Enterprise National League, Saturday 7th March
It was a rare National League encounter for me on the first Saturday in March, and it was a return to Cressing Road for the first time in a number of years to watch a very important game down the bottom of the division, fourth bottom Braintree Town taking on Wealdstone side who were only three places above them and six points better off.
The hosts also knew that if they could get the win today they would go level on points with fifth bottom Brackley Town and only be in the bottom four on goal difference after Brackley were beaten 5-3 at Boreham Wood in the early kick off in the day, Wealdstone knew that if they could win they could put nine points between themselves and the relegation places, so either way it was a big game in terms of the shake up down in that area of the division.
The hosts form though since their last win at the end of January against Eastleigh hasn't been great, although not the worst either, if that makes sense, in six games they have won one, against the bottom side Truro City, drawn against Sutton United and Solihull Moors, but they have lost three of their last four including a stoppage time loss at Gateshead in midweek who are also in the bottom four with them.
Wealdstone though have been even worse, in their last six league games since the start of February they have only picked up four points, three of those came in their last home league outing against Brackley Town and they came into this off the back of a home loss to Morecambe who are just below Braintree, they have reached the semi finals of the FA Trophy though so this has certainly boosted the clubs morale in a tough period of results, how this one would go was anyone's guess, it was an important game so who could grab the early advantage?
The Stones actually began the game the better of the two sides, but in the 12th minute Braintree were given a golden chance to get themselves in front when Zavier Massiah-Edwards was brought down inside the box, and John Akinde, who was copping quite a bit of stick off the Wealdstone fans behind that goal due to his ex-Barnet connections, fired home the spot kick to hand Town the lead, against the run of play it has to be said.
However, if the hosts thought this would change the momentum they were to be very disappointed as Wealdstone did not let that set back deter them, and five minutes later were level when Nathan Tshikuna chopped back onto his left foot before firing into the bottom corner, and then nine minutes after that they led when hesitant defending from the home side allowed Micah Obiero to muscle his way past his markers before finishing from close range.
It was a deserved lead for the visitors, and quite frankly they could have been further ahead at half time, Braintree just looked physically and mentally worse than their opponents who were certainly finding their form in this contest, and Town were still suffering a hangover from that long trip to Gateshead and that late late disappointment, but they did manage to get to half time only a goal behind but needing much improvement if they were to get back into the contest.
After the hosts almost gifted Stones a third early in the second period they actually then had their best period of the contest and were finally putting the visitors under some stress in their final third, but Wealdstone kept them at bay and then hit them with a killer third goal with fifteen minutes or so remaining, substitute Sean Adarkwa seeing his effort parried across goal but into the path of Obiero who had the simple task of tapping home in front of his adoring fans behind that goal.
Braintree tried to find a second goal to make the final moments more interesting, and they almost got one when Lewis Walker struck the post after good work down the right, had that have gone in who knows, but in the end Wealdstone were more than worthy of the points and added another goal deep into stoppage time with the last kick of the contest, Junior Tiensia bursting down the left before his ball across goal was slid home by hosts player Matt Dibley-Dias although I thought it was Stones player Dylan Kadji, and I'd rather give it to him than have the own goal, but whoever got the final touch, it mattered not for the visitors who recorded a fine win and a very important win too.
It means Wealdstone are now nine points above the bottom four and up two places to 16th in the table, and only three points off a top ten position, whereas for Braintree they actually slip a place to third bottom now after Morecambe picked up another three points today after a 5-0 win at Sutton, but they still remain three points from safety so in terms of that they are no worse off, but things need to improve sooner rather than later if they are to have a chance of survival.
Full time Braintree Town 1 Wealdstone 4
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