MANAGER Danny Searle hopes Braintree Town's end-of-season form is giving the club something to be proud of the in closing weeks of the campaign.

It has not been an easy season back in the Vanarama National League and Braintree head into their final game at leaders Leyton Orient on Saturday (kick-off 12.30pm) knowing they can't escape the bottom-four relegation places.

However, their performances over the Easter weekend show they are refusing to go down with a whimper and their players are responding to the guidance of Searle and his management team.

A 2-0 win at Maidstone United on Good Friday, coupled with a rousing 2-0 victory at Cressing Road against Dagenham & Redbridge on Easter Monday have placed Braintree joint top of the National League's current form table.

On the back of their 2-1 win against promotion-chasing AFC Fylde, the latest two results mean they have won three games in a row for the first time this season and now have a 40 per cent win ratio with six victories since Searle took the helm as Iron boss in January.

It is form that has provided a late boost to the Iron's fans and Searle hopes a strong finale at Leyton Orient could take his team further clear of the bottom of the table.

He said: "My first goal was for us to not finish bottom and we've ensured we won't do that now.

"If we were going to go down, we did not want to go down in bottom position and now we've taken care of that, we want to finish as high as we can.

"After beating Dagenham, we now know that if we can get something against Leyton Orient then we could potentially overtake both Havant and Waterlooville and Aldershot and finish fourth from bottom.

"That is our focus heading to Leyton Orient.

"We weren't at our best in the first half against Dagenham and they were worse, but we absolutely battered them in the second half.

"It has given us that good chance of finishing third or fourth from bottom and the lads have been excellent.

"It's six games that we've won now since we came in as a management team and it's the first time that the team has won three games in a row this season.

"Hopefully it is putting us in a position where everyone at the club can take some pride from it.

"Looking at the budgets of clubs like Maidstone and Havant & Waterlooville who are with us down there and then on top of that us having further restrictions with our budget in the latter stages of the season and for us to still be competing - I can't praise the players enough."

The 2-0 win against Dagenham & Redbridge, which was secured with goals by Alfie Cerulli and Mo Sagaf, was played in front of a crowd of 909.

It was the second-highest home attendance of the season and was boosted by Searle himself publicising the fixture out and about at various locations around Braintree last week.

He added: "We went out and about giving out vouchers and it was great to see a big crowd after that. "It was great for the players for the last home game of the season. "To get that kind of support was invaluable for the lads and we want to see bigger crowds at Braintree.

"It was lovely to see everyone there and hopefully plenty of them will be coming back next season."