Manager Danny Cowley feels playing just one Vanarama National League game in almost 50 days is a “crisis” for Braintree Town that could stop them achieving what he knows they are capable of this season.

With an FA Trophy second round tie against Stourbridge at home on Saturday and Tuesday’s Essex Senior Cup fourth round game at Tilbury to come this week, the next time the Iron play a league game will be at Forest Green Rovers on January 23.

That will be 49 days after their 2-1 win at Tranmere Rovers, with their only intervening league action being a 1-0 defeat at Boreham Wood on Boxing Day.

While a call-off of their game at Torquay United last weekend didn’t help their fixture backlog, the main contributor to the Iron’s problem has been the Avanti Stadium pitch, with Tuesday’s game against kidderminster Harriers being the latest to be postponed.

Losing game after game has left Cowley having to constantly lift his players’ morale and he has branded the situation as a crisis as he feels it is derailing what they could achieve in the league this season.

He said: “No matter how you dress it up, we are at a point where it is a crisis – we’ve had one league game since December the fifth."

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