Danny Cowley insists Braintree Town will be wholly focused on their trip to FC Halifax Town tomorrow and nothing will be held back for their ongoing FA Cup adventure.

The Iron continue to struggle against a tide of injuries to key players, including a broken foot for centre-half Mark Phillips, and a fatiguing run of action and have a testing FA Cup first round replay to come at League Two side Oxford United on Tuesday.

Ahead of that will come a trip to the Vanarama National League’s bottom club, Halifax, and Cowley may have been forgiven for resting players if he could, but he said nothing would be spared as they go looking for a sixth away win of the campaign.

He said: “There’s no way that we’ll have an eye on the Oxford game – our full focus is on Halifax and all energies will be going into that game.

“We can’t do it any other way to be honest “We couldn’t hold people back even if we wanted to, but the league is the most important thing to us and getting to 50 points is still the primary target.

“We set a target of 40 points by Christmas and we’re on 33 now so we’re on the way to achieving that.”

However, there are a number of injury concerns after Braintree’s 1-1 draw with Woking in midweek.

Mark Phillips has been playing with a broken foot since October 10, after fracturing a metatarsal bone in the Iron’s game against Grimsby, and Cowley admitted that it had finally caught up with the former Southend United defender.

He has played three games since then, but a further knock on his foot in the FA Cup tie against Oxford United last weekend meant Phillips was sidelined at Woking and may be absent for the trip to Halifax.

Simeon Akinola is also likely to miss out as he continues his comeback from a hamstring problem as Cowley felt it would still be five to ten days before he was ready to return.

Others requiring fitness tests ahead of the game at the Shaymen will include Anthony Edgar, Simeon Akinola, Kenny Davis and Dan Sparkes, who were all absent in midweek, while striker Michael Cheek has been struggling with a swollen knee.

“The positive is that none of the injuries we have in the squad are long-term ones,” added Cowley.

“Sometimes you get caught in a vicious cycle when you have a small squad like we do as you have to play people when you don’t want to.

“They play through niggles because the squad is small and that can lead to injuries.

“We’ve had to rush people back to play when they aren’t fit, but at least none of them are long-term injuries and we’re hoping that one or two will pull through in time for the trip to Halifax.”