BRAINTREE Town chairman Lee Harding said it made him feel proud how the club's players had responded to a turbulent week with one of their best performances of the season.

Having seen manager Glen Driver depart just over 48 hours earlier, the Iron players gathered themselves and put in a fantastic display as they won 3-0 at a Hemel Hempstead side who were sitting fourth in the Vanarama National League South table.

Goals from the returning Jason Banton, Ade Cole and Jack James fired the Iron to a memorable success that lifted them back into the play-off positions ahead of a trip to Welling United on Saturday.

And Harding was left feeling proud of how they had risen to the challenge of a difficult situation.

He said: “We were placed in a situation and after I spoke to the players on Thursday, from my point of view, I could see that we are not broken.

“We don’t need wholesale changes as we have good players here.

“I said to them, if we all dig in then we might just get a point at Hemel Hempstead and they went out and did considerably more than that.

“We have some good players here and that showed.

“Jake (Hutchings) and Josh (Urquhart) very kindly volunteered to help out straight away, which was brilliant to see and they got us very organised and motivated.

“I was very proud of our players because they represented themselves and our club very well.

“They were very professional and it was nice to see lads playing with a panache and with smiles on their faces.”

Meanwhile, Harding confirmed that forward Adam Mills had left the club and it has also been announced that, just four days after exiting their posts at Braintree, Driver and assistant boss Tony Kinsella are the new management team at their former club - BetVictor Souther League premier central division side Leiston.

Elsewhere, the Iron have been handed a home draw against Yate Town in the third qualifying round of the FA Trophy.

The tie will be played at Cressing Road on Saturday, November 23 at 3pm.