Ninth-placed Altrincham had a very poor afternoon in Essex against a previously goal-shy Braintree,who started the afternoon in twentieth place.

Braintree made the better start with Altrincham surviving a couple of dangerous moments before Barnet loanee Francis headed in Annesley's cross from the right to give the Iron an 18th minute lead. The goal came after Wilson had lost possession in midfield.

Home pressure continued with four corners won by Braintree in a two-minute spell after the half-hour mark, bringing The Iron's tally to seven corners by the 35th minute.

Indeed, Altrincham were fortunate to get to the break just a single goal adrift following a dominant half from Braintree.

Though Alty were more in the game in the second half, their only real chance came when the ball came back off the home post from Fyfield but Linney could not convert from close range.

The final blow came in the last minute when James Jones fouled Davidson-Phipps. The spot-kick by Akinde sent Ross the wrong way (90+2 mins).

So Braintree, with only six goals from 12 previous league fixtures, secured a well deserved victory and were not flattered by the two-goal margin.

SCORERS:

• 18 mins: Jermaine FRANCIS (Braintree Town 1 ALTRINCHAM 0)
• 90(+2) mins: John AKINDE (penalty) (Braintree Town 2 ALTRINCHAM 0)

Altrincham made two enforced changes with Crawford suspended and Cooper injured, whilst Kahrel Reddin dropped to the bench. Into their places came Wilson, Nuttall and new centre-back Teale, a former Fleetwood Town player who had been on loan with Arbroath.

Dropping off the bench were loanees Bickerstaff and Humbles, (as well as the promoted Eddy Jones), whilst Joel Bailey, Owen German and the demoted Reddin replaced them.

German was eligible in the National League despite being red-carded in midweek in the Cheshire Senior Cup but there was no involvement for Haygarth despite his midweek appearance in that CSC match.

Braintree made a single change to their starters as Effiong replaced Powell whilst on the bench new signings Kelly and Davidson-Phipps came into contention.

ALTRINCHAM (Aquamarine shirts and socks, white shorts): 1. Ethan ROSS, 2. Lewis BANKS, 6. James JONES (c), 23. Tylor GOLDEN, 19. George WILSON, 6. Elliot OSBORNE, 11. Justin AMALUZOR, 10. Alex NEWBY, 9. Regan LINNEY, 24. Joe NUTTALL, Subs: 3. Eddy JONES, 7. Oliver CRANKSHAW, 14. Matty KOSYLO, 18. Owen GERMAN, 20. Kahrel REDDIN, 25. Joel BAILEY 30. Harvey RANDLE (gk)

BRAINTREE TOWN (Orange shirts and socks, blue shorts) 33. Lucas Covolan, 4. George Langston (c), 12. Jamal Fyfield, 5. Louie Annesley, 15. Frankie Terry, 6. James Vennings, 8. Marley Marshall-Miranda, 18. Matt Robinson, 23. Finley Wilkinson, 22. Jermaine Francis, 9. Inih Effiong. Subs: 7. Tom Blackwell, 11. Chay Cooper, 14. John Akinde, 17. Paris Lock, 24. Conor Kelly, 25. Rio Davidson-Phipps.

Altrincham renewed acquaintance this afternoon with Braintree Town, having lost on their two previous visits. Although The Iron only returned to the National League this season, this was Braintree's eighth season at National League level.

They first reached the national level for 2011-12 season and, subsequently, they enjoyed five top-14 finishes before being relegated in 2017 when finishing 22nd of the 24 teams.

Having finished sixth in the South division the following season, they were promoted through the play-offs, only to go straight down again after a single season in the National League. They almost suffered a double relegation when lying second bottom in the South in 2020 at the point that Covid curtailed the campaign.

But by 2024 they had finished fifth and were promoted back to the National League, again through the play-offs.

So they have only faced Altrincham twice previously. Strangely both previous visits to Braintree were for the final match of the respective season.

On 25 April 2015 Braintree Town won 4-2 and on 30 April 2016, they triumphed 3-0 as Alty's relegation was confirmed.

Back on a grass surface after their recent visit to Tamworth's artifical pitch, Altrincham were playing their third match at Cressing Road, following two defeats on their previous visits.

On a pleasant afternoon in front of an unsegregated crowd of just 726 spectators, The Iron had the better of the opening stages. Indeed, a second-minute freekick conceded by Nuttall caused problems to the Alty backline before James Jones just managed to clear the ball as Effiong threatened.

Next, a Francis cross earned the hosts the game's first corner (4 mins) and debutant centre-back Teale was obliged to concede a second corner just two minutes later. Alty did then put together a decent move but were undone when Linney was flagged offside.

As Wilson changed his boots Altrincham remained on the back foot, before Braintree gained their third corner (14 mins).

Soon afterwards, Wilson lost possession, leading to Annesley's cross which was met by Francis's header into the net to give his side the lead (18 mins). It was only the sevenh goal scored by the hosts in this, their thirteenth game and came after three successive blank scoresheets for the hosts at Cressing Road.

For the next ten minutes neither side created much before a promising Altrincham move saw Newby feed Nuttall whose airkick was induced by the close attention of Fyfield (27 mins).

Things briefly improved for Altrincham as Banks shot at goal, evading Fyfield in the process, but his effort ran comfortably to Covolan (28 mins).

After a stoppage for treatment to an Osborne shoulder injury (30 mins), Braintree proceeded to earn four corners in a three minute spell (32-35 mins).

From the first of these, taken by Vennings, Alty were indebted to the recovered Osborne as his leg stopped the ball entering the net.

Next, after a Teale header had fallen to Annesley, Francis won the second of this sequence of flag-kicks off Linney. Two more home corners soon followed before some respite arrived when Miranda was booked for a foul on Nuttall (36 mins).

The respite was brief and the one-way traffic towards the Alty end produced corner number eight for The Iron (41 mins).

Just before the interval, a rare Altrincham passing move ended in a foul by Golden (44 mins). Three added minutes drew to a close as Effiong won the hosts' ninth corner of the half. Altrincham had not won any, a statistic which underlined the Iron's dominance of the first half.

In fact, Altrincham supporters were relieved that the margin of the lead for Braintree was just a single goal.

When the second half started, Wilson had again changed his footwear and, coincidentally, his side made a better start than in the first half. An early penalty appeal by Linney went unheard (46 mins) but, although play was more even than had been the case earlier, the home keeper was not incommoded.

Fyfield, for Braintree and then Golden, for Altrincham were booked (55 mins) before the hour-mark when Mirsnda's cross went to Ross as goalmouth incident was notably absent from the match.

Altrincham made their first change in the 62nd minute when Nuttall, who has yet to score for Alty, was hauled off in favour of Crankshaw (62 mins).

Next, an Alty freekick was diverted by the veteran Fyfield onto his keeper's goalpost. The ball rebounded to Linney who was caught unprepared and he managed to put the ball wide from close range (63 mins).

At the other end a Miranda effort caused Ross no problem in collecting the ball before John Akinde, previously a scourge of Altrincham in a 5-0 defeat at Barnet almost a decade ago, came on to replace Effiong. At the same time, new signing Davidson-Phipps came on for Miranda (69 mins).

Two minutes later Alty likewise made a double substitution with Kosylo and Eddy Jones displacing Newby and Golden respectively (71 mins).

Braintree may have been less expansive than they had been in the first half but they were untroubled by any prospect of an Altrincham comeback. However, they did now have the combative Akinde booked for a foul (73 mins) and, a minute later, one of the home staff in the technical area was shown a red card (74 mins).

The Iron made a further change when Blackwell replaced Wilkinson (76 mins), followed straightaway by Reddin replacing an uncharacteristically quiet Amaluzor for Altrincham (77 mins).

In the next ten minutes the best that Altrincham could muster was a Reddin shot which was well wide of the target (85 mins).

As time ticked away Crankshaw was booked, apparently for dissent (88 mins) and, a minute later, Altrincham belatedly earned their first corner of the afternoon. But a minute later play had switched to the end where James Jones brought down debutant Davidson-Phipps (90 mins).

Substitute Akinde sent Ross the wrong way from the spot to double his side's lead and give a more realistic appearance to the hosts' superiority (90+2 mins).

Some five more minutes produced nothing better for Alty than a Wilson shot which ran to Covolan and a very late second corner in the seventh added minute.

So concluded a very disappointing afternoon for Altrincham who dropped to eleventh in the National League table ahead of an FA Cup visit from Solihull Moors in seven days' time.