IF anyone had told a Braintree Town supporter in August that the team would spend the first half of the season challenging for a place in the play-off places, it would probably have been suggested that they believed in porcine aviation, writes RON FOSKER.

After all, the team had spent the last three years fighting against relegation from the National League South, saved twice by Covid and last season by the skin of their teeth.

Manager Ryan Maxwell had done just enough to steer them clear of the trapdoor but parted company with the club in the close season to be replaced by Angelo Harrop.

A replacement from a club two divisions below Braintree? And not even a manager but an assistant manager? It didn’t augur well.

Nor did it start too well, with a defeat at Dulwich Hamlet. But a draw at home to Havant and Waterlooville, eighth the previous year, gave cause for optimism, and looks even better in retrospect with the Hawks currently very much in the race for automatic promotion.

That was followed by a win over Hemel Hempstead and then, following a reverse at Bath City, three successive wins which took them up to fifth place.

This was not what had been expected and although there has been an element of tailing off since, Iron still start the year within striking distance of the play-off places with matches in hand over some of the clubs above.

An approach that has characterised their better performances has been an all-out intensity, pressing the opposition at every opportunity and moving both ball and man quickly around the pitch.

This was particularly evident in their last home match when they were unlucky not to take three points from Chelmsford.

Against that has been a tendency to underestimate the opposition, or at least not to give of their best when faced with a team of lower standing, notably the defeat against bottom team Weymouth and the lacklustre efforts against Heybridge Swifts, two divisions lower, where they gained an FA Cup replay away from home only with a goal five minutes from time, before scraping an undistinguished 2-1 victory at home.

Iron’s problems recently have been finding the back of the net. Before the 2-2 draw with Chelmsford on January 1, they had failed to score in four of their previous six league matches.

Part of that was down to an injury to Lamar Reynolds, who showed how it should be done with an outstanding long-range strike in that match, almost a carbon copy of the one he had scored at Concord in September.

He has certainly looked a better bet upfront than Levi Amantchi, who was snapped up by Brackley shortly after Iron had knocked them out of the FA Trophy, a milestone in itself as the Northamptonshire club had got the better of them in cup competitions three times in the last 16 years.

In addition to Reynolds’ potency, Iron have always functioned better when Matt Rush and Aaron Blair have been fit and flourishing.

Epitomes of the strong pressing game that Harrop has tried to instil in the side, it is vital that they remain free of injury and keep up the standard they have set themselves so far.

Others have contributed as well. Alfie Payne is a far better player than was evident last season now that he had found a role just in front of the back five, Bermuda international Willie Clemons has shown speed and willingness - and a prodigious leaping ability - in the wing-back role, Kyran Clements, one of the few players remaining from the previous season, has continued to progress in the centre back role as well as popping up with some vital goals at the other end, and captain John White, the former Southend United favourite, has shown with his cool head and organising ability why Harrop was keen to sign him.

The signs for 2023 are hopeful. Unless there is a dramatic falling-off, a fifth successive relegation battle – one in the premier division and the last three in the National League South - should be avoided. The play-offs are still in reach, though whether a promotion would be a good thing is another question given that it was the last promotion, in 2018, that led to the four relegation battles.

And the game, and especially the division, is nothing if not unpredictable.

Not only have Braintree jumped from 17th last season to ninth entering 2023, the other four teams in the last six, not including Billericay, who went down, have all improved their fortunes, Tonbridge from 16th to 10th, Bath from 18th to 11th, Chelmsford, from 19th to fourth and Welling from 20th to 12th.

It is all to play for. Iron are unbeaten at home. They have a young and largely inexperienced team who should improve and strengthen their cohesion as time passes.

After the travails of the past few years, anywhere in the top half should be considered a triumph. They only have to continue as they have been to achieve that.