Braintree Town (Away) 29.01.2025

Shirt : –  Orange with white collar
Shorts : –  Royal Blue
Socks : –  Orange

It was like taking a trip back in time.  No pre-ordering tickets – just turn up and pay cash on the gate, standing on terraces if you wanted it (but a seat was no extra), a playlist from the Noughties (including Chelsea dagger and Hey Boy, Hey Girl) and bog standard football fare of hot dogs and chips.  Plus the bonus of a free programme, albeit an A4 page folded in half, but a generous offering nonetheless that included a lot of Braintree v Spurs history making it more interesting than many an advert packed Premier League programme.

Cressing Road is just a short distance off the Braintree Freeport roundabout and for this match, on-street parking was simple to find a five minute walk from Rare Breeds Meat Co stadium (I fear for the naming rights for the THS to be sold off if this is anything to go by).  A compact little ground off the main road and through a small pot-holed and puddled car park, paying at the turnstile the reduced entrance fee for this match, which probably boosted the attendance.  

I paid a visit to the Club Shop manned by Braintree volunteers and it is always an interesting experience, as usually they are an Aladdin’s Cave of programmes, books, badges and other memorabilia.  An A4 team sheet printed in colour was 20p and although programmes were priced at 30p, the staff let me know that they were free.  Coming out of the shop, Braintree manager Steve Pitt was chatting to some fans and while many National League clubs have boycotted this Cup, he was whole-heartedly committed to the competition.  Barnet, Solihull Moors, Southend and Eastleigh turned down the invitation to take part, with the impact on getting out of the National League, squad size and the lack of interest from fans meaning it would be a loss-making venture to open the stadium for a handful of fans.  Pitt was ambitious to want to win the competition, saying that he felt that they had a real chance and with three wins out of three, he had good grounds for that optimism.  Having beaten the Under-21s of West Ham United London, Nottingham Forest and WBA, The Iron sat at the top of the Group D table while Spurs had to have a four goal swing in their favour from this match and then hope that Sutton beat Forest U21 later in February to have any chance of going further in this competition.  Spurs sat in seventh out of eight places and above WBA, who had also drawn two matches, on gaining two bonus points for winning the penalty shoot-outs in those matches.

Taking my place in the Main Stand having decided to sit to get a slightly elevated view of the game, it was a reminder of how grounds used to be (or in Selhurst Park’s case, still are).  Stanchions interrupting the view of the pitch, the roof over the dozen or so rows of seats and the small area of seat designated for Directors and Staff containing the same blue pieces of plastic the rest of us were sitting on.  The bird’s nest in the rafters showed Braintree’s contribution to ecological diversity.  An Essex Spurs flag was attached to the railings at the back of the delightfully named Quag end as there was a fair smattering of Tottenham supporters were among the 500+ that were in attendance, hoping to see a Spurs win with nary a whisper of a “Levy out” chant.  What could be heard clearly was the two representatives from Ipswich Town sat behind me who were there to watch their keeper Henry Gray on loan at Braintree as well as midfielder Emmanuel Okonuwo and their reminiscences of their own playing days.  

The locals were all talking about the visit of Hartlepool United on Saturday and very few were commenting on the chances in the National League Cup and as the teams entered the pitch, it was obvious that the injury crisis at the top end of Tottenham was having a knock-on effect down the age groups.  So, hoping to see the Under-21s was perhaps a bit hopeful as many would be on the bench for tomorrow’s Europa League match against Elfsborg, meaning that there were some players returning from injury and some promoted from the Under-18s.  Having to rely on a penalty to beat fellow National League strugglers and bottom club Ebbsfleet United 1-0 on Saturday, Pitt had made four changes to that team for this meeting with Spurs Under-21s.  

As I settled down to watch the first half, I cold clearly see that some residents in the Iron View flats on Cressing Road, clearly visible over the Cressing Road Stand, were settling down to watch the second half of EastEnders.  The match got underway with some excitable children away to my left who took the opportunity to abuse Premier League players at every opportunity.  While the Spurs youngsters looked comfortable on the ball, the physical nature of National League football gave the Braintree players an opportunity to exercise their muscle on the Spurs Academy lads.

The watching scouts would not have been impressed with goalkeeper Gray’s mis-placed confidence in trying a Cruyff turn in his penalty area that went wrong when he stumbled over the ball and Jaden Williams pinched it off him, but he hurriedly dug his shot into the ground and wide of the near post as defenders got back goal-side and one got a touch to give Spurs a corner inside two minutes.  It was swung in under the crossbar, but the keeper got a decent punch on the ball.

The home team were looking to use the pace of Lisbie as their main threat, sending balls down the left wing and over the defence for his speed to test the Spurs defenders, who responded well to the challenge, with Archie Chaplin making a block as the winger burst into the box.   Tottenham were hardly fluent in their attacking moves, but the state of the pitch and the determination of the opposition made it difficult for them, but twice Max Robson, looking the most accomplished of the midfield players, got into shooting positions without getting a proper connection on his efforts that were taken down low by Gray.

A long ball forward brought Aaron Maguire out his box to head away, but it only went to ex-Spurs Development squad midfielder Chay Cooper, who tried to find the net form 35 yards out, only for Max McKnight to be covering and head away.  Again, this didn’t totally clear the danger as Lisbie picked up the ball and looked to capitalise, but Maguire had got back and dived at his feet to grab the ball.  The locals raged at the linesman on my side of the pitch for daring to give offside against their players, who weren’t timing their runs very well.  When Lisbie did, Maguire was well out of his box to quickly tackle him.  Iron captain Langston decided to add his disapproval to the linesman’s decisions as he was so well placed to see offside, being 40 yards back in his own half and got a talking to from the ref.

Tyrese Hall was a peripheral figure in the first half of the match as the Braintree players swarmed around him, sensing he could be the danger man and willing to stop him by fair means or foul, but a lot of the forward play broke down around the edge of the box.  The quick break was the key to opening up the scoring for Braintree, when Jermaine Francis broke through on the left and Aaron Maguire did well to block his effort, but the ball was recycled and played to Chay Cooper, who got into the area, turned onto his right foot and finished with a shot wide into the far corner of the net, hitting his shot low under Maguire’s dive.  Francis had taken the ball well, knocking it forward with his chest, with the Spurs players questioning whether the linesman got the onside call correctly.

Lisbie missed a good chance when the ball went all the way across the box from the right and at the fa post he topped his shot into the ground, allowing Maguire to take the ball head high after the bounce had taken off whatever pace there was on the shot.  The Spurs keeper then had to get down quickly to get behind a low Cooper shot from 12 yards out, with Tottenham having their best effort of the half four minutes before half-time when Robson sent Oliver Irow away.  Despite being tugged back by the shirt by Francis-Clarke, he made his way into the box on the right and drilled a low shot across the keeper and narrowly wide of the far post.  

Lisbie put a shot across  Maguire’s goal from the left and when King’s ball infield inside the Braintree half was cut out, Blackwell killed a looping ball forward dead and shaped a pass ahead of him for Cooper inside of the right corner of the box.  Having controlled the ball with one touch, taking it inside Rowswell, he then curled a shot with his left foot out of Maguire’s reach into the far side of the goal.  It was a goal that should have been celebrated, as it was a great piece of skill, but showing respect to Spurs, he kept it low-key.

Spurs made three changes at half-time and looked the more solid for them in general.  Braintree had a couple of chances in the first ten minutes of the second half, with Francis-Clarke putting a volley over the bar form inside the six yard box when a free-kick found him unmarked and then Lisbie tried to guide a volley in from the right of the goal when a ball came in from the right wing, but put it too high.    When Robson was hauled down on the top of the D outside the Braintree box, the ref let play go on and McKnight shifted the ball from right to left foot and flashed a low shot a foot wide of the keeper’s left hand post.   Another chance followed when substitute Leon Myrtaj crossed from the right and it went all the way through the box to the far side, where Tyrese Hall collected the ball and went outside Annesley to drive a left foot shot that Gray blocked with his body and then grabbed before it went off for a corner.

Will Andiyapan’s pass inside the Braintree left back put Irow free and his low ball looked dangerous until cut out at the near post and from a corner shortly after, Archie Chaplin made a run to the near post and turned a volley over the top.  The Iron were still looking to exploit Francis’ pace and a ball over the top sent him away, but again Maguire was quick out to go low and block his shot.  With 15 minutes to go, Archie Chaplin played a ball up to McKnight, who moved the ball left to Logan and he found Hall running into the left side of the box.  He played the ball back to Irow, who was 10 yards out and he side-footed the ball first-time low beating the keeper at his near post.  It was a well worked goal and clinically taken by Oliver, who hadn’t had a lot of supply in the box. 

When substitute Ballogan slipped a ball into the box and Lisbie went down dramatically when he nudged the ball wide left of Maguire dive at his feet, the ref pointed to the spot.  Then came an unedifying episode of who was going to take the spot-kick with the hyper-active Francis trying to grab the ball away from the player who earned the penalty before it was finally settled on Lisbie to put the penalty in, sending Maguire diving to his right while the ball went in on the other side of the goal. 

A crunching tackle by Arganese-McDermott on the halfway line took the ball forward to Irow and he played a pass into the box that only a last-ditch tackle stopped him getting in for a shot.  Logan did well to win the ball in the Braintree half on the left touchline, then playing a ball into the box that sub Leo Black ran onto and bouncing off his body took him in on Gray, who turned away from the ball, but blocked it nonetheless.  A Francis cross from the left side of the area to the far post was collected by Tyrese Hall, close to the dead ball line.   He took the ball past Balogan, who claimed the ball had gone out of play despite the lineman being right on the spot, but Tyrese ran infield past Blackwell before Francis raced thirty yards to pull him around by his arm as he reached the halfway line.  I wasn’t sure what he was trying to achieve, as the game had just gone into added time, but he got a yellow card for his ridiculous foul.

Even more ridiculous was Balogan’s attempt to trick Pele as he moved towards the penalty area that ended with him falling over his own feet much to the hilarity of the crowd.  A minute later Hall had the ball in the net, but Black’s ball in from the right was deemed to have been handled before buried with a powerful shot wide of the keeper, although initially it looked to have been above the short sleeve of Tyrese’s Spurs shirt.   It left Braintree 3-1 winners and with four wins out of four, their amibition looks like it has some grounds, but others might view the competition in the same way.

Returning from injury, James Rowswell was more convincing than Jaden Williams, with the defender looking confident in possession and willing to move forward with the ball, while Williams looked rusty with his first touch letting him down.  Most people probably never believed that they would see Pele at Cressing Road, but Spurs defender Arganese-McDermott looked solid and behind him, Aaron Maguire handled the ball well and was alert to play the sweeper-keeper role and Archie Chaplin did well in the three at the back on the left.  Maeson King was keen to go forward, but also had the presence of mind to cover behind him when Chaplin went beyond him.  Max McKnight did well holding the ball and looking to move things forward, with Robson, having the look of a Niko Kranjcar and playing like a more determined version of Jack Grealish, he had the ball stuck to his feet in possession and was always looking to start attacks.  Hall got more involved in the second half, but often looked disinterested, although when he got on the ball, he looked more like the player who made the first team matchday squad last year.  Irow has a knack for scoring and took his goal very well, working hard to link play as well, as did subs Black and Myrtaj.  Tyrell Ashcroft was okay at right back, but didn’t stand out.

A good experience for the Spurs side playing in men’s football and while the score-line suggests it was straightforward for Braintree, there were enough opportunities for Tottenham to have gained something from this match.  It was nice to watch a match in friendly surroundings as football used to be.

Marco van Hip