Football Season Guide

Braintree are one of the newcomers this season and easily tipped as relegation favourites before even kicking a ball. The Blue Square South champions lost their title-winning manager Rod Stringer over a petty argument over allocating him a club car with the president just a few weeks after promotion was won. It was the worst start of pre-season imaginable but the club acted quickly and experienced manager Alan Devonshire was appointed as a replacement. The former West Ham player has been lauded for his impressive work at Hampton & Richmond for a few years and now will have the chance to show his credentials in the higher level. He is definitely facing quite a challenge with the lowly Braintree having to match up against teams as big as Luton, Stockport and Grimsby. Yet, the Iron will not be feeling overawed by that and the hope is that the players carry on the winning feeling from last season into the new one in the early weeks. The most positive news for the Braintree fans is that the nucleus of the players that earned promotион are still at the club and not just rushing out of the exit door after Stringer's departure. Sean Marks scored 25 goals last season and was courted by Southend but signed a new deal and will be itching at the chance to prove himself against bigger clubs. Signings have been limited for the Essex club but Aswad Thomas will add class at the back while Ben Wright has proven that he can score goals at this level and will look to rebuild his career after a bad year at Crawley. The relative lack of experience at the top level of non-league within the squad is the biggest worry for Devonshire but he will bank on the bond created by this group of players and the solid defence to carry them on. Relegation is still a very likely scenario but it will be naive to quickly write off the Iron in their attempt to beat the drop.