Iron took full advantage to make history - Braintree Town season review

by Ron Fosker

AFTER a season of almost unparalleled drama, Braintree Town ended up making history by becoming the first team to go up after finishing five places off an automatic promotion place.

They took full advantage of the new system where six teams were involved in the play-offs rather than the usual four.

Without that change, they would be contemplating another season at National League South level but could still have congratulated themselves on a far better finishing position than many had expected, considering where they started from.

Chairman Lee Harding has said recently that his main target was to avoid relegation.

Not false modesty, but a perfectly realistic assessment considering the fate of Altrincham, who had followed their drop from the National League premier division the previous year with a second relegation, and indeed of North Ferriby who performed the same feat this year.

To stave off relegation, the club had put its faith in Brad Quinton, who was an almost unanimous choice among supporters for the manager’s job when it became vacant in the summer.

A former captain, player of the year and the holder of the record for the most appearances - his appeal was obvious.

The club’s board of directors may also have felt a touch of sentiment towards him, but their decision to entrust him with Iron’s future was taken with the head, not the heart.

His experience in steering Enfield Town from 19th in the Ryman League when he took over to seventh, sixth and fourth in his three seasons in charge was what clinched his appointment.

But at Braintree, Quinton was required to start from scratch after all last season’s players left the club.

His budget was also cut to reflect the reduction in gate receipts after the loss of matches against the former Football League clubs with sizeable away support.

That meant that Quinton had to put his trust in players with little experience at National League South level, a process he started by building round a nucleus of players from his old club.

Former Iron player of the year Nathan McDonald was the first of those, followed by Billy Crook, Jon Muleba and Ricky Gabriel.

Others stepping up a level included Marc-Anthony Okoye, from Dulwich Hamlet, Luke Allen, from Tonbridge Angels, Roman Michael-Percil, from the Metropolitan Police, Ben Wyatt from Maldon and Tiptree, via a brief spell with Colchester United, and Mahrez Bettache from Hendon.

Slowly things came together and supporters were pleasantly surprised in the pre-season friendlies to see the neat passing game that Quinton had instilled in his squad.

Wise heads muttered, not without justification, that it might look pretty in friendlies, but they would soon be found out in the cut and thrust of league action.

They were even more pleasantly surprised when that turned out not to be the case.

The season started far better than anyone had dared to hope with a win at Eastbourne in the first match followed by a home draw with Dartford, the favourites for promotion - and the team that were eventually pipped to the title only on goal difference - and a win against Chippenham.

Realism set in with a 5-3 defeat at East Thurrock but the next set of results were good enough for Braintree to be sitting at the top of the table for a few weeks.

That was definitely not in the script, but the wise heads were nodding again when they gradually slipped down the table and from December 23 to February 17 managed just one win in 12 matches.

It was at that point that their fighting spirit became obvious.

Having stopped the rot with a fairly unconvincing win over eventually relegated Poole Town, they gradually found their feet again and lost only one of their last 11 matches.

If there was a moment when fate appeared to be with them, it was that amazing comeback against Concord Rangers, when they stormed the visitors’ barricades to turn round a 1-0 deficit with goals in the 87th and 99th minutes – followed three days later with another storming finish to beat Whitehawk 4-3 with goals in the 85th and 94th minutes.

It was that never-say-die attitude that helped to see them through the play-offs.

It is never a situation for faint hearts and there were no faint hearts in the Iron camp over three memorable matches.

The bond between Quinton and the supporters, already strong, grew even stronger and there were justifiable utterances of ‘what if?’

Many had seen Quinton as a replacement for Danny Cowley after the dramatic rise to third place in the National League premier division in 2016.

But with only two seasons’ management experience behind him two divisions below Braintree, he was seen as too big a gamble.

The more experienced Jamie Day took the reins instead, only to last a couple of months before Hakan Hayrettin took over but he too could not avoid relegation.

Had Quinton taken over on either of those occasions, who knows?

But if Iron had stayed up last year, this most dramatic of seasons would not have happened.