In their last match, Braintree lost 2-5 away to Millwall in the FA Cup on 4 December, so they are already battle-hardened to perform in a cup-tie. In their last league game, on 26 November, they won 5-4 away to Southport, admittedly not that much of an achievement, but if we put up a better defence than Southport did then we'll have a decent chance of getting through to the next round.
In our previous game, last Tuesday, the Gulls won 1-0 away to Dagenham, and in our game away to Braintree on 29 August we won 3-1, with goals from Reid, Gallifuoco, and Young. Sadly, Luke Young is currently injured, but doubtless the rest of the squad is ready and raring to go.
Providing we don't think that all we need to do is to put in an appearance on the pitch, then we should win this one, which is there for the taking. And we should have a decent level of support from travelling Gulls fans and those residing in south-east England. Ten days ago I had forecast a defeat for us in this game, but now, I expect us to win. More than that, I expect us to have a much better second half of the season altogether!
Forecast: Braintree 1 Gulls 2.
