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LEAGUE PREVIEW: Braintree Town

This article is part of the ‘League Preview’ series, in which every day we take a detailed look at one of Aldershot Town’s 23 prospective opponents for the upcoming National League season. 

Today’s focus is a club looking to build upon their respectable first season back at the summit of non-league, 2023/24 National League South play-off champions, Braintree Town.

Founded in 1898, ‘the Iron’, nicknamed as such due to the club’s origins as a team of local steel-framed window company workers, have a proud history that serves as a pillar for the working-class routes that made the English game what it is today. 

An unforgettable play-off campaign in 2024 required Braintree to be on the correct side of THREE periods of extra-time, including a dramatic 3-2 victory away at local rivals, Chelmsford City.

After a difficult start to the season last time out, the club were successfully steered to safety by 64-year-old manager Steve Pitt, who, having joined the side in the relegation zone in December last year, led them to an eventual 17th place finish in last season’s National League.  

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Where is Braintree?

The town of Braintree, home to roughly 43,000 inhabitants, is the 10th largest settlement in Essex, located in the very heart of the county. Approximately 102 miles from the EBB Stadium, the 2h 03m journey will mark Aldershot’s 11th closest away trip of the upcoming league season. 

The Iron are one of four professional teams in Essex, alongside League Two Colchester United, National League peers Southend United, and National League South heavyweights Chelmsford City. Due to more regular meetings and a closer proximity (13 miles), it is the latter of the three that may stake most claim to being Braintree’s arch-rivals. 

The side currently serve as the closest place to watch fifth-tier football or higher for, amongst others, the towns of Sudbury (~22,000 pop.), Witham (25,000), and perhaps controversially given the above, Chelmsford (110,507). 

Braintree Town play at the Rare Breed Meat Co. Stadium, alternatively known as Cressing Road. The 4,222 capacity ground has been the club’s home for over a century, beginning their tenancy as far back as September 1923. The ground saw its record home attendance achieved in 1952, as a crowd of 4,000 watched Tottenham Hotspur emerge 8-1 victors in a pre-season friendly. 

Braintree finished 2024/25 with an average league attendance of 1,147, the lowest in the division that campaign, and third-lowest among clubs currently competing in this year’s competition.

 

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Recent history and club highlights

With two relegations and promotions a piece in the past decade, Braintree Town may accurately be defined as something of a yo-yo club in modern National League memory.

 

2024/25 – National League (17th) 

2023/24 – NL South (5th, Promoted via play-offs) 

2022/23 – NL South (7th) 

2021/22 – NL South (17th) 

2020/21 – NL South (N/A)

2019/20 – NL South (21st) 

2018/19 – National League (22nd, relegated) 

2017/18 – NL South (6th, Promoted via play-offs) 

2016/17 – National League (22nd, relegated)

2015/16 – National League (3rd)

 

Their most recent ascendance from the sixth-tier was not one for the faint hearted, as three extra-time winners against Bath, Chelmsford and Worthing saw the Iron promoted from the National League South play-offs against all odds. 

The club’s most impressive league finish came in 2016, as a 35-year-old Danny Cowley announced his managerial potential to the footballing world, leading the side to an unprecedented 3rd place finish in the inaugural season of the newly named National League. The Iron would lose their play-off semi-final to eventual winners Grimsby Town in extra-time heartbreak. Cowley would go on to take fellow fifth-tier side Lincoln City to the heights of League One, while Braintree would find themselves relegated the following campaign.  

 

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Pre-season, incoming transfers and other news

At time of writing, Braintree have made 2 first team signings. 

 

Player Pos. Age Arriving from… Highest level played
Lewis Walker CF 26 Woking Championship (QPR)
Freddie Hockey CF 19 Chelmsford NL South (Chelmsford)

 

The name Lewis Walker will ring familiar to Shots supporters, as the son of Nottingham Forest legend and namesake, Des, scored Woking’s unlikely opener in April’s fateful FA Trophy semi-final victory. The forward scored 11 goals in all competitions last season, including five in the National League.

With 87 National League South appearances already to his name, 19-year-old forward Freddie Hockey will certainly be one to watch this season as he gets his first taste of fifth-tier football.  

Braintree Town’s current pre-season schedule, which includes a home tie against nearby Football League club Colchester United, is as follows:

 

Braintree Town 2-1 Canvey Island (08/07)

Billericay Town 0-2 Braintree Town (12/07)

Braintree Town 0-3 Cambridge United (15/07)

Sudbury 0-3 Braintree Town (19/07)

Enfield Town vs Braintree Town (22/07)

Braintree Town vs Fulham U21 (25/07)

Braintree Town vs Colchester United (29/07)

Worthing vs Braintree Town (02/07)

 

After preparations finish with a visit to the south-coast, the Iron will start their campaign with a home tie against Eastleigh on Saturday, 9th of August. 

 

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When will Aldershot and Braintree Town play each other?

Following the release of the National League fixture list, Aldershot are due to host Braintree Town on Tuesday, 30th September, while Tommy Widdrington’s men will travel the Cressings Road on Wednesday, 25th February.

The sides first met in 1999, where the Shots came out 3-1 home winners against a then-seventh-tier Braintree in the second round of the FA Trophy. With 17 further matchups between then and present-day, it is the club from Hampshire who boast the greater record of the two.

 

Games played: 18

Aldershot wins: 10

Braintree wins: 6

Draws: 2

Aggregate score: 28-19

Record Shots victory: 4-0 (Isthmian Premier, 2002)

Record Boston victory: 3-1 (Football Conference, 2014)

 

Spoils were shared last time out, as a quartet of first half goals from Kyrell Lisbie, James Henry, Josh Barrett and John Akinde saw a January matchup at the EBB Stadium finish 2-2.

With just one place and one point separating the two last term, expect more tightly contested affairs between these two in the upcoming campaign.