BRAINTREE Town Reserves joint manager Lee Fisher says their current form is evidence of the progression that his players have made this season.

Following recent wins against Haverhill Borough and Holland FC, the Iron’s second string claimed the scalp of another of Thurlow Nunn League division one’s promotion hopefuls when they beat Halstead Town 3-2 last weekend.

Braintree won with first half goals by Charlie Webb and Bailey Jones and an 80th minute strike from Jack Hurley.

It was essentially the same Iron team that had been beaten 7-0 by Halstead in a First Division Knockout Cup tie in October and Fisher, who manages the reserves alongside Luke Nash, feels their young players are maturing well.

Fisher said: “From playing Halstead previously, we knew how they would be set up, but over the last few weeks, we have been working on a system and it has started to work for us.

“We rode our luck, but after it went 2-2, we then got back into the game, relaxed again and started playing some football again.

“Luckily the third goal came just at the right time for us.

“It’s pleasing because we’re a young side and we’ve beaten third, fourth and now sixth in the last three weeks.

“We’re on a good run and we’re seeing the progression we want to see from the players.

“At the beginning of the season, we had come away from the (Braintree Town) Academy so that we were basically from the (Braintree Town) Youth.

“Myself and Luke (Nash) approached (Braintree chairman) Lee Harding about taking the team on and he said yes as he wanted to keep it going.

“We took it on with a whole new squad; there was only one player playing at Halstead who had been in the Thurlow Nunn last year. We had to create a whole new squad, but it’s now paying dividends and it’s coming back to us.

“They are reaping the benefits because we have all stuck together. People may look at our results and think we’ve got new players in, but we haven’t; it’s the same squad as the one we had at the start of the season.

“That’s credit to the lads because they are making themselves hard to break down and they are a good bunch.

“We’re not a big group – there’s only 16 of them – but they want to play football.

“We don’t have a budget and they’re lucky to get a bit of petrol money here and there but it’s credit to them as it shows they want to play football.”

Braintree Town Reserves will return to action on Tuesday when they host Needham Market Reserves (kick-off 3pm).