BRAINTREE Town were desperately unlucky to lose 1-0 at Maidstone United in National League South, writes DAVID WARD.

The Iron produced a tremendous performance where for long periods of the game they were clearly the better side, at the Gallagher Stadium.

They more than held their own for most of the 90 minutes against a full-time outfit joint top of the table.

And had they taken just one of their second-half chances, they could well have come away with all three points.

Braintree boss Ryan Maxwell said: "It was another great performance from all the players and I felt with the percentage of play we had we were more than well worth a point.

"We again looked solid at the back and everytime we went forward we looked like scoring.

"As everyone knows the difference between winning and losing is a very fine margin and on the night I felt we fully deserved at least a point from the game.

"We never looked like conceding a goal again thanks to some excellent defensive work and all the players fought for every ball, forwards chased back to help out and had we taken the chances that came our way, particularly in the second half, we would have won the game."

In a thrilling end to end encounter watched by a crowd of 2,022, the crucial winning goal came with just seven minutes to go.

A long ball upfield out to the home side's left wing saw the busy winger Luque do brilliantly to bring the ball down, cut inside and from the far edge of the area drove the ball low and hard to the far corner.

Despite this late setback, the Iron never sat back and in the final minutes twice almost snatched an equaliser.

Earlier in the second half the Iron's Gianne Crichlow, who was outstanding, twice jinked his way through on goal only to be foiled by last-ditch tackles.

Twice too Dejon Noel-Willams went so close with a header and then a direct shot as did Jean-Baptiste Fischer.

And in a fairly even first half, the busy Crichlow caused problems for the home defence only to see his crosses wasted by his colleagues.

So despite their heroic display, the Iron came away empty handed, a disappointing outcome for the small band of fans who had made the trip.

Next up for the Iron is a crucial match at Tonbridge Angels on Saturday which many fans will regard as a six-pointer, hoping the side will this time come away with all three points.