EAST Thurrock United manager John Coventry was left ruing the fact that his team didn’t have the resources to repel Braintree Town’s charge once their initial game plan didn’t work against the Iron.

The Rocks boss said injuries and suspensions had left his squad looking threadbare, with six players unavailable last weekend, and while he was pleased with how his team faced up against Braintree in the early part of the Vanarama National League South game, Coventry admitted that their plan “only worked to a point”.

Coventry said: “We have been frustrated for the past few weeks because we are struggling to put a side out at times.

“But I’m not making excuses; that’s the way it is and we had a game plan to come to Braintree.

“We knew that they are a good side and what they are good at; I’d like to think that, looking back, the game plan worked to a point.

“We allowed them to have the ball in certain areas as we felt the pitch was heavy and wouldn’t help their passing game.

“It would perhaps give us the ball at times to create opportunities and that’s the way it panned out.

“I think you’ll find that before they scored, we had five good opportunities.

“So we had a game plan and it was sort of working but didn’t really come off and we needed a plan B after we conceded, but we don’t have a plan B at the moment as we don’t have the personnel to do that.

“Then the confidence came in them and you saw that they are a good side.

“I’m not taking anything away from them and when you go to places and play against sides as good as that, you have to have a plan and hope it works, but it only worked to a point.”