MANAGER Hakan Hayrettin insists that there will be no extra pressure on his Braintree Town players when they host Maidstone United on Saturday.

With the Iron currently sat four points above their visitors and Maidstone occupying the last of the Vanarama National League’s four relegation places, it appears to be a game that neither can afford to lose.

Braintree come into it on the back of a disappointing display and a 2-0 defeat at Macclesfield Town last weekend that followed buoying wins against Eastleigh and North Ferriby in their previous two outings.

And Hayrettin wants to see a positive reaction to that.

However, he sees no added pressure on his players other than the desire to claim three points in their quest for league safety this year.

“I don’t really believe in pressure,” he said.

“If there is any, then I’ll try and deflect it from my players, but I don’t see this as a big game and certainly no bigger than any other - it’s just another game to me and the players have to see it that way as well.

“If we were second from bottom with no games in hand, then it would be massive, but that’s not the case.

“It’s certainly not make or break time.

“My stance is that it’s no bigger than the Eastleigh game or North Ferriby game.

“We will take it one game at a time and we won’t heap any pressure on players when it’s not necessary.

“This a a young squad that we have got and they are learning all the time.”

The last time that the Iron had a setback like the one at Macclesfield was their 5-2 loss at Dulwich Hamlet in the FA Trophy two weeks ago and they responded well to that with wins against Eastleigh and North Ferriby.

So Hayrettin is looking for another positive display this time.

He added: “There has to be a reaction like we saw after the Dulwich game.

“I don’t want us to be a heartbeat with ups and downs - I want us to be consistent.

“Hopefully we have had that more often then not and it’s important that we see it now.”

There are a couple of doubts for the visit of Maidstone, though as Jack Midson missed the trip to Macclesfield with a calf strain and Jake Goodman came off there with a hamstring problem and the manager said both would be tested this week.

“We will have to assess Jack in the week,” he said.

“We will see and hopefully it’s not too serious, but if it is looking like it will be longer term then I will look to bring someone else in.

“It’s the same with Jake (Goodman) and we’ll have a look at him as well.

“He’s done very well for us, but it is his hamstring again so we’ll assess him in training.”