By Simon Spurgeon

JAKE Goodman believes that in-form Braintree Town can head to one of the Vanarama National League’s promotion favourites with nothing to fear this weekend.

The 23-year-old Iron central defender has made an impact after stepping back into the Iron’s back line in their last two games - a league win against Sutton United and an FA Trophy success at East Thurrock United.

Those results have helped Braintree bounce back from disappointing results against Dagenham and Redbridge and Chester and they now head to second-placed Forest Green Rovers on Saturday sitting fourth in the National League’s form table.

Goodman knows that will give confidence to the Iron players and with Forest Green having conceded five goals on their own turf in their last outing against Torquay, he feels they can upset a side pressing for a move into the Football League this year.

The former Millwall youngster said: “We just want to keep picking up results - regardless of what competition it’s in.

“Whether it’s the league, the FA Trophy or the Essex Senior Cup - it doesn’t matter.

“If we can keep picking up wins then it will breed confidence throughout the team.

“We had a bit of a blip with the Chester and Dagenham games but hopefully we have come through that and have had two decent wins.

“We now have Forest Green away; they’ve conceded a lot of goals at home so if we can keep it tight and put them under pressure then we can do well there.

“We have nothing to lose, so we will look to go there and upset them.

“We know the next few games will be difficult, but if we can get something from them then that will put us in good stead for February, March and April.”

Goodman was pleased to get his first start since November 19 in Saturday’s FA Trophy win at East Thurrock United and said he felt good after returning from a hamstring problem that had kept him out for eight weeks.

“It was good to get the minutes on Saturday and there’s always a bit of rustiness when you’ve been out for a while,” he added.

“I felt a little bit of cramp in the last few minutes but I think that was through the pitch being so heavy.

“It’s been my hamstring that I’ve had problems with and it’s now just a case of building up match fitness.

“It was nice to have a game like that to build myself up in preparation for the likes of Forest Green in games coming up.”