Braintree Town manager Danny Cowley admitted that there was an element of relief as the January transfer window closed with his Iron squad in tact.

While the Iron boss is keen to see his players take steps forward in their footballing career with possible moves into the Football League, there was still some relief that it had been a quiet month.

However, that isn’t to say that there wasn’t interest shown in members of his team.

Cowley said: “I think there is some relief there.

“You want to see your players better themselves and I’m always proud when one of my players get interest from a bigger club as it shows that what you are doing and what the players are doing is right.

“However, from a selfish point of view, we don’t want to lose people.

“We are still developing as a team and the more time you have together as a group the better it comes together.

“You saw that with our set-piece routines on Saturday (against Chester) and the way that they have improved.

“That is by continual practice and continuity is always important.

“The league has got stronger during the window, though and teams around us all seem to have strengthened.

“We are not in a position to do that, but at least we have kept our group together.

“There was some interest, though, for a number of our players.

“Simeon (Akinola), Sparkesy (Dan Sparkes) and Woody (Alex Woodyard) in particular and Cheeky (Michael Cheek) as well, but there was nothing actually concrete.

“We did have contingencies in place if anyone had gone, but we didn’t have to act ourselves.

“It was actually quite a calm final day on Monday and that was good.”

Braintree are due to face Welling at the Avanti Stadium tonight (kick-off 7.45pm).

Unlike their hosts, though, the Wings were busy in the closing days of the transfer window, with new manager Dean Frost moulding his new squad with five new additions who could all line up against Braintree tonight.

Cowley said he had a couple of injury concerns within his squad, with “two or three” players requiring fitness tests ahead of tonight’s game after niggling injuries picked up while playing on the heavy Avanti Stadium in their last two outings.