Braintree pay the price for not taking their chances

Vanarama Conference Premier

Braintree Town were left ruing not taking their chances as their run without a Vanarama Conference Premier win was extended to five games by a 2-0 defeat by Southport.

Only Chester had beaten Braintree at home this year, but Southport, who arrived sitting in the relegation zone, added their name to the list with two second half goals.

However, Braintree will look back on some good opportunities that they failed to capitalise on – especially one gilt-edged chance for Jordan Cox in the first half.

With the news that Simeon Akinola had picked up an ankle injury and would miss the game, Braintree made just one change from the side that lost 3-1 at Gateshead seven days before.

In place of Akinola came the returning Dan Sparkes, who came back in after missing the previous three games with an ankle problem.

While Braintree’s line-up had a settled look to it, there was upheaval for the visitors just before kick-off as Clayton McDonald picked up a knock in the warm-up and Joe Connor came into the starting side after initially being named on the bench.

After both teams made a slow start, both gradually settled and it was Southport who posed the first threat when Connor had the first chance from a corner but his shot was wayward.

That acted as a bit of a wake-up call to Braintree after their sluggish start and they began to see greater possession in dangerous areas around the visitors’ box.

They really should have taken the lead in the 15th minute with Jordan Cox looking to add to an impressive recent goal haul.

Lovely play by Dan Walker saw him shrug off the challenge of Jonny Lynch and curl in a wonderful cross on to the head of Cox, who was unmarked and just had the keeper to beat.

However, his looping header went just over the bar with the goal beckoning.

An open game saw play switching from end to end and it was then Southport’s turn to threaten with Iron keeper Nick Hamann having to make a great stop low to his left from a towering header from Luke Foster from a free-kick.

The half ended with a gilt-edged chance for Braintree that was spurned by Cox to sum up a 45 minutes when there was a lack of clinical edge in the final third of the pitch.

Cox found himself with the ball at his feet, five yards from goal and just the keeper to beat, but he could only stab his shot wide of the post.

Braintree came back out with renewed vigour after the break and applied pressure to the visitors’ goal, with Kenny Davis’ header forcing Southport’s David Raya Martin to make a save.

The visiting keeper was kept busy and he then had to do well to deal with a curling free-kick from Sparkes as it stayed goalless.

The breakthrough when it came was a bit against the run of play.

From an apparently innocuous situation, no-one was able to get close enough to Southport’s Luke George and that gave him time to pick his spot with a low shot from 20 yards that flew into the bottom corner of the home goal.

The strike took some wind out of Braintree’s sails and they struggled to re-establish a decent platform to build from, but Cox spurned another chance when it did come.

With ten minutes to go, he was unable to direct a header on target from a cross by Walker.

That and the earlier missed opportunities were to come back to haunt the Iron late in the game when, with eight minutes to go, Southport substitute Amadou Bakayoko swivelled with the ball at his feet in the home box and fired in a second goal for the visitors.