Braintree Town manager Danny Cowley was quick to heap praise on his team’s hard-working defensive show that under-pinned their 1-0 win at Grimsby Town.

The Iron stayed in the Vanarama National League play-off race with a solitary strike from Taylor Miles, but Cowley knew the victory was built on another robust display in defence.

The shut-out was the Iron’s 22nd clean sheet of the campaign and few can have been as significant as this one.

“It’s another important win on our journey,” said Cowley.

“Our processes were fantastic.

“We went there with a clear game plan and if you work as hard as we did in that one, I think you deserve to win a game of football.

“We knew we would have to defend to attack, but we enjoy defending and it was all about making sure that the boys knew when to press and when to keep their shape.

“Grimsby make the pitch very big as they have so many good players who ask questions of your defensive shape.

“So it was important that when we got into our shape we had no gaps and I thought we were excellent in doing that.

“It wasn’t until the last five minutes that Grimsby had a shot on target.

“To have as much possession as they did and to restrict them to as few chances as they had is fantastic in terms of our defensive organisation.

“However, it was important to keep a positive mindset because when you’re defending like we were, it’s easy to get negative and forced back.

“We knew we had to keep punching and we looked a threat on the counter-attack.

“Credit to Taylor (Miles) as he came in and scored a great goal.

“That’s his third of the season and they have all been great goals.”