BRAINTREE Town’s enterprising offer of a free pint of beer for everyone if the team won failed to make much difference to the size of the crowd on Good Friday, writes RON FOSKER.

Perhaps would-be supporters had taken spotted the ‘if they win’ clause and taken note of recent disappointing performances, of which this was the latest.

A 1-0 defeat by Concord Rangers meant the beer glasses stayed empty. Much as the ideas were on the pitch.

From the sunlit uplands of February and March, when they conceded just two goals in seven games - and Ryan Maxwell won the manager of the month award - Iron have fallen back into the trough and into the sort of form that saw them lose eight matches in a row earlier in the season.

Somewhere in the middle enough points may have been garnered to stave off relegation but this match resembled too closely their capitulation in the second half against Havant and Waterlooville last week and the poor showing at home to Hampton and Richmond the previous week.

Maxwell’s latest ploy was to push captain Matt Johnson up in to the front line for long kicks upfield, having realised, at least a dozen matches after everyone else, that Luke Holness is not going to win balls in the air.

He also pushed his two wingers, Gio Crichlow and Khale Da Costa, deputising for the injured Stefan Ilic, further upfield, presumably to cash in on any headers that Johnson managed to win.

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This ignored the fact that Iron’s run of form coincided with Crichlow and Ilic being brought more into play in their own half, bringing the ball forward rather than running on to flick-ons.

And so it was back to the fractured, frustrating long ball game that provided very few openings and zero goals.

Two substitutes came closest towards the end of the match, Dejon Noel-Williams planting a header on to the bar and Simo Mbonkwi breaking clear of the defence and sliding in a shot that shaved the outside of the post.

Before that Concord keeper Myles Roberts was rarely called into action. He had to be at his sharpest to thwart Holness after he had been put through by a neat bit of work by Jean-Baptiste Fischer and late on he held on to a shot from Crichlow, just about the only shot Iron got on target.

The damage had been done in the tenth minute when Jayden Randell rose above everyone at a corner to head home the game’s only goal.

Iron had their periods of dominance, engendered more by enthusiasm than skilful movement, but Concord also had a couple of occasions when the Iron rearguard was breached and Johnson had to be at his best to save.

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It says a lot that to end on a positive note these reports have to look elsewhere, in this case to Billericay, whose defeat at home to Dartford means they are still eight points adrift of Braintree with five matches to play.

Iron manager Ryan Maxwell said: "Yes, we were poor in the first period but the boys picked themselves up in the second half and I felt we put a great deal of pressure on them and really deserved a draw by the end of the day.

"We knew it would be a closely fought game because we near each other in the league, it's a local derby and neither side wanted to give the other any leeway.

"But I've no complaints with out second half showing and I think with a little bit of luck we should have equalised and a shared the points.

"But it didn't happen and we learn from it and move on to the next game."

Braintree: Billy Johnson; Matt Moloney, Kyran Clements, Luke Pennell, Jay Porter; Gio Crichlow (Dejon Noel-Williams 80), Alfie Payne (Simo Mbonkwi 82), Jean-Baptiste Fischer, Khale Da Costa (Sam Cox 76); Matt Johnson; Luke Holness.