Braintree Town up to fifth in National League South

This was a well drilled, well disciplined, well organised performance by the Iron at the Woodside Stadium, as they beat National League South's second-placed side, who are also the league's current leading goalscorers.

Braintree dominated and controlled the game from start to finish, continually pressuring the home side.

In doing so, they foiled Worthing's renowned style of playing out from the back, leading to them making mistakes in the process.

It was from one such defensive mistake that Braintree grabbed what turned out to be the only goal of the game, on 29 minutes.

Under pressure from Shaq Coulthirst, the home keeper Oliver Wright and defender Alfie Young confused each other on the edge of their area.

It led to the ball running out a few yards to the unmarked Aaron Blair, who calmly lobbed it back over the pair of them into the empty net.

In all honesty the Iron should have gone on to score at least two more goals before the break with the chances they wasted.

Coulhirst, Tom Backwell, Bair and new signing Dominic Odusanya all went so close with shots either narrowly missing the goal or Wright making amends, pulling off three crucial saves.

It was much the same story in the second half with again every Iron player working their socks running, chasing and closing down Worthing players every time they received the ball and then when in possession putting in some fine attacking moves that at times had the home rearguard all over the place, with their panicked clearances.

Again the Iron should really have put the game to bed in a dominant second-half display with again Blair, Reggie Lambe, Odusanya and Blackwell all going clear on goal, only to be foiled by either shooting wide or saves from keeper Wright.

At the other end the Iron defence was again outstanding and they never allowed Worthing any chances to shoot on goal, with both central pairing Ben Tomkins and Joe Grimwood snuffling out home attacks every time.

Iron goalkeeper Jack Sims was really only called upon to make significant saves - once in the first half and then in the dying moment of the game as Worthing pressed hard for an equaliser.

But it meant five clean sheets in a row and the Iron also now have had five wins in a row, which last happened back in 2011.

Braintree are now up into fifth place in the league with two games in hand over their nearest rivals.

Braintree assistant manager John White said: "Nobody is getting carried away and whilst our recent wins builds increasing confidence amongst the players nobody is becoming arrogant.

"I do feel we are really building something with the team and we knew that it would really tough here because they are a good side, second in the league, top goal scorers and always hard to beat on their own ground.

"We set out a game plan before the game so every player including the substitutes knew exactly what their individual jobs were do on the day and they all stuck rigidly to it.

"The only criticism as such I have is that we simply should have scored more goals in both halves considering the chances we created and with just one goal to the good we knew they would throw everything at us in the final ten minutes of the game.

"But we coped magnificently and they all showed great discipline from start to finish and they all put in an unbelievable amount of effort and energy in the 90 minutes.

"It was great to see everyone putting in a shift and it paid dividends in the end even though the final scoreline doesn't really reflect the control we had over the game - who knows where all this can take us."

"We now have two more tough games coming up with our midweek trip to in-form Bath City, then away to Welling United on Saturday and whilst confidence in the dressing room is high the management will ensure everyone keeps their feet on the ground and they have to work again as hard as they did in this match every time."