PHIL Roberts feels he is in the form of his life.

However, Braintree Town’s on-fire striker has been quick to pay tribute to his Iron colleagues and their form that - as well as his goals - have taken Braintree to the summit of the Vanarama National League South table.

Braintree don’t have a game this weekend due to having exited the FA Cup and their next action won’t come until a trip to Bath City on October 21, but their time without action can be spent pondering their position at the head of the pile.

It is a lead that was secured last weekend by a 3-1 win at Gloucester City and two of those goals were provided by Roberts to take his tally to 12 for the campaign.

He is the division’s top scorer and is loving his time at Braintree after moving to the club last summer.

“I am very happy – I couldn’t be happier really,” said Roberts.

“To be top goal scorer in the league is great, but it’s testament to the players who are behind me.

“I’m the one who’s got the last touch on the ball, but people like Billy Crook, Luke Allen and Roman Michael-Percil are all making it easy for me.

“When I can trust the midfielders, then it makes my job so much easier and I get that here.

“They always provide the chances and there are chances throughout the whole team.

“It’s not just on me and goals are coming from all over.

“I’d say this is the best I’ve ever played in my career.

“I feel as though I’ve matured a lot and I’m also working with a manager and team-mates that I trust.

“It’s so much easier when you can trust people and you feel comfortable like that. I think we have done really well considering we’re a completely new team.

“We couldn’t have done much better.

“We are where we want to be, but we’re not getting ahead of ourselves.

“Being top changes nothing for us; we were seventh a couple of weeks ago and now we’re top so things change very quickly.

“The league is so tight and we just have to focus on game to game.

“We can’t start thinking that we have to be here or there at a certain point.

“I think we’re doing that well.

“Everyone is working hard, we all get on well and I think we’re playing good football.”

That good football ensured a fourth away win of the season for Roberts and his team-mates at Gloucester City as they bounced back at the first time of asking from the frustration of exiting the FA Cup at Brackley Town in their previous game. And the striker believes it shows again the resilience that is within the Iron squad that manager Brad Quinton has assembled.

He said: “We were devastated to go out of the FA Cup as we didn’t show that we are the team that we are but we had to respond to that.

“Every time that we’ve had a bad result, we have responded – after East Thurrock, after Whitehawk, we have always responded.

“We are a young and hungry team and that shows.

“There are no egos in the squad and we just want to work hard and buy into what the Gaffer is telling us.

“We work hard for each other and want to do as well as we can.”

Roberts, along with a number of first-team players, was rested on Tuesday as Braintree made changes for their Essex Senior Cup third round tie against Southend Manor.

It was a game that the Iron lost 2-1 after a late goal for their Essex Senior League opponents, but after another cup disappointment to follow their FA Cup exit two weeks ago, Braintree can now have their focus on the league and pressing at the top of the table.

Roberts was part of the Chelmsford City team that got the Clarets to the National League South play-off final last year and while that ultimately ended in failure for the Clarets, it was an experience that the Iron striker enjoyed.

He is now looking to replicate the experience of a promotion push at his new club, but feels Braintree’s side is very different from what he was part of last year.

“I was at Chelmsford from February until the end, but this Braintree team is much different,” added Roberts.

“We are a lot younger than Chelmsford were and there are a lot of boys who have recently come out of Academy systems and are hungry to play.

“I think that’s important.”