BRAINTREE Town face a replay with Chesham United on Tuesday night for the right to host Maidstone United in the FA Cup first round proper, writes DAVID WARD.
The Iron have only themselves to blame for not winning this cup-tie at the Rare Breed Meat Company Stadium, after playing out a 0-0 draw.
After a dominant first-half display, during which they should have scored at least a couple of goals, they then stuttered and stumbled their way through what was a really poor second half leaving a difficult replay ahead.
The disappointing result for home fans was compounded by a lack of keeping the ball moving on the ground rather than persistently lobbing high balls deep into the visitors' defenders, which was meat and drink to Chesham's tall players.
When Braintree did play wide and on the ground and with pace it created all kinds of problems for their back line and the Iron struck their woodwork twice but again that clinical finishing was missing.
Experienced goalkeeper Zaki Oualah kept Chesham in the game by making two excellent saves in each half, in moments when the Iron look likely to overrun their opponents.
In the end, Chesham could have snatch an undeserved late winner but for the competence of on-loan Norwich City goalkeeper Vicente Reyes, who replaced the injured Jack Sims.
The Iron were also without two regulars - defender Matt Carson and midfielder Reggie Lambe - both having been called up for international duty.
However, they had enough quality and know-how to have overcome a stubborn visiting side but they failed to capitalise on the advantages they had at several periods during the game.
They will certainly need to all buck up their ideas up in the replay and produce a more confident, flowing style to their game than they did in this first encounter.
The visitors had certainly done their homework and the experienced back line knew how to cope with the darting runs of Aaron Blair, Tom Blackwell and Will Davies.
But despite that the Iron should have showed their quality and experience of playing in the National League and really have put this tie to bed at the first attempt.
It's now all over to Buckinghamshire for the replay on Tuesday where the Iron will need to perform much better for all the 90 minutes and not in fits and starts.
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