BRAINTREE Town moved up to eighth in the National League South table following a 1-0 win at Chippenham Town, writes DAVID WARD.

Successful teams often have to grind out a result to gain a victory even if the football played is not particularly pretty at times which is exactly what the Iron did against the Bluebirds.

Chippenham have become renown as draw specialists and Braintree knew it would be a hard, difficult game.

But another dominant second-half performance saw them win a scrappy affair with a 75th-minute goal.

The killer moment came when the impressive Tom Blackwell's in-swinging corner from the left was met at the far post by Baris Altintop, who scrambled his header over the line.

It was in all honesty no more than the Iron deserved for their impressive second-half performance where Blackwell, Aaron Blair, Alfie Payne and Jayden Davis all went narrowly close to breaking the deadlock.

Braintree and Witham Times:

Braintree manager Angelo Harrop said: "I was just pleased to see it go even if it was not a great piece of football but we'll take it.

"I'm absolutely delighted that we did score, win and keep our current form going because we knew it would be really a tough game here as they are a good, well organised side and play good football.

"I also think it shows that we now have really good players in a much improved squad compared to the start of the season.

"But nobody is getting carried away but as everyone also knows it's a tough league with lot of experienced players and well organised teams but we have showed what we are capable of."

Harrop was praised the noisy support from Iron fans in the 538 crowd.

He said: "It's a long journey for them to come here but again they turn up in numbers and give the players so much vocal support for the whole 90 minutes and it's appreciated by the players and coaching staff."

Next up for the Iron is a home league game against Torquay on Saturday, kick-off 3pm.