FC Halifax Town dropped points at The Shay for only the sixth time this season, leaving manager Neil Aspin to pay tribute to a resolute Braintree side who, as well as denying the Shaymen an impressive sixth successive win, prevented Town from scoring at home in the league for the first time this season.
After the frustrating stalemate, Aspin told Shaymen Player:
“I’m not going to be like other managers who don’t give the opposition credit because I can’t speak more highly of Braintree. They played well at Gateshead on Saturday, then they travelled up to Southport on Tuesday and I watched them play there and I thought they were excellent. Again, tonight, their work-rate was tremendous.
“I am not going to talk negatively about ourselves, I am going to give Braintree a lot of credit and say they thoroughly deserved what they got. It is full credit to them.
“If you look at the work-rate and when our wide players got the ball, there were always two banks of four. They worked exceptionally hard and they were difficult to break down. That is why we haven’t been able to be as fluent tonight because they put in a tremendous shift.
“Yes, at times, we needed to be better and we needed to pass the ball better but I am not going to complain with the return. If you’d have said, “Four points from Luton and Braintree”, I would have taken it.
“It’s been a tremendous run at home (of scoring in every home league game) and it’s been rare where we haven’t looked like scoring. But certainly tonight, as the game was panning out, you could see that it was probably going to take one goal to win the game.
“We’ve had a good run where we’ve been fluent in scoring goals and now it has come to an end but it’s a good time to start again; we need to get one in the next couple of home games. It’s been a good return and we’re still in there fighting. We’ve got to keep going in every game and give our best.”
Both sides were looking for those vital three points which would have propelled the victors into third position. Aspin, therefore, acknowledged the importance of not losing the encounter with the Iron, as fellow play-off chasers Nuneaton wait in the wings for the Shaymen on Saturday. Aspin revealed:
“You’re always disappointed when you don’t win at home but it was also important not to lose. If they’d have got the three points then it would have really given them a lift going into Saturday and with a game in hand it would have been difficult.
“We have just got to go again. We have got to be positive; we have got a tough game at Nuneaton but we know that all of our fixtures are tough.
“We have now got to raise our levels. It is still all to play for but we can’t be too despondent because we have had a good return from the last six games.”
The full interview with Neil Aspin – including his thoughts on the debut of Scott Spencer and the return of Club Captain Danny Lowe – can be found on Shaymen Player
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