Day 271

I offered veteran defender Rui Marques a one-year extension to his contract. He’s been crucial to our success this season, and at 34 years of age has yet to show signs of slowing down.

I made two changes to the side that beat Bath midweek. Mark Halstead came in between the sticks to replace the departed Elvijs Putnins—whose loan contract expired yesterday—and John Nutter returned to the starting lineup after left-back Alex Billington failed a fitness test—the youngster took a heavy knock in the last match, and it’s taking a few extra days for him to get his wind back.

We started brightly, with early shots from Koroma and Laurant. But Braintree snuck ahead in the 8th minute, thanks to an excellent direct free kick from Braintree midfielder Luke Denson.

My players gritted their teeth and got on with the show. An equaliser finally came in the 32nd minute when Olembé, Woods, and Barnes-Homer played an excellent triangle move to get the striker in behind Braintree’s defence. Barnes-Homer’s deft finish silenced the previously-excited home fans.

Koroma should have put us ahead five minutes later, but he struck a gild-edged chance wide of the goal. A clever chip followed in the 41st minute, which went just wide of the post. He looked hungry for a goal.

A spot of bad luck prevented Rui Marques from scoring from a corner in the 50th minute. His powerful header beat everything but the crossbar. Goalscorer Luke Denson went off injured after 56 minutes, his contribution made in style. And still we fought for the lead.

It finally came in the 78th minute when Koroma exposed Braintree’s lack of pace at the back with a counter-attacking run from the halfway line. He cut the ball back from the byline, where Barnes-Homer slid in to grab his second goal of the game and 25th of the season.

Braintree threw men forward in search of an equaliser. This left extra holes in their defence, and we twice should have sealed the victory with incisive break-aways that fizzled out at the final third.

I ruffled a few feathers at the full-time team talk, telling the boys that their victory was “a bit of a let-off.” Most of them were fired-up, but a few—including Barnes-Homer—took an angrier tack. Club captain John Nutter was the most upset—fitting, given his name—so I took him aside for a chat and calmed him down.

High-fliers Wrexham and Gateshead did themselves no favours dropping points against inferior opposition. Wrexham lost their match, leaving their hopes of second place under threat, while Gateshead’s three-all draw ruined their opportunity to put pressure on Mansfield for that very spot.

We passed a pretty exciting milestone, though. With four matches left to play, we’ve scored 101 goals in the league this season. That’s 2.4 goals a game. Not half bad, if you ask me.