BRAD Quinton feels having competition for who wears the number one shirt in his Braintree Town squad won't be a bad thing as they tackle the tests of the Vanarama National League this season.

Former Grimsby Town goalkeeper Ben Killip came in and played the first half of the Iron's 0-0 draw against Chelmsford City as they concluded their pre-season games last weekend.

Killip, who made ten appearances for the Mariners last year and started his career as a youngster with Norwich City, had an assured 45 minutes for Braintree.

And, with Nathan McDonald, who was ever-present between the stick last year, suspended for the first two games of the season, Quinton said he expected Killip to be starting when they host FC Halifax Town in their National League curtain-raiser on Saturday.

“Ben came in against Chelmsford and I thought he was superb," said Quinton.

“He looks a very good goalkeeper and if he keeps the shirt then Nathan will have some hard work on his hands to get it back.

“Nathan will miss the first couple of games of the season as he got a two-game suspension at Dartford (in the play-offs).

“Someone had thrown a bottle on to the pitch and when Nathan threw it back off the pitch, it caught in the wind and got blown into the crowd.

“It was empty, but that’s not the point as it was wrong of Nathan and he knows that so he’ll miss the first two games because of it.

“But I thought Ben looked very confident and he has good experience behind him.

“I’ll have to sit down with the chairman to look at the squad to see the goalkeeper situation, but we also have Harry Aldridge and Ashlee (Jones) looking to be part of the squad.

“We’ll have to see where we are and ideally I’d want to have people there to push each other for places but how many keepers we can carry is something I have to look at.

“For now, though, Ben has signed and I wish him luck for the game against Halifax.”