BRAINTREE Town suffered a Boxing Day derby defeat after losing 2-0 at Chelmsford City, writes DAVID WARD.

Until the Iron can find a striker who can score goals then they will struggle to win matches in National League South, which was all too evident at Melbourne Stadium where the home side deservedly ran out winners.

After a dreadful first half where in reality Braintree were not at the races, they bucked their ideas up after the interval.

The hosts at times could not deal with Iron's excellent approach work but when the ball reached the Chelmsford area it all fizzled out, much to the frustration of the away fans in the 1,178 crowd.

For Iron fans, these two derby games against their arch-rivals are always so important.

But this latest encounter doesn't resonate in the same manner with the players and the overall Braintree first-half performance was shoddy, to say the least.

City's more direct route to goal with the long ball for their forwards to chase it paid dividends, while for all the Iron's pretty approach work it all to frequently ended in needlessly either giving the ball away or simply being outmuscled all over the park by a physically stronger and more determined home side.

This was typified in only the third minute when a quick ball down the home right wing, with Iron players claiming it gone out for their throw-in, was immediately floated into the Iron area where the unmarked Tom Blackwell headed home.

The Iron continued to huff and puff but with no real conviction with that final ball into the home danger area and on the rare occasions they did City keeper Ovie Ejeheri pulled off smart saves to keep his side in the lead at the break.

In fairness the Iron did improve considerably in the second and the more the half wore on they created several good, potential scoring chances with the home rearguard struggling to keep them at bay.

The nearest they came to an equaliser was in the 61st minute when Matt Rush skipped clear into the area only so see his low shot somehow kept by the fingertips of Ejeheri.

And ten minutes later, Braintree were denied a blatant handball by a CIty defender in the penalty box, but incredibly neither referee Robert Claussen or his assistant responded correctly.

But the Iron failed to capitalise when they were getting on top in that second half.

And with everyone pushing forward referee Claussen awarded Chelmsford a penalty on 77 minutes for an innocuous challenge and ex-Iron winger Reece Grant duly dispatched the spot-kick past Iron keeper Jack Sims.

On this showing the Iron will need to up their game considerably in the return match next week if they overcome their nearest rivals and even matters up this season.

Next up for the Iron is a rearranged home league game this Thursday against Chippenham Town, note the kick if at 3pm and not in the evening.