STEVE Pitt rued ‘schoolboy’ defending from his Braintree Town side after their narrow 2-1 home defeat to Carlisle United edged them closer to National League relegation, writes BEN MCCARTHY.
The Iron were heading for a point until with 90 seconds of regulation time remaining, they reacted slowly to a Carlisle corner and gave Cameron Harper too much time to place the ball into the bottom left corner of the net, from the edge of the penalty area.
Reagan Linney, the visitors’ top scorer this season, had previously fired them in front just past the half an hour mark, before Lewis Walker’s sharp turn and finish inside the Carlisle six-yard-box drew the Iron level.
But Braintree’s latest defeat leaves them seven points from safety, with five games remaining.
They have just won once in their last 11 league matches and twice in their last 16.
Pitt said: “I’m devastated to be honest. We’ve gone toe-to-toe with them [Carlisle] for the entirety of the game.
"We were certainly on a par with them. Our goal was sublime. The build-up and execution would have graced a higher level and deservedly got us back in the game.
“I feel sorry my players, in one sense, that they worked as hard as they did and didn’t get their rewards. But the winner is schoolboy.
"The ball shouldn’t have been there and wouldn’t have happened in open play; it’s gone through John’s [Akinde] legs and Mason [Terry] is unsighted.”
It means Braintree played five teams that started March inside of the bottom ten this month and failed to register a single victory but Pitt believes that the results have been a harsh reflection on his side.
He added: “The last four games we’ve been really good. It’s been a snapshot of our season.
“Morecambe away, we give away a late penalty; Scunthorpe was a travesty last week, and we’ve been backed by the PGMOL about the penalty decision that lost us the game; we were good for an hour at Brackley and then lost two of our back four, and our shape. And today we went toe-to-toe with Carlisle and were worth a point.”
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