There was a nice symmetry about visiting Cressing Road on Saturday, even though I had planned to go to Thurrock for a tick.The Iron were playing Dorchester Town who I had visited last weekend on my south coast holiday and so I thought it would be interesting to see how the Magpies would fare against a Braintree team who are still challenging for a place in the Conference South play-offs.
Oddjobs around the house and the impending visit of the gasman meant that I couldn't stretch out to Thurrock and I ended up leaving for Cressing Road at about 2.55pm.I would have made it in before kick off were it not for the fact that a lot of rain had left the car park half unusable and I had to turn around and park down a side street.
Anyway it was still nil-nil when I got in although just after I took up a position on the terrace, Braintree took the lead.Left back Mark Jones picked up the ball about 35 yards out and let off a low shot which wormed through a crowd of players and slipped past Dorchester keeper Simon Evans who really should have done better.
Ten minutes later and Chris Sullivan was on hand to score Braintree's second, an excellent run followed by a curled effort which beat the Evans comfortably.
And then on 37 minutes, club captain Brad Quinton effectively ended the match as a contest with a third.The bizarre thing was that in nearly all areas of the field apart from in front of goal Dorchester were the better team.
Their passing was fluent, their range was superior to the home teams, but their attack lacked that killer edge which Braintree displayed.Into the second period and it was more of the same, possibly more so as Braintree had definitely taken their foot of the gas.
And the Magpies were rewarded with a well worked passing move which ended in a Justin Keeler side foot into the net on 63 minutes.This was the shot in the arm that Braintree needed to raise their game and the final 30 minutes was played out which both sides failing to threaten in any great shape.
06/02/2007 - Braintree Town 1 Kidderminster Harriers 3
