BRAINTREE TOWN 1 LINCOLN CITY 3

Vanarama Conference Premier

Not for the first time this season, Braintree Town found that not taking chances can be costly in the Vanarama Conference Premier.

The Iron were well on top of their game against Lincoln City, pushing the Imps back and almost creating goal-scoring opportunities at will in the early part of the game.

However, none were taken and, just as it has in other games this season, that came back to hurt them as their woeful form against Lincoln continued.

The Imps had won all of the last six meetings between the two and made that seven as a goal by Ben Tomlinson and two from Jordan Burrow did the job for them on this occasion.

Braintree did have brief hope at half-time thanks to Dan Sparkes’ wonderful free-kick but their failure to take chances early in the piece proved costly as the game wore on.

There were two changes for Braintree from the side that lost 3-1 at Kidderminster, with Jordan Cox in for the injured Sean Marks and Dan Sparkes returning to the starting 11 as Bernard Mensah dropped to the bench.

Boss Alan Devonshire lined his team up with Mitch Brundle back in his usual right-back berth after filling in at centre-half last week and Matt Paine stepped into the heart of the back line.

In midfield, Ryan Peters played wide on the right and Chez Isaac and Kenny Davis made up the duo in the middle in the 4-4-2 formation.

And it was a lively start for Braintree with all the attacking play being directed towards the Imps’ goal in the opening stages.

The first good chance for the hosts came in the ninth minute as Cox gots his head to a ball into the box and laid it off for the incoming Isaac, who got a shot away but it drifted over the bar.

A poor clearance from the Imps soon after offered another chance as it fell to Simeon Akinola.

He raced in on goal, but was hesitant and stabbed a shot forward that Lincoln keeper Paul Farman saved.

They then almost took the lead in outrageous style in the 17th minute as Alan Massey volleyed the ball from about 35 yards out, but with Farman beaten all ends up, it clattered back off the crossbar.

It was all Braintree for the opening 25 minutes, but just as they have found for a lot of the season, a failure to take chances can be costly.

Having had all the play, they were hit by a sucker punch when Lincoln took the lead in the 26th minute.

The Imps burst forward from midfield and Ben Tomlinson ended up poking the ball in from an acute angle with the home defence stretched.

Braintree keeper Nick Hamann got a hand to it, but the ball squirmed into the net and the hosts had to rebuild.

However, they quickly found themselves with a mountain to climb.

Five minutes after the first goal had gone in, the ball was played wide to Jordan Cranston on the Lincoln left and he had acres of space to pick a ball into the middle where Jordan Burrow got ahead of his marker to slot it in.

A shellshocked Braintree were left wondering how a position of such dominance had suddenly turned into a two-goal deficit and Devonshire made a change to try to rectify the situation.

In the 37th minute, he made a change with Brundle coming off, Peters slotting back into full-back and James Mulley coming on in the right side of midfield.

And they gave themselves a lifeline before half-time as Sparkes made it 2-1 in the 44th minute.

Simeon Akinola was fouled on the very edge of the Lincoln box towards the right-hand side of the goal and Dan Sparkes curled a wonderful low shot around the wall and into the bottom corner of the goal past the despairing dive of Farman.

However, rather than the Iron capitalising on the situation, it was Lincoln who emerged from the break with added spark and they were soon two ahead again within four minutes of the restart.

A high ball into the box was won well by Alan Power, who headed it down to the feet of Burrow and he had a simple tap-in to make it 3-1 to the Imps.

That knocked a lot of the stuffing out of the hosts and finding chinks in the Lincoln defence became harder and harder, with the situation not helped by heavy rain that fell throughout the second half.

In fact it was Lincoln who looked more likely to score and Hamann had to be at his best to make saves and scramble the ball away from the dangerous Burrow on more than one occasion.

The Iron keeper was really the only thing that kept the score down to three as Lincoln’s lead looked more and more comfortable and Braintree were left to rue those early chances that weren’t taken and probably would have made it a very different game had they done so.

Braintree: Nick Hamann, Mitch Brundle (James Mulley 37), Matt Paine, Alan Massey, Sam Habergham, Ryan Peters, Chez Isaac (Joe Moore 90), Kenny Davis, Simeon Akinola, Jordan Cox (Bernard Mensah 76), Dan Sparkes. Subs not used: Joe Maybanks, Carl Pentney. Referee: Justin Amey.