BRAINTREE Town boss Ryan Maxwell praised his side after they claimed an impressive 1-0 win at St Albans City, writes DAVID WARD.

This was certainly one of the most impressive disciplined performance from the Iron this season who fully deserved their hard-earned three points at Clarence Park.

And even though it was a scrappy second-half goal that secured victory, manager Ryan Maxwell was more than pleased with the final outcome.

He said: "You don't often win pretty as they say but I felt overall and particularly in the second half we were by far the better side.

"In reality we should have scored at least a couple of more goals and won more with a more convincing scoreline.

"I felt we were far better coordinated with out play, built up our play from the back with some excellent interchange where we passed the ball to each other, forged forward as a unit and always looked a threat when we reached their goal area.

"The opposition are a good side as we know as they are pushing for promotion but I felt we had the right attitude and commitment from every player right from the first whistle.

"We never let them settle and created our own influence on the game and everyone worked so hard and it was certainly our best performance of the season.

"With recent new signings it's helping us to be a more cohesive unit particularly when going forward with pace and precision.

"Again it's our sixth in a row clean sheet and unbeaten and that's due to our much more solid and workman like defence because even when the home side did break clear we had players there ready and committed to close them down and clear the danger."

"The first half was from both sides perhaps a case of a little bit of boring football but I still felt we had the edge and could have come in at the break in the lead although the key was not to concede a goal.

"The second half was far more open and again I think we took the game to them in a far more positive way and the longer it went on the more I thought.

"Some of our build up play was the best so far this season and we always looked more dangerous when getting the ball into the home area."

Braintree, who welcomed back tricky winger Khale Da Costa on a permanent basis from Dover Athletic after his previous loan spell, scored their all-important winning goal with 25 minutes to go.

One of the side's unsung heroes - Stefan Ilic - brought a through ball down to his feet before shuffling it through the legs of ex-Iron keeper Michael Johnson, who was only able to watch the ball trickle over the line into net.

The Iron were denied a clear-cut penalty with nine minutes remaining when Noel-Williamson was unceremoniously hauled down in the home area.

But somehow referee Stephen Parkinson, who had an inconsistent decision-making performance for both sides all afternoon, ignored the massive appeals from the Iron.

He rushed over to the touchline to show a yellow card to Maxwell, which again was a disappointing reaction in every sense of the word.

When four minutes into stoppage time the Iron should have scored their second goal when Crichlow weaved his way through the home defence.

With a one-on-one on with keeper Johnson saw the home custodian just managing to get a reactionary save with his elbow that saw the ball go behind for a corner but Iron prevailed.