Danny Cowley was full of praise for his Braintree Town players as they passed another Vanarama National League test “with flying colours”.

The Iron manager was delighted to see his team keep a 15th clean sheet of the season and it is now seven games since they conceded a goal at home in the league after their 1-0 win against Welling United.

However, they had to do it the hard way this time.

After Dan Sparkes had given the hosts the lead in the ninth minute, the sending off of Sean Marks meant almost an hour of the game was played with ten men, but there was a resolute defensive display that left Cowley feeling very contented.

He said: “It was a fantastic win as lot of the variables went against and to come out with a 1-0 win was very good.

“We went down to ten men in that first half and I thought the players were fantastic.

“The effort and the commitment that they showed was excellent.

“If you want to become a successful team, you have to overcome many trials and tribulations as the season unfolds and I thought we passed the test with flying colours.

“We were pleased with how we started as we had energy and intensity and that’s credit to the players as we’ve had five or six games in a short space of time.

“The last two of them had been on a heavy pitch so their fitness levels were excellent to deal with that.”