Braintree Town manager Alan Devonshire praised the “heart” shown by his team as they completed a memorable Blue Square Bet Premier double against Luton Town.

Having won 3-2 at Kenilworth Road in October, the Iron won 2-0 at the Amlin Stadium to make sure John Still, who had been unveiled as the new Hatters boss earlier in the day, didn’t have a winning start to his tenure.

A first-half strike by Sean Marks, following some delightful work in the build-up by his strike partner Dan Holman, put them ahead at the break and Holman was provider again for the second as his curling cross was headed in by Kenny Davis.

Like their 2-0 win against Grimsby seven days before, it was a victory that was totally merited by Braintree and just reward for their hard work.

Devonshire said: “We’ve worked hard on the fitness.

“There haven’t been that many games over the last six weeks and that’s what gets you fit.

“So we’ve had some hard sessions with them and it seems to have paid off.

“They have a lot of heart about them.

“When you get tired, it isn’t about your fitness levels, it’s about how much heart you have and I’ve got boys with a lot of heart.”

The only down side to the game was the way both sides lost a player each to red cards.

Braintree’s Matt Paine was first to go in the 21st minute for a high challenge on Arnaud Mendy and referee Michael Bull levelled things numerically 13 minutes later when he dismissed Luton’s Wayne Thomas for a foul on Marks.

While it didn’t ultimately cost them in terms of the end result, Devonshire was displeased with his own player’s dismissal.

He added: “It was a high challenge and I wasn’t happy with it.

“Painey will get fined because he could have cost us.

“I’ll have a look at how bad it was on the DVD, but at the moment he will be fined.”