SEEING his team perched at the summit of the Vanarama National League South in mid-October doesn’t change anything for Braintree Town manager Brad Quinton.

The Iron haven’t seen league action since their 3-1 win at Gloucester City two weeks ago, but will still head to Bath City on Saturday sitting top of the pile.

Quinton admits that it’s nice to be at the summit, but feels it’s just a “pat on the back” at this stage of the campaign and knows it won’t change anything in the way that he or his players prepare for their next action.

Quinton said: “You can say that we are top and there to be shot at, but my team talk has always been that we are a National League side that has come down.

“Whether we are top of the league or not, people always raise their game against us because they are playing Braintree Town.

“That is always in my speech before all games.

“People have to realise that they are at a very good club here and whether we are top or not, we are there to be knocked off the pedestal.

“If the boys don’t realise that then I’ll go out and get someone else and that’s just being honest.

“Being top doesn’t really change anything for us.

“It’s a pat on the back – that’s all; you haven’t won anything at this stage of the season.

“There’s nothing achieved.

“We are where we are through hard work but you don’t win the league in October.

“There is a long way to go but I’m pleased with the start that my squad have put in so far.”

Ben Wyatt may be fit to return for the Iron (see page 46) at Bath after missing the last two games with a knee problem.

The Iron’s two-week break, enforced because of Braintree’s scheduled opponents - Truro City - being involved in the FA Cup last weekend, has given the squad time to recharge batteries after a hectic and successful start to the season.

Quinton said the time was being used well, but he was now ready to get his players focused on the targets coming up in the coming weeks.

He added: “It was frustrating that we were out of the FA Cup as we wanted to bring in as much revenue for the club as we could and we would have liked to be involved still.

“But we had no game on Saturday so we had some team bonding on Saturday night when we all went out and had a drink together.

“There has still been hard work in training, though.

“We had an in-house game on Saturday as the boys would rather do that than have another session and we’ve done some analysis with the tracking devices that the boys wear, looking at the data of where they’re doing well and whether there are lulls in some aspects where they can be working harder.

“We’ve sit down and said to them ‘well done’ but there are other targets coming up now.”