MANAGER Brad Quinton is hoping to have some new faces in his squad for Braintree Town’s trip to promotion rivals Havant and Waterlooville on Saturday.

The Iron boss has been running his eye over some trial players this week as they prepare to bounce back after suffering back-to-back league defeats for the first time this season and make sure they stay in the race for the Vanarama National League South play-offs.

Quinton has said that he would only make use of loan players from higher-placed clubs if it was the right move for him and his team and he insisted that was still the case, but he said players from professional sides had been among those who he had been having a look at this week.

“Hopefully we can get something sorted ahead of the weekend,” said Quinton.

“We had two boys in trialling on Tuesday and I’ve got another three or four coming in on Thursday to have a look at.

“There are some from pro clubs, but we also have our eye on one or two from elsewhere.

“But it has to be right for us and if we have to move some people on then we will have to as we are looking to strengthen.

“We have to live within our means as we are not full of money that previous managers could spend and that is frustrating.

“But there is a long way to go and we need to stick together.

“We have done some good work in training this week.”

Braintree head into the game at Havant and Waterlooville on the back of a 3-0 defeat at Welling United last weekend when they were hit by the sending off of Ricky Gabriel in the first half and were unable to hold out after being reduced to ten men.

Having lost to Hemel Hempstead the week before, it was the first time this season that Braintree had gone down to consecutive losses in the league.

They are still fifth in the table, though, and Quinton feels resilience after setbacks is a key quality of sides that he manages.

He said: “There are a lot of points to play for and we need to recover after two defeats on the trot.

“In my time here as manager and when I was in charge at Enfield, that’s something we tried not to have with consecutive games.

“But it is costing us with our discipline and silly mistakes.

“Before the sending off at Welling, we looked like the ones to score, but because of the sending off we could not make the changes that would have helped us to win the game.

“It was a missed opportunity as both Hemel Hempstead and Chelmsford lost and it would have been a chance to move away from them.

“You can look at it and say we have now only had two wins in nine, but along the way, there have been a lot of draws.

“However, there have been two defeats on the trot now.

“That’s hard for me to accept as a manager and I was the same as a player, so we will be working hard in every way that we can to change it.

“This is a massive club to me and we are striving hard to move it forward.

“That’s what I have been doing since I took over as manager.

“I feel I’m doing a good job and I’m pleased with that as this club means so much to me.

“We just have to keep focused on what we are doing.”

Quinton said captain Marc-Anthony Okoye had not been available for the game at Welling due to illness but he was hopeful that his skipper would be available for the trip to Havant and Waterlooville.