I suspect Brad Quinton would have woken from his slumbers with a weight off his shoulders on Sunday morning - at least I hope he did.

While leaving his post as Braintree Town manager on Saturday evening would have been the last thing he wanted to do, I'm sure the burden that the job had placed on him in recent weeks was getting heavy and probably rather wearisome.

With the Iron still lodged at the foot of the Vanarama National League table after their defeat by Eastleigh, it's been no secret that the first 15 games of the campaign have been tough for the club.

The damp and dreary weather at Cressing Road rather summed up the mood felt by everyone on Saturday afternoon and while Brad's departure wasn't necessarily on the cards at the final whistle, you can't say it was completely out of the blue.

Chris Kinnear had left his role as manager of Dover, the club just one place above Braintree in the table, in midweek and it was clear that things weren't progressing as Brad, his staff, the players, the club's board or the fans would have wanted.

He was obviously under pressure to start producing points.

Football is after all a results business, but we shouldn't view Brad's time at Braintree through the myopia of the last couple of months.

That would be grossly unfair to him.

His legacy as Braintree's record appearance holder as a player and the glittering career that he enjoyed in Iron colours was always going to remain untainted and we should hold his managerial tenure in a similarly high regard despite the run they have had since returning to the National League.

True things were tough pretty much from the time the last cheers died away at Hampton & Richmond Borough in May, but look at what was achieved in a such a short time.

When Brad was appointed in June 2017, Braintree had just been relegated from the top flight at the end of a rather fractious campaign.

He came in as the fourth manager in little over a year and the boat was rocking - there was the sum total of no first-team regulars from the previous year who had stayed on and people were even talking about the danger of a slip back into the Isthmian League.

In truth, when Brad came in, it looked a tall order.

There wasn't too much to smile about in the summer of 2017.

However, Brad met that challenge in the same way he did tough times as a player - head-on and with a determination that should embed him even more firmly in club folklore.

Brad was given a three-year plan to get the club stabilised and battling for a move back up.

Year one was supposed to be all about consolidating them in the National League South and avoiding a slide into the Bostik League, not pressing at the top of the league for automatic promotion and then going up in a blaze of glory via the play-offs.

It's a measure of the man that he steered the ship to that wonderful harbour, but maybe the move came too quickly.

With hindsight - and isn't that a wonderful commodity to have! - they possibly needed a stately sailing vessel to get through choppy waters rather than a speedboat.

There were players in that squad who could maybe have benefitted from another year or two at step two and the club as a whole would have been better equipped for the move back into non-league football's top flight.

We've seen from how this season has panned out that it has been a big ask.

This year has proved a step too far so far and hopefully things can still be turned around by whoever it is that is handed the task of keeping Braintree up.

Brad and his team have been so close to achieving results so far, but time and again, they have come down on the wrong side of that fine line that lies between success and failure.

Another year or two at the lower level may have got the squad into a more robust state to ensure they were on the other side of the line more often than not, but don't for a second think I'm bemoaning the glory of last year that Brad brought.

I'm sure that not a single Iron supporter would trade in the euphoria of that run of play-off successes at Hemel Hempstead, Dartford and finally an amazing afternoon in the sun at Hampton & Richmond.

Brad's legacy as a boss should be measured by that rather than by the last few weeks - he deserves that and I'm sure Iron fans will hold dear the happy memories that he gave them as both manager and player.

At a difficult time, he quite simply put a smile back on Braintree's face and we thank him for that.