BRAINTREE Town manager Ryan Maxwell was left bitterly disappointed after his side lost 1-0 at Welling United, writes DAVID WARD.

How the Iron lost this encounter at Park View Road will remain a slight mystery even to the harden home fans in the 533 crowd.

Welling were pulverised and overrun for practically all the game by an attack minded Iron but yet again the failure to take just one of the many goalscoring chances they created meant it again ended in defeat.

This was overall a much-improved Braintree display, with all the players showing far more grit and determination from the first whistle.

But it is that recurring problem of not having a quick, sharper-shooter in the opposing area to make the most of the chances they created and although the home goalmouth led a charmed life at times, it is goals that win matches.

Maxwell said: "I can't believe we didn't win the game because there was only one side in throughout the afternoon.

"We dominated right throughout and showed great attacking football and in the second half we practically kept them in their own half and created chance after chance.

"It was such a one-sided game in that second half and I will never know why we didn't win and come home with all three points."

The home manager, recently appointed and the very experienced Peter Taylor, also admitted after the game that his side were under the cosh in the second half.

Taylor said: "We found it hard to cope with the balls into out box but credit to the boys they stuck at it and with a bit of luck at times we held on for all three points and I'm really pleased.

"The visitors definitely made it hard for us and you always know that in a game like that once they get back into the game then it's really hard to hold on but we did so and I'm proud because it's two wins on the trot to help us get away from the relegation area."

Braintree should have been a couple of goals up within the first 20 minutes but chances from Correy Davidson, Fem Akinwande and Alfie Payne either went straight to the home keeper or well over the bar.

The Iron were of course soon to pay for these misses when on 26 minutes, much against the run of play, it was Davidson who gave the ball away unnecessarily just in his own half allowing Ade Skokunbi to skip through the Iron defence to poke the ball past keeper Billy Johnson.

It was a dreadful goal to give away when the Iron should have been in the lead but to the players' credit, unlike in previous matches when going a goal down, they immediately came back strongly forcing panic in the home rearguard and with a proven goal scorer in the side they would surely have equalised quickly as further chances went astray.

At half-time any neutral watching would have also wondered how the Iron went in for the break a goal down after all their dominance.

The second half was an even more dominant performance from Braintree who for long periods pinned the home side deep into their half but again but despite the goalmouth scrambles the ball just wouldn't go in the net.

At any level of football a side always needs a little bit of luck but on this day that even eluded the Iron completely as they continued to press hard for what would have been a deserved equaliser yet it never came.

The succession of long throw-ins from Matt Johnson always caused mayhem in the home goalmouth and all it needed was someone to get a foot on the ball bouncing around and prod it into the net.

With the home side clinging on to their slender lead the time wasting tactics went unpunished by referee Steven Hughes while home keeper Jack Sims kept persistently kicking the ball upfield from outside his own area but again no action was taken from the officials.

As frustration amongst the Iron players grew with referee Hughes only too keen to flash yellow cards on incidents that certainly didn't warrant the longer the game went on, the less likely Iron would find that equaliser.

Had they found the net once it would have more than likely seen the Iron go on to win the game which they fully deserved to do.