STAR ALABI LEAVES IRON SINGING THE BLUES AGAIN

JAMES ALABI struck twice in the second half as Chester came from behind to keep in touch with the play-off contenders.

Jack Midson’s header gave the Iron the lead at the break, only for former Ipswich striker Alabi to lead the fightback for Jon McCarthy’s men.

“They (Braintree) have some good players and they dominated the first half,”the Blues boss said.

“In the second half, I put a slightly different twist on it tactically to match them. It made us a little bit different to them. My players were frustrated as they had lost two games over Christmas. I would have taken a point, you take a point and you move on. But to get three is a great result.”

Braintree took the game by the scruff of the neck early on with Michael Cheek twice going close before Manny Parry saw his header from Sam Corne’s delivery headed off the line by Elliott Durrell.

And the deadlock was finally broken on 31 minutes when Midson rose highest to powerfully head home a pin-point cross from the left from Kris Twardek.

Braintree remained in control and almost doubled their lead five minutes before the break when Corne’s corner was headed away by Durrell but cannoned back off Tom Shaw’s face and on to the post to safety.

Chester, however, emerged more positive after the break and came close to levelling matters when Durrell teed up teenager Matty Waters in the area who fashioned some space before firing just over with his left foot.

Eventually, the equaliser came just after the hour mark when Kane Richards found space on the right and whipped in a delightful ball and Alabi nodded past Sam Beasant at the near post. Durrell fired another effort just wide before Braintree new boy Alex Henshall almost restored the lead for the home side, forcing a good save from Alex Lynch. But it was Chester who struck next six minutes from the end – a quick break from Shaw released Alabi who finished from ten yards with aplomb. And Alabi went desperately close to notching a hat-trick with a 20-yard effort which flew over.

Disappointed Braintree coach Hassan Oktay said: “We had chances but didn’t take them, they had two and took them. We have to bounce back strongly.”