Danny Cowley has placed the credit on his players for Braintree Town making club history this week.

The Iron boss was delighted to see his team’s three-point haul at Gateshead take them to the club’s highest ever tally - 75 - in the top-flight of English non-league football.

It has been a remarkable achievement in Cowley’s first season in charge and has surpassed the 74 points that former manager Alan Devonshire’s side collected in finishing sixth two years ago.

However, Braintree have two games left – starting at Wrexham on Saturday – and with them sitting fifth ahead of the final fixtures, they are still in the heart of the race for the Vanarama National League’s play-off places.

“We are pleased to get to the 75-point mark as it does make club history,” said Cowley.

“Credit to Alan Devonshire and his team of two years ago as it was an outstanding achievement to finish sixth in this division.

“When you come into a club that has been over-achieving, as we did at the start of this year, you know that adding value to that is going to be a real challenge.

“So to have done that is great, but the job isn’t finished yet.

“It’s credit to the players that we have got as far as we have as their consistency has been fantastic.

“To have got this far and only lost more than two games in a row on one occasion is amazing.

“Whenever we’ve had disappointments, we’ve always seen a response and I have to say the current response that we’re seeing is the best of the lot.

“We were running on empty over Easter with the virus that we had in the squad and lesser people would have been less durable than we have proved.

“Others would have gone under, but our players’ response had been phenomenal.

“The draw against Forest Green Rovers and then having had the long trips that we have had and to have picked up seven points from the last nine has been an unbelievable effort from the boys.

“It’s been great to have this week off, though, as it has been the first opportunity to have down time and a real recovery period for them.

“We have used it to really recharge us physically and mentally so we will go to Wrexham, have a good go and see where it takes us.”

Braintree held on to fifth spot in the league after Halifax held fellow play-off pushers Eastleigh to a 0-0 draw in midweek, but Cowley won’t allow his players to get distracted by results elsewhere.

He added: “What is great is that after Halifax’s draw against Eastleigh on Tuesday, whatever happens on Saturday, we will still be involved on the last day of the season.

“We’re under no illusion how tough the test will be at Wrexham, but there is no external pressure on us.

“That is the great thing and the only pressure is what we put on ourselves.

“We have really high standards and we put pressure on to make sure we find our levels, but we will play with no fear and make sure we have no regrets.”

“They have scored the most goals at home out of any team in the league so to get a positive result there will be a big ask, but that’s the challenge for us.

“(Wrexham manager) Gary Mills has already told us that they are going to beat us and to be honest, they should think like that because they are a huge club.

“They have every right to be confident, but we know it’s a big game for both clubs and we’ll go there feeling confident ourselves."