Braintree Town beat Weymouth in National League South

A thoroughly professional second-half performance ensured the Iron claimed a deserved win at the Bob Lucas Stadium, extending their unbeaten run to 13 matches.

Baris Altintop played a true captain's role by scoring the only goal of the game in the 76th minute with a tremendous close-range header from substitute Jayden Davis's well-taken free-kick.

It was no more than the Iron deserved because they dominated the second half, creating several good chances.

The only surprise was that they did not win by a much bigger margin.

Altintop said: "I knew if I could time my run and get in the penalty box I could possibly head the ball into the net and thankfully it all worked perfectly from the free-kick.

"I think over the whole game we certainly deserved to win and we knew it would be a hard game and all the lads again worked tirelessly to make it happen.

"We prepared properly coming down the previous night and staying together as a unit and we had a good pre-match briefing in the morning at our hotel so everyone knew what their job was and the game plan."

Iron manager Angelo Harrop said: "We knew coming to this ground was always going to be a tough one for us but we fully prepared and I think our second half performance was outstanding.

"We had to be patient, keep our concentration from the first whistle and stick to our game plan.

"I always thought we would score and although the goal game late on I felt we were in command and could have scored more.

"At the end of the day it's down to the players and they all deserve much credit for their performance because to come here and all put in a great shift was tremendous and again what great vocal support we had from fans who made the long journey down here."

Weymouth rarely threatened while at the other end, Braintree created far more goalscoring chances with Harrop making just two changes from the midweek win over Dartford - Leon Davies and Alfie Payne starting replacing Lewis Miccio and Reggie Lambe, both relegated to the bench.

After a somewhat subdued first half, the Iron were far more progressive going forward after half-time.

Lambe and then Jayden Davis increased their momentum after coming on, causing all kinds of problems for the home rearguard.

Two fine second-half headers too from Joe Grimwood almost broke the deadlock but it was skipper Altintop who led by example and headed in that crucial goal.

Three more Braintree efforts were scrambled away by grateful home defenders late on but the one goal was enough to secure the points.