MACCLLESFIELD TOWN 2 BRAINTREE TOWN 0

Vanarama National League

THE Moss Rose remained an unhappy hunting ground for Braintree Town as their recent good form was ended by a 2-0 defeat at Macclesfield Town.

The Iron had won just one of their last four trips to the Silkmen’s home and despite taking six points from their previous two games to boost their Vanarama National League survival hopes, they were unable to get anything on their travels this time.

Braintree looked threatening in forward areas in the early part of the game but they were unable to turn that into goals.

And as the match entered the final 20 minutes, the hosts capitalised on a couple of slips from the Iron to score two goals that killed any Braintree hopes of getting anything from their trip.

There was one change for Braintree from the side that started the 2-0 win at Eastleigh in midweek as Jack Midson was out with a calf strain.

That led to a recall for Lee Barnard back into the starting line-up, while there was also no action for loanee Kris Twardek, who was on international duty with Canada in the CONCACAF Under-20 Championship.

The early exchanges were pretty even between the teams and while both looked threatening and Braintree probably shaded the possession, neither goalkeeper was unduly tested.

Macclesfield began to up the pace of their play in the latter stages, though and they had a couple of openings as half-time approached.

One came as Luke Summerfield chested the ball down and fired over and there was another after a poor clearance from Sean Clohessy.

It fell only as far as Chris Holroyd but his shot was straight into the arms of Iron keeper Sam Beasant.

There was a blow for the Iron just before half-time as they lost Jake Goodman to what looked like a hamstring injury that he picked up in making a vital block as Macclesfield pushed forward.

It saw Ian Gayle come on in a straight switch, but they had to make sure they got themselves organised for the start of the second half.

Things were slower after the break, with both sides struggling to impose themselves up front.

The closest the Iron went to opening the scoring was when Michael Cheek played in Kyron Farrell after picking up an attempted clearance by Silkmen keeper Scott Flinders but the Millwall loanee’s effort was just wide of the target.

The quality in the final third wasn’t enough for either side to pierce the opponents’ defence as it stayed goalless into the last quarter of the game.

In the end, the breakthrough came as an attempted Braintree attack broke down in the 71st minute.

A poor ball forward was anticipated by Silkmen full-back David Fitzpatrick, who broke forward and slid the ball in to Connor Jennings.

He was through one-on-one with Beasant and calmly slipped the ball in to give Macclesfield the lead.

It was a setback for Braintree and things got worse four minutes later when the Silkmen doubled their advantage and to make matters worse, it came from a Braintree error.

Manny Parry slipped and that allowed Holroyd to get into the area, where he evaded a challenge from Clohessy before lifting the ball over Beasant.

It proved to be the killer blow and there was little in the way of chances in the closing minutes as the Iron had to accept another pointless visit to the Moss Rose Ground.

Braintree stayed 16th in the table despite the defeat, but their clearance from the relegation places has been cut to four points.

Braintree Town: Sam Beasant, Jerome Okimo, Manny Parry, Jake Goodman (Ian Gayle 42), Sean Clohessy, Chez Isaac, Kyron Farrell (Claudio Dias 75), Reece Hall-Johnson (Alex Henshall 67), Monty Patterson, Michael Cheek, Lee Barnard.

Subs not used: Joe Maybanks, Sam Corne.

Referee: Andrew Miller.