Hakan Hayrettin was pleased with Braintree Town’s players after asking them to get a result for Brad Quinton at Salford City.

Hayrettin took the side as caretaker manager at the Vanarama National League leaders after Quinton had left his position as Iron manager seven days earlier.

Despite sitting at the opposite end of the table from their high-flying big-spending hosts, the Iron’s players responded by earning themselves a rousing 2-2 draw.

And it could have been even better as Salford needed an injury-time equaliser to salvage a point.

Hayrettin, who was only appointed as caretaker boss on Monday, said: “The player’s work rate and their desire to do the right things in the right areas was very important.

“We have had two sessions with them to get a look at them and identify their potential.

“There is pace there and we just wanted to get them organised, which I think we did and they are capable of hurting any team.”

The Iron were on the back foot from the start after Salford scored with barely a minute on the clock, but two Mohamed Bettamer goals – one from a penalty that made it 1-1 at half-time – set Braintree up for a memorable result.

And with a long-range Reece Grant effort hitting the crossbar, the Iron were unfortunate not to take all three points, but Hayrettin was pleased with the display and said he had asked them to step up with a result for Quinton.

“When Salford got the early goal, I thought ‘oh here we go’,” Hayrettin told BBC Essex.

“Salford are probably the favourites to get promoted this year and they have probably the biggest budget in the league.

“I’ve heard it’s three million and ours is £250,000, but there’s no substitute for hard work, desire, character and heart.

“And that’s what the team showed up there.

“Had Reece’s shot that hit the bar gone in it would have been 3-1 to us, but at 2-1, we always knew it would be like the Alamo for us at the end.

“We had some tired legs out there at the end.

“I’ve changed the philosophy of how we want to play and I want to see us have a high tempo game, getting the ball forward early and constructively and work hard without the ball.

“They will have to get used to that as long as I’m here.

“If we perform like that while I’m here then we’ll be alright, but it’s an uphill task.

“We will work very hard to turn things around.

“I don’t think they had any confidence when I came in, but I said to them that they should go and win it for Brad because he had put a lot of faith in them.

“I said to them ‘he kept you here and you owe it to him’.

“I’ve just changed their mentality a little bit and their philosophy on how to do things to get a result and we went very close to getting all three points.

“To go to Salford and put in a performance like that was unbelievable and I don’t think many will go there and do that.”