BRAINTREE Town boss Ryan Maxwell said there can be 'no excuses' for his side's below-par performance in their pre-season friendly against Grays Athletic, writes DAVID WARD.

The Iron were held to a 1-1 draw by their Pitching In Isthmian League division north opponents at Aveley's new Parkside stadium with its artificial surface, in what was the least impressive display of all of their friendlies so far.

It left Maxwell 'spitting feathers' at the final whistle, leading him make some harsh words to his players and vowing never to have a repeat performance.

He said: "For practically the whole 90 minutes it was totally unacceptable and I will make sure it never happens again.

"There can be no excuses for that was a poor performance, our least impressive so far and clearly it showed me important shortcomings.

"There will certainly be some player changes in the squad as near the big kick off because some were clearly given a chance to show what they can do and they simply didn't on the day."

Maxwell, who was forced to play two wingers at full-back because of injuries to regular Jay Porter and Ezra Ikebuasi, felt his side failed to take the initiative and took the home side for granted thinking it would be easy as they are two levels below them in the pyramid.

He added: "At times I felt they wanted it more than us and had players who would put themselves on the line, throw their bodies into defending at the last moment.

"For us at times we appeared to be only in second or third gear and not up to the full pace and commitment to the level we have seen and we expect at every game and there can be no excuse for such a lack lustre display.

"I certainly made my feelings known to the players about the way they performed for the majority of the match- there has to be and there will be changes."

After conceding a poor opening goal on 36 minutes when Danny Gould was given time and space to drill home a 25-yard shot low into the Iron net, it was not until ten minutes from time when substitute Gianni Crichlow drilled home a low shot through a ruck of defenders and into the net to equalise.

Although for the majority of the game the Iron were simply not at the races, in the final 15 minutes they repeatedly bombarded the home goal with shots that often ping-ponged about in their penalty area.

But some last minute heroic defending and goalkeeper's luck with rebounds ensured the contest ended even.

Maxwell added: "I can't believe we didn't find the net more than once during that hectic spell and it was certainly a better end to the game for us but I can't accept what we served up in the first hour or so - it's just not on.

In that exciting finale Fem Akinwande five times saw his goal bound shots scrambled away, substitute Lionel Ainsworth had two efforts foiled while both Alfie Payne and Luke Holness were unlucky not to have broken the deadlock with their shots.

Despite a below-par performance the Iron felt they should have twice been awarded a penalty but the substitute referee waved away their claims.

Braintree Town: Edwards (60 Johnson); Renee (69 Sade), Clements, Trialist A (46 Pennell), Davaidson; Johnson, Goulborune (60 Crichlow), Payne, Hope (63 Ainsworth); Akinwande, Pinto (46 Holness).