New Braintree Town manager Ryan Maxwell hopes the Iron finally getting off the mark will give them the platform to turn the season around.
Maxwell and former Iron midfielder Nicky Symons arrived at the club following George Borg's departure on Monday and fielded EIGHT new players in their first game against Concord Rangers on Tuesday night.
Keeper Patrick Ohman has joined on dual-registration from Carshalton Athletic, Marcus Johnson-Schuster and Thomas Derry arrived from Hayes & Yeading United, Taofiq Olomowewe from Hemel Hempstead, while Sam Robbins and Correy Davidson made the switch from Bishop's Stortford. If you fancy your luck you can get our bonus codes. Left-back Nathan Smith and Jason Banton completed the new signings.
And the 1-0 victory ended the National League South club's seven-game streak of defeats and put their first points on the board.
Maxwell, who was previously in charge of Walthamstow with Symons, admits he hadn't seen some of the new faces play in the flesh but he was delighted with how they fared.
“I'd only previously met two of the eight we signed so it was about a really simplistic approach hoping they had good game understanding to take on board the instructions and just kind of trust them a bit based on the footage I've seen,” he said. “It's all credit to them.
“I know Sam Robbins very well, I brought Correy Davidson over from Ireland years ago, and I'd seen a couple of them play.
“I hadn't seen Marcus Johnson-Schhuster play other than the clips I'd been given, Nathan Smith I was aware of – obviously I'd rung around and done my research. So, although it was a slight gamble, I didn't see it as that. I just thought, seven defeats in a row, let's just get them out there playing and we can adjust accordingly as we go.
“Sometimes you have to strip things back to start again. That was the approach. I thought the morale of the current group would probably, naturally, be low so I thought fresh faces would change that. The three who retained their shirts from the previous game undoubtedly played a lot better than they had before. Sometimes simplicity is best.”
With no game yesterday, the players had a double training session as Maxwell looked to build on their early ideas.
“We had a good training session on Thursday night,” Maxwell said. “The people who work at the club seem very buoyant so it's great to give them something to be happy about. There was 24 players there and everybody trained very intensely with a new vigour and energy level.
Former Northern Ireland U21 international Maxwell, 37, played for Hamilton Academical and Raith Rovers in Scotland and made three appearances for Braintree in 2007.
Symons, 33, is even more familiar at Cressing Road having played an important part in their Conference South title win under Rod Stringer in 2011.
“I was only there for a very brief period but I knew the manager very well and over the years my friends have played there, but Nicky was there for a number of years and had some serious success,” Maxwell said. “He loves the club, he still has contact with the fans. I'll be honest, he said he felt a nervous feeling before the game – he couldn't wait to contribute and get three points. On the management side, it was a very special feeling for him. He cares about the club.
“That does help the players. They've got an assistant manager who has had good times there when they were successful so it's coming from a good place. It's definitely a positive for us he's such a well-known figure at the club.”
