It was a memorable night on Tuesday - maybe not for all the right reasons for Iron fans, but one to remember nonetheless.

A crowd of almost 2,600 for a league game gave the occasion a fitting atmosphere to host the leaders even if the 5-1 scoreline wasn't what Braintree were hoping for.

But how much should we read into the goings-on on the pitch?

In the post-match press call for Brad Quinton, Glenn Speller from BBC Essex made a valid point to the manager that his team's season was never going to be defined by a result against Leyton Orient.

You could see why the O's are enjoying their best-ever start to a season.

They are a full-time outfit who boss Justin Edinburgh has got well-drilled and they were able to punish any Braintree mistakes with a ruthless efficiency.

It's not just Braintree who have felt that; Orient's win against the Iron took their unbeaten run to 13 games and other teams will suffer as Braintree did before the season is out.

It would be easy to dismiss it as a game where it was men against boys - metaphorically speaking - but that would be too simplistic.

While it was another defeat that returned Braintree to the foot of the table I think it's necessary to look beyond the scoreline.

Look more at Braintree's performance and there appear to be continuing green shoots of a recovery.

Are they green shoots, though, or just green coloured straws that I'm clutching at?

Hopefully it's the former as I was genuinely impressed with the Iron for most of the first half.

Yes, it was topped and tailed by mistakes in their own area that Orient were able to exploit and these really should be being cut out by now, but it was going forward that I had most cause for enthusiasm.

When the early penalty went in, I really feared for a collapse in confidence at that point, but it was the opposite that seemed to come out of that adversity.

It had been a bright enough start anyway, but rather than retreat into their shells after conceding and hitting hopeful long balls forward in a way that I feared may happen, they played possibly some of their best football to date this season.

I thought Braintree looked the better team for the greater part of that first half and while Lyle Della-Verde's goal was a bit scrappy, it was the least he and his team-mates deserved.

The running and movement up front was what particularly impressed me as a team as good as Orient placed firmly on the back foot.

The leaders looked rattled at times and the sizeable Orient contingent down at the Quag End went noticeably quieter.

Predictably, their team regained their composure, though, and we all know how it finished as mistakes got punished.

It was the second goal rather than the third that killed the game for me as I knew that Braintree would find it tough to come from behind a second time, but that spell leading up to Marvin Ekpiteta's strike on 40 minutes was what I'll take away from the game.

I said after the Maidstone defeat - now that was one that REALLY hurt - that Braintree needed to be brave up front and I was enthused to see that they were against Leyton Orient.

That's what they need.

In a comment piece last week, I noted that the next month could be a crucial period for Braintree's season and they have started that with two defeats, but, for my money, they do honestly seem to be progressing rather than going backwards.

But points make prizes and Braintree have precious few on the board so far.

There is a gap starting to appear ahead of them, so they need to take that commitment going forward and turn it into points.

If they could do it against Leyton Orient and have a team as good as them rattled, there's no reason why the National League's lesser lights can't be brushed aside to engineer a move up into calmer waters.