Braintree Town

Braintree Town are a team you’d be convinced we’d played many before times during our life as a non-league club. Not so. We somehow managed to keep ourselves apart year after year; meeting just once in a competitive game as of 2020. And that was back a quarter of a century, courtesy of our 3-1 victory in the 1996-7 FA Cup Third Qualifying Round. We did meet in a summer 2020 friendly, however. It was played behind closed doors due the coronavirus thing.

So, we’ll have to wait for a repeat of our 1985-6 Eastern Floodlit League Semi-Final Second Leg. After a 1-1 stalemate at their gaff in the first leg, the second must still rank as one of the highest-scoring games in Boro’ history. Of course, that doesn’t count for much given we were on the wrong end of the scoreline. Despite a brace from Danny Dance and efforts too from Ricky Marshall and Martin Gittings, our hopes of Eastern Floodlit League glory were sunk by the 4-5 reverse.

Braintree Town: The Facts