Braintree 0 Altrincham 0

Neil Gibson's first game in charge of Alty ended with an Enterprise National League point on the road at Braintree Town.

The first opportunity of the game fell to the hosts when Chay Cooper took aim from range and smash an effort off Louie Fallon's crossbar after 10 minutes.

Despite that early scare, Alty's young goalkeeper went untested through to half-time, although The Iron's veteran target man John Akinde did blaze over late on in the half, before Tom Crawford's stoppage time header at the other end cleared the Braintree bar after great set up play by Lewis Baines and Jimmy Knowles.

The visitors came out flying in the second half and were unlucky not to take the lead when Kahrel Reddin's rasping drive clipped the top of the Braintree crossbar.

Although the home side gave as good as they got in possession, it was the Robins who continued to create the better chances. Dan Sassi caused panic in The Iron box with a header that somehow debutant goalie Jack Thompson was able to grab.

Then, with the game meandering towards a stalemate, there were two further chances for Alty to snatch a win. Tylor Golden's run and pull back to Olly Crankshaw saw the latter's shot blocked wide for a corner deep in stoppage time.

From the resulting set piece the ball fell invitingly to Charlie Kirk, but the winger's pinpoint curling effort through a crowd of players was blocked by Jacob Pinnington on the goalline before being hurriedly cleared, leaving the spoils shared.

Braintree Thompson; Francis-Clarke, Langston (c), Vennings, Marshall-Miranda, Cooper, Akinde, Pinnington, Kamara (Thorpe, 85'), Terry, Works (Davis, 90'+4). Subs not used: Omrore, Babic, Clayton.

Altrincham Fallon; Baines (c), Cooper, Osborne, Marriott, Gale (Kirk, 64'), Knowles (Crankshaw, 75'), Reddin, Crawford (Ward, 64'), Golden, Sassi. Subs not used: Kosylo, Hinchy, Beddow.

HT 0-0

Goals None | None

Yellows None | Crawford 41', Golden 44', Crankshaw 86'

Reds None | None

Referee Paul Howard

Assistants Colman O'Meara & Chris Myatt

Fourth Official Craig Barnett

Attendance 901 (20 away)

Next Up

The Emirates FA Cup First Round next Saturday against Slough Town, kick-off at Arbour Park is 3pm.

We have an allocation of 600 tickets and Union Golf Road are running supporter coaches to the game - for full details click here.