A FIVE-GOAL win at Bromley will stand as one of Braintree Town’s stand-out results of the season, but manager Hakan Hayrettin felt the gloss was taken off it by the late sending off of Ian Gayle.

It was a game dominated by sending offs and penalties, but it brought a welcome three points that backed up the one the Iron claimed last weekend with a 0-0 draw against Maidstone.

Those four points have lifted Hayrettin’s team up past the 40-point mark as they claw their way towards Vanarama National League safety.

Hosts Bromley had two players and manager Neil Smith dismissed in the encounter as Braintree won with penalties from Michael Cheek and Jack Midson as well as two goals from Reece Hall-Johnson and a Monty Patterson strike.

However, Hayrettin was left with a bitter taste as centre-half Gayle was sent off late on for retaliation.

While it didn’t affect that game’s outcome, the Iron boss, who has Jake Goodman still struggling with a hamstring injury, knows he’ll have to bring in another central defender if Gayle is suspended for the visit of Wrexham on Saturday.

Hayrettin said: “If it’s a straight red then he’ll be out for the weekend and that’s disappointing because I’ll have to go out and get another centre-half in now.

“There’s no way to dress it up. You can put a cherry on top, but the bottom line is that he’s let his team-mates down.

“Why do what he did?

“There’s no answer to that. It was a bad challenge (on Jerome Okimo) but that doesn’t matter. He’s let his team-mates down and it’s taken the polish off a good result in my opinion.

“We don’t need that.”

Other than Gayle’s sending off, though, Hayrettin was delighted with his team’s performance at Bromley and the way they stayed disciplined while their hosts were losing their heads in the rush of red cards and penalties in the first half.

“We kept doing what was needed to get a result,” added the Iron boss.

“I’m a big believer in discipline with and without the ball - especially without the ball.

“Their players could have hurt us, even with only nine of them as they have boys who can make things happen with the ball.

“So we had to keep our discipline even though we were ahead.

“I thought the third goal was the one that really changed the game for us and it came from a great move.

“For us it was a vital three points.

“I always tell the boys that it’s only about us and no-one else.

“I still believe that and we have to keep grinding these results out.

“And I just want to make it clear that it is about the boys.

“We are doing it collectively but it’s about them as they are the ones who got this result.

“We gave them the ammunition and said how we wanted to play as we want to get the best out of them and they have done it again.

“Just like they have been doing it consistently since I’ve been here.

“Nine times out of ten they are doing the right things to get results.

“Fair play to them as they’ve been fantastic.”