Braintree Town chairman Lee Harding sees no reason why his club shouldn’t share the dreams of others of a trip to Wembley at the end of the season.

Having completed a profitable festive period when they won four games in 15 days, the Iron now turn their attentions back to the FA Trophy in a second-round tie at Gosport Borough on Saturday.

While some Conference Premier clubs may feel it is a competition that is lower on their list of priorities, Harding believes Braintree should look no further than their opponents on Saturday for inspiration over what a good Trophy run can mean.

Gosport made it all the way to the final last year and while they lost 4-0 to Cambridge United, it proved to be a memorable and lucrative day at Wembley Stadium for the south coast club.

Harding said: “I look with some amusement really at some of the supposedly bigger clubs in our league looking down their noses at the FA Trophy.

“A team like Barnet, for example, who one should imagine would be favourites to win the Trophy, putting out their youth team against Concord Rangers (in the last round).

“I think that’s a shame for the competition and a little bit disrespectful and certainly not something we would be doing.

“I see no reason why Braintree shouldn’t have as good a chance as everyone else in our division to go a long way in the Trophy and that includes going to Wembley.

“If we can get ourselves comfortably into mid-table and within touching distance of Wembley then that would be another progression for us.

“People may say ‘Braintree could never get to Wembley’, well look at last season and what Gosport Borough did and they are in a division beneath us.”