Club Background
The origins of football in Braintree go back to the late Nineteenth Century when a works team for a local window company, Manor Works, took over the fixtures of the recently-defunct Braintree FC in the North Essex League. They more closely aligned with the parent company, Crittall Windows, when renamed Crittall Athletic in 1921, playing under that title until 1968. Through this period the club switch back and forth between various leagues: Eastern Counties; Essex County; London; Greater London; Metropolitan.
A foray into the world of semi-professional football in 1954 only led to financial difficulties and an almost immediate drop back to amateur status.
The town’s name reappeared when it became Braintree & Crittall Athletic in 1968; then just Braintree FC when the ties with Crittall Windows was severed in 1981; and finally Braintree Town in 1983. They won the Eastern Counties League (for a second time) in 1984 and the Essex Senior Cup in 1987.
In 1991 the club took the plunge and joined the Southern League South Division. It was relatively competitive at this higher level but travel costs proved an issue and it applied to join the Isthmian League which was initially not keen to accept it. When it eventually did in 1996 the club had to drop two levels and start in Isthmian Division Three. There was immediate promotion after finishing second to Division Two, promotion again (finishing second) the following season to Division One and yet again (this time finishing third) to the Premier Division for 2001-02.
It took five years to get to the level they find themselves in today, Champions of the Isthmian Premier in 2005-06 and also reaching the first round of the FA Cup that season, eventually going out to Shrewsbury Town.
The start to the Conference South saw them make the play-offs in their first two season, reaching the final and semi-finals, but losing out to Salisbury City and Eastbourne Borough respectively, before going up as Champions in 2010-11.
There were six seasons spent in the top flight of Non-League, generally solid performers and reaching the play-offs once (2015-16) but going out to Grimsby Town at the semi-final stage. Unfortunately for The Iron this relative success attracted the attention of clubs higher up the food chain and after just a single season the management team of Danny and Nicky Cowley was whisked away by Lincoln City. The very next season Braintree went from play-off contenders to taking the drop, relegated back into National League South.
Although bouncing straight back up at the first time of asking, winning the play-offs with victories over Hemel Hempstead Town and Hampton & Richmond Borough, this time the club only lasted a single season in the National League Premier before relegation struck again.
Since then, after a couple of the NLS seasons wrecked by Covid, The Iron has had two stabs at the play-offs. In 2022-23 the club snuck into the final play-off spot in seventh only to go out in the first round 2-1 to Worthing. Last season it was a fifth placed finish. Relatively low scorers but with the tightest defence in the division the opening round reflected that, a tight 1-0 home victory over Bath City deep into extra time on 118 minutes. The Semi-Final and Final however saw a different Braintree. Underdogs both times and away from home: extra time was needed again as local Essex rivals Chelmsford City were dispatched 2-3; then on to a pulsating tie against free scoring Worthing, a third dose of extra time seeing the Iron eventually clinch promotion 3-4.
We’ve Met Before
Previous Results for Yeovil Town First Team vs Braintree Town
| 28/10/2023 | Home | NLS | W | 2-0 | 3708 | Worthington 30, Hyde 90 | |
| 23/03/2024 | Away | NLS | W | 1-0 | 1985 | Nouble 14 | |
Results Summary For Yeovil Town First Team vs Braintree Town
| Home | Away | Overall | ||||||||||||
| W | D | L | F | A | W | D | L | F | A | W | D | L | F | A |
| 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
Club Statistics
RECENT RESULTS
| 03/02/2024 | Dover Athletic | Home | NLS | W | 3-0 | 691 | Davis 8, Tompkins 22, Blair 38 | |
| 10/02/2024 | Chippenham Town | Away | NLS | W | 1-0 | 538 | Altintop 75 | |
| 17/02/2024 | Torquay United | Home | NLS | W | 1-0 | 806 | Blackwell 55 | |
| 20/02/2024 | Tonbridge Angels | Home | NLS | W | 1-0 | 703 | Davis 85 | |
| 24/02/2024 | Worthing | Away | NLS | W | 1-0 | 1341 | Blair 29 | |
| 27/02/2024 | Bath City | Away | NLS | W | 2-1 | 1212 | Blair 68, Coulthirst 84 (pen) | |
| 02/03/2024 | Welling United | Away | NLS | D | 2-2 | 680 | Blair 38, Coulthirst 45+5 (pen) | |
| 09/03/2024 | Slough Town | Home | NLS | D | 1-1 | 815 | Blair 58 | |
| 12/03/2024 | Dartford | Home | NLS | W | 2-0 | 709 | Coulthirst 22, Blackwell 90+5 | |
| 15/03/2024 | Weymouth | Away | NLS | W | 1-0 | 845 | Altintop 76 | |
| 19/03/2024 | Weymouth | Home | NLS | D | 0-0 | 846 | ||
| 23/03/2024 | Yeovil Town | Home | NLS | |||||
LEAGUE ATTENDANCE STATISTICS
Highest League Attendance: 1,527 (v Chelmsford City, 26/12/23)
Lowest League Attendance: 484 (v Truro City, 12/08/23)
Average League Attendance: 703
CURRENT LEAGUE SEQUENCE STATISTICS
| Games Without A Win: | Games Without A Home Win: | |||
| Games Without An Away Win: | Games Without Defeat: | |||
| Games Without A Home Defeat: | Games Without An Away Defeat: | |||
| Games Without A Draw: | Games Without A Score Draw: | |||
| Games Without A No-Score Draw: | Games Without Scoring: | |||
| Games Without Conceding: | Home Results Sequence: | |||
| Away Results Sequence: | Overall Results Sequence: |
Club Information
Address : Cressing Road Stadium, Clockhouse Way, Braintree, Essex, CM7 3DE (current sponsorship name The Rare Breed Meat Co. Stadium)
Telephone Number : 01376 345617
Email : braintreeTFC@aol.com
Chairman : Lee Harding
Club Secretary : David Bland
Team Manager : Angelo Harrop
Capacity : 4,222
Seated : 553
Covered Terrace : some covered; much, including both ends, open
Surface : grass
Record Attendance : (seem suspiciously round number guesstimates but given as) 4,000 jointly for: v Barking, Essex Senior Cup, 08/02/1936; v Tottenham Hotspur, Friendly, 08/05/1952
Colours : shirt orange with blue & white diagonal sash, white sleeves blue trim; shorts blue with white trim, socks orange
Nickname : The Iron
Programme : £3.00
Ticketing
Cressing Road has been The Iron’s home since 1923 and is a seriously old-school Non-League ground. There’s been on-off discussions and plans to move to a new stadium for close to a couple of decades now but so far nothing has come of any of them.
There are no online ticket sales for this match and tickets are only on sale on the turnstiles.
Update: somewhat late in the day (Friday 22/03 afternoon), Braintree has decided to put segregation in place. Away fans should enter through turnstiles 7 & 8 only. With all YTFC supporters having to pay on the day those fans amongst us who usually choose to leave arrival until the last few minutes before kick-off may find it advisable to turn up a bit earlier for this one.
The Iron also gave the following advice to travelling fans: “Please follow the blue line around the back of the main stand and on the left of the training pitch to get to your allocated turnstiles for today, you then have all the green area to watch today’s game.
“You then have a burger van and toilets to the right of those turnstiles.”
Prices :
There’s no price difference between standing and sitting, with presumably the latter on a first-come-first-served basis.
Adult: £15.00
Concession (State Pension Age or still in Full Time Education): £10.00
* Under 18: £5.00
(* Don’t think have ever come across this before: as read the ticketing information an Under 18 ticket is only valid for the terracing, so children can’t have a seat. Can this really be the case or is it just badly written?)
Disabled: Nothing found.
Official Away Travel
The Green & White Supporters’ Club is running away travel to Braintree Town on Saturday 23rd March, 3 p.m. kick-off.
Details are as follows:
Members: Adult £32; Concession £30
Non-Members: Adult £35; Concession £33
Coach departs Huish Park: 7.45am
To book, call Paul Hadlow on 07736 044570 (after 6.00 p.m. please) or email him on paulhadlow@outlook.com.
If you are getting in touch by email, please make it clear which match you are booking for and that you give your full name, the names of people that are travelling and a contact telephone number.
You may be asked to pay a £5 deposit to reserve your seat.
Directions To The Ground
General
Another destination roughly in the middle of Essex, twelve miles North of Chelmsford for those that did that trip recently. The ground is a little under one-and-a-half miles from the town centre by road.
By Road
Huish Park to Cressing Road is 189 miles via a A303/M3/M25 (clockwise)/M11 route.
Exit the M11 at Junction 8 taking the A120 eastwards. Follow the A120 for around 16 to 17 miles, bringing one round to the eastern side Braintree where the stadium is situated, until reaching Galley’s Corner Roundabout, there taking the first exit onto Cressing Road. 0.7 of a mile along Cressing Road turn left into Clockhouse Way. The stadium is immediately on the left.
Parking
There is a small car park at the ground with a £2.00 charge but this closes 30 minutes prior to kick-off. If arriving after it’s either full or has shut the warning is there will be no “Car Park Full” signs at the entrance and it is difficult to turn round and get back out.
Seems there is plenty of on-street parking around the stadium with Stubbs Lane (the last left turning to the South of the ground along Cressing Road before Clockhouse Way) a popular choice.
By Rail
There are two railway stations: Braintree and Braintree Freeport. They are on the same branch line out of London Liverpool Street with Braintree Freeport the penultimate stop and Braintree the terminus. There’s one train an hour on a Saturday with journey time around the hour mark, all services being run by Greater Anglia.
Braintree Station is a little to the South-East of the town centre and a mile (20 minutes walk) from the ground and has a taxi rank outside. Braintree Freeport is marginally closer but only if one uses a somewhat obscure footpath system that locals warn has got many a visitor lost. It doesn’t have a taxi rank.
By Bus
The buses running along Cressing Road are the Nos. 38 and 38A taking different routes from the Town Centre Interchange and Braintree Railway Station to eventually go past the ground. There are two services an hour on a Saturday with a journey time of around a quarter of an hour. The nearest stop for both is Bartram Avenue South just a few yards North of the Clockhouse Way turning into the stadium.
By Taxi
Recommended local providers are:
Yelo Taxis – 01376 334455
Happicabs – 01376 321321
Web Resources
Web Sites
Braintree Town Football Club – Official Site. Something of a “busy” design and colour scheme… my eyes, MY EYES!
Social Media
Official club account on X (formerly Twitter)
Braintree Town Forum – a message board (yes, they still exist) albeit not overly active.
Local Press
Braintree & Witham Times – local paper.
Food & Drink
General
Braintree is very much dominated by Greene King which operates the large majority of pubs around the town under various brandings. The best pub in town for those into real ales and ciders is possibly the King William IV (114 London Road, CM77 7PU) Free House but unfortunately it’s on completely the wrong side of Braintree for the stadium two miles away.
Club Bar
The clubhouse entrance is inside the stadium. This does mean that it is not available to away fans if segregation is in force though that is rare at Cressing Road. The club has, amongst other things, a Beer Festival of some description laid on as part of Non-League Day.
Update: the late (see Ticketing above) decision to segregate this fixture means have no idea how this will affect the provision of food and drink for away fans in the ground other than the clubhouse presumably being no longer available to Yeovil supporters.
Local Pubs
Orange Tree: One of the many Greene King outlets in Braintree. Closest pub to the ground being just a couple of minutes walk away on the opposite side of Cressing Road. Food served from noon every day until 8.30 p.m. Monday to Thursday, 9.00 p.m. Friday & Saturday, 8.00 p.m. Sunday. Family and disabled friendly, Sky & TNT Sports, Pool, darts, beer garden, car park. Opens from noon, closing 11.00 p.m. Monday to Thursday, midnight Friday & Saturday, 10.30 p.m. Sunday.
Orange Tree, Cressing Road, Braintree, Essex, CM7 3PH. Tel: 01376 344013. Map: Orange Tree.
Picture Palace: Braintree’s Spoons converted from a cinema (as the name rather gives away). If you are arriving in Braintree by train, this is about a five-minute walk from the central station and then a further mile (20 minutes walk) from the stadium. Opens from 8.00 a.m. every day, closing midnight Sunday to Thursday and 1.00 a.m. Friday & Saturday.
The Picture Palace, Fairfield Road, Braintree, Essex, CM7 3HA. Tel: 01376 550255. Map: Picture Palace.
The Pub: Newish Wibblers Brewery Taproom (not the one featured on the website which is at the brewery itself) that opened Spring 2023. Around half way from the town centre to the ground so half a mile (11 minutes walk) from Cressing Road. Generally has four Wibblers beers on during the week rising to six to eight at weekends. There’s industrial stuff like Carlsberg for those not in to cask beer. Has Sky & TNT Sports, hard surfaced area with picnic tables to the front, limited parking, disabled access. Note: has an over-25 only policy which tends to enforce pretty rigorously. Different sources have different opening times through the week. For Saturday noon – midnight seems to be most likely.
The Pub, 2 East Street, Braintree, Essex, CM7 3JJ. Tel: 01376 618033. Map: The Pub.
Likelihood the Natives Will Understand You: If you were able to communicate with people in Chelmsford, there’s every chance you’ll be okay here as well. Not really TOWIE (The Only Way Is Essex) territory this, so you’re unlikely to encounter too many people with lip fillers and hair extensions. There may be some, however.
Top-Tip: March 23rd is Non-League Day… which may or may not enhance your excitement for this fixture.
Local Amenities: If you are arriving a few hours early, you could visit the Braintree Designer Village for a bit of outlet shopping before the game. Plenty of food places there including Wagamama and Five Guys – what’s not to like, right? There’s also two Premier Inns available on opposite sides of the same roundabout – therefore we assume this is a local attraction.
Other Points Of Interest: The history of Braintree dates back more than 4,000 years when it was a small village. People in the area during the Bronze and Iron Ages built houses in the lower part of the town, near the River Brain, known as the Brain Valley. With this match being our first visit, we can offer no opinions as to whether the presence of the word ‘Brain’ in local dialect correlates with the intelligence of locals. Watch this space.
[No responsibility is taken for any inaccuracies. This page is entirely the product of bias and prejudice. ]