BRAINTREE Town Reserves manager Lee Fisher is hoping that performances like his team put in when beating Halstead Town last week can help build a strong home following for the Young Irons.

The Iron’s reserves are playing their Thurlow Nunn League division one home games back at the IronmongeryDirect Stadium this year after a couple of seasons playing at Long Melford’s Stoneylands ground and they made full advantage to showcase themselves last weekend.

A crowd of 182 saw two teams involved in a stunning game of football, which Braintree won 3-2 after taking a two-goal lead, before being pegged back to 2-2 and finally winning it with a well-crafted strike from Joe Jones.

It was excellent entertainment for both sets of fans and, with home games coming on each of the next three Saturdays, Fisher is hoping to build his team’s support for home games, starting with the visit of Diss Town this weekend (kick-off 3pm).

“It was a good crowd for the Halstead game and good to see the people of Braintree backing us,” said the Young Iron’s boss.

“I know from when I played reserve team football for the club many years ago, you used to get one man and his dog watching. But getting a crowd like we did on a Friday night was really good.

“To have that was encouraging and we’ve had good feedback.

“We could have had four first-teamers involved but we wanted to give our own boys an opportunity and they didn’t disappoint.

“We now have the next three Saturdays at home and we’re really hoping to build crowds.

“We invited the (Braintree Town) youth players to come down and if they had a Braintree Town Youth top on then they got in for free.

“We’re trying to create something and we want to get that support.

“Hopefully we can keep holding our own in this league and start progressing.

“I’d like to think that fans here liked what they saw and hopefully they’ll want to keep supporting us.”

Fisher was delighted by his team’s result against a previously-unbeaten Halstead side, especially the way they kept their heads in coming back to win after seeing their two-goal lead wiped out in a frantic end to the game.

He added: “The tempo our lads played at was a credit to them as they really put a shift in and we were really pleased with what they did.

“They can take a lot of confidence from this game.

“They are a young group – the oldest was 24 and the youngest has just turned 17, with the rest in the 19 to 20 age bracket.

“We are young and there will be upsets throughout the season but the way they responded after being pulled back to two-all was incredible.

“They could have crumbled but it was a wonderful third goal.

“The build-up from the back and the ball into the box put it on a plate for our striker and all he had to do was put it in the net.

“To score a goal like that was brilliant.

“It’s the way we like to play, with getting the ball out wide and into the box to the strikers.”