Braintree Town chairman Lee Harding hopes any sense of injustice can be channelled in a positive way after seeing his club deducted a point from their Vanarama National League South tally.

The Iron have been charged and found guilty by the National League of fielding a player in two successive matches while under a Football Association suspension.

The loss of the point left Braintree still sat eighth in the table, but now three rather than two points off the play-off places and Harding felt it was an unjust penalty.

"I think this is a sad outcome from events over which our club and league have had no control," he said

The matter relates to a suspension involving Iron captain Marc-Anthony Okoye earlier this year that the club had already been charged for by the FA, but a subsequent charge from the league has now deprived them of a point.

It came about as Okoye was initially registered on the FA's Members Services System (MSS) as Marc Okoye and picked up a caution under that name in the Iron's 2-0 home win against Chippenham Town on August 12.

However, the skipper's name was then changed on the MSS to Marc-Anthony Okoye and he went on to receive a further nine bookings, taking his tally up to the ten that would warrant a two-game ban.

A check on the MSS by Braintree secretary Tom Woodley following that tenth caution did not state that any suspension was imposed and Okoye continued playing.

The first notification of a two-match ban came on February 17, though, when the FA informed the club that the player had played on both January 13 (a 1-1 draw at Chippenham Town) and January 20 (a home defeat by Hemel Hempstead Town) while under a suspension, despite the MSS not confirming a suspension throughout January.

The MSS was retrospectively updated to include the two-match suspension from January 6 and the FA charged the club and player for playing while under suspension.

Harding said the club reluctantly accepted the FA's charge, but submitted a statement of mitigation with details of the ban not initially appearing on the MSS.

The FA decided to fine the club and player and an additional one-match was also added by the FA to the previous two-match suspension, which was served by Okoye.

However, the National League have now charged Braintree with the same offence and the club have had no choice but to accept the charge and surrender any points earned from the two relevant games.

It means the one they picked up at Chippenham has been deducted, but Harding is far from happy and hopes any sense of injustice can be channelled in the right direction.

He added: "When any player approaches a suspension, their record is always checked with the FA by our secretary - as was done in this case.

"The fact that the FA's records were not retrospectively updated until mid-February, to show that a suspension was due in January, gave the club no chance to action the suspension on the due dates.

"As ever, I believe Tom (Woodley) has acted with complete integrity, as he has done (as Braintree secretary) for over 35 years, and we have little option but to accept the punishment issued for what seems to me to be someone else's mistake.

"The loss of the one point is tough to take, especially as the lads have worked so hard to get us back into play-off contention in recent weeks and, in particular, on Saturday.

"Going forward, this can go one of two ways: we can sit and mope about our ill-fortune or dig in and work even harder to get the points we need from our last four games.

"I know what I'll be doing."