While he was disappointed that his team lost a third Vanarama National League game on the trot, Braintree Town manager Danny Cowley was proud of his players on their long trip to Barrow AFC.

Having sat on a coach for seven hours to get there, the Iron lost 2-0 to the Cumbrian side to add to defeats by Aldershot and Macclesfield in their previous two league outings.

It was the first time this season that Braintree had lost three on the bounce and even though they stayed sixth in the league table, it was a blow to their hopes of finishing in the play-offs.

The Bluebirds wrapped up their win with a late goal from Andy Cook, but Cowley admitted the early strike by Jason Walker after an error by Iron keeper Tom King had been a blow.

However, he was still immensely proud of the graft shown by his players after their long trip north.

He said: "We are obviously disappointed with the result, but we were pleased with the level of performance that we saw.

"It was a poor goal to concede from a mistake and it came just after a good chance for ourselves.

"A lesser team would have gone under then after a seven-hour coach journey and falling behind like that, but we did well to get a foothold in the game and we asked questions of them.

"They have been on a good run and to be honest, just like against Macclesfield, we played Barrow at the wrong time for us.

"I think we saw the best of both of them, but while we were disappointed with the result, we weren't by the level of our performance.

"We were disappointed with our performance against Bromley - even though we won - and then against Aldershot and Macclesfield as we didn't get to the levels we would expect, but we were good at Barrow.

"We were good and we were competitive.

"We were right in that game.

"It's down to small margins sometimes when you concede goals through individual errors and when that happens this league can be very unforgiving.

"It gave an already confident team a leg up and it was always going to be difficult from there.

"Our lads did work incredibly hard and they were so committed, but unfortunately we got beaten.

"That's the harsh reality and we have to take it on the chin.

"However, we are so proud of the players.

"You can't under-estimate how hard it is to sit on a coach for seven hours and then go out and perform to the level that they did so we really are very proud."