Braintree Town F.C.

They've had that game postponed to give them more preparation time to face us.

The bumper crowd, as I say, and they beat Braintree in the last qualifying round.

And, of course, Morecambe and Braintree, both the National League teams last season.

They've dropped into National League South.

We're in the North.

Yeah, I'm alright.

Probably, I'd say the worst week to be a Braintree fan in a long time, but probably about this time last year when we lost away at Chelmsford and Brackley within the same week.

We went out the FA Cup Saturday to a Team 2 Divisions beloved, and then we lost to Walton Hersham 3-1 at home yesterday, who hadn't won a game all season.

It was pretty toxic, the atmosphere.

So, yeah, I'll probably watch a bit more National League than I will my own team at the moment.

But no pelters for that one in the comments, please.

I still... try and drag myself to Braintree Games, even if it's hard at the moment.

Yeah, it's just, like I say, it's a tough time to be a Braintree fan, isn't it? Louis, how are you, mate? You OK?

He's got them all playing and he's got them all playing for the Badger game, which is really nice to see.

Walker scored against us for Braintree last season.

We outplayed him.

We won the game 3-1.

Yeah, we both had some late drama in our game yesterday.

Braintree were 3-2 up.

in stoppage time in our FA Cup game, FA Cup second qualifying round yesterday.

We were 3-2 away at Needham Market.

I think if Southend wanted to score more in the second half, they probably could.

They did make one change at half-time.

Southend, they took off Vontae Daly-Campbell and brought on Ryan Bartram, another player who was with Braintree last season.

And one of the better players, he got two assists in the first eight minutes, was Xavier Masai-Redwood, someone who was also with us on loan from Watford last season.

Welcome to the latest match preview here on Stones TV and the Maystone United Podcast, where we look ahead to our first FA Cup game of the season, a mere paddle away at Crewe Wanderers.

So to the last word on the last week and it saw defeat at Braintree and the end of that 100% away record, but the Stones still have top spot to console themselves with.

Nigel, your thoughts on that first loss since opening day? Frustration.

you know, is a word that comes to mind there.

So, you know, it's definitely a different sort of way of playing.

And, you know, we've not been as useless in as much entertainment as what we in the last few years have, what we've got now as such in the way that we play.

And if you'd have said at the beginning of the season that we'd be sitting top by two points going into the FA Cup weekend, well, you'd have been laughed at as I said before, wouldn't you? So, yeah, I mean, I just think it was just, you know, you just know Braintree are like Braintree, aren't they? It's your article title sort of like, you know, even at this time of the season, you know, it's a very boggy, hard pitch on you, isn't it? And coming off the back of them, you know, that high that we had at Tunbridge, You could just see that the players were leggy.

The reactions just weren't as sharp as what they have been.

But yeah, on a football side for me, the second week in a row that I'm the only one from the podcast team to have a win.

Who would have thought that with little old Braintree Town, eh? We toppled Maidstone yesterday, who were and still are top of the National League South.

And we were fantastic yesterday.

I'll give Stephen and his players and his staff the credit they deserve.