has ever done that to us this season and played round us, but that was not due to them being technically better; we just weren’t at it.

“We showed we could be resolute in getting back to 2-1 after being behind, but we shot ourselves in the foot again by allowing them a second goal.

“We just should have defended better but gave the ball back far too easily.

“I just didn’t see it coming – the energy, the desire, the passing fluency and the determination to want to score at every opportunity, it wasn’t there from us.

“We have to be honest with ourselves and have to be better.

“The guys know it as I’ve made myself very clear with them.

“It is what it is and both teams have now got to go back to their place and go again.

“I’ve always said that if you play well you keep the shirt and that performance has made it far easier for me to make my mind up over how we’ll play.”