BRAINTREE Town's defensive unit was quick to earn praise from assistant manager Andy Porter in the wake of their Vanarama National League South play-off semi-final win at Dartford.

While it was Billy Crook's 73rd minute goal that was the Iron's winner, their back four and goalkeeper Nathan McDonald were in imperious form to shut out a Darts side who had potted 81 goals over 42 games of the regular season and make sure a single strike was all that was required for victory.

The 1-0 win set up a play-off final at Hampton and Richmond on Sunday (kick-off 3pm) and Porter was eager to recognise the significant part that the back line of Marc-Anthony Okoye, Josh Hill, Jon Muleba and Ricky Garbriel as well as McDonald had played in their success.

He said: “It was an unbelievable effort from the boys, especially after having played extra-time on the Wednesday at Hemel Hempstead.

“I thought we started alright, but they created a few chances and Nathan (McDonald) pulled off two or three excellent saves to keep us in it in the first half.

“We came out more focused for the second half, though, and I thought we were the better side.

“We completely dominated.

“They had a few half-chances, but we had several really good chances and Billy got the goal.

“Once that went in, I was confident we would go on and finish the job off because the defence was superb again.

“I thought it was one of Marc Okoye’s best games and Jon (Muleba) was excellent as well, as were Josh Hill and Ricky (Gabriel).

“And Nathan (McDonald) was different class.

“It was another clean sheet and that’s testament to those guys.

“We have a doubt over Ricky as he got a knock at Dartford, but we’ll look after him this week and hopefully he’ll be OK.

“They have been superb as a defensive unit."

Braintree beat Hampton and Richmond Borough 2-1 at home in August and Sunday will see them return to a ground where they sealed a 1-1 draw less than two months ago.

Braintree played an hour of that game at the Beavers with ten men and ended with nine after the dismissals of Billy Crook and Luke Allen and Porter hopes their fans can cheer them on to success when they return this weekend.

He added: “We played Hampton quite recently at their place this season and had a good game despite being down to ten men after Billy got sent off.

“I thought we held our own then and we’ll be quite confident that we can go back looking for the win.

“We definitely feel we owe them one and I’m sure we’ll take more fans there.

“They were brilliant at Dartford and I think we had even more than we had at Hemel.

“Hopefully they enjoyed it."