BRAINTREE manager George Borg had great praise for the Salisbury set-up, their fans and most of all City's all-round performance in their goalless draw in Wiltshire.

He said: "They thoroughly deserved all three points today."

Salisbury were without the suspended Tommy Widdrington and the late withdrawal of striker Robbie Matthews gave on-loan Richard Gillespie a chance for his first Salisbury start.

High-flying Braintree's only first-half chance came on 31-minutes when Alex Revell provided Mark Jones with an opportunity he stabbed wide.

In the second-half it was all Salisbury - although they were lucky to survive a penalty appeal when the ball appeared to strike Craig Davis's hand in the home penalty box.

Davis had already gone close with a lob and then had the ball in the Braintree net only for his effort to be ruled out for offside.

Sawyer had to claw away an Ellis Remy effort on 76 minutes but five minutes later Matt Tubbs was very unlucky to see his back header go narrowly wide of the upright.

In time added-on Braintree were reduced to ten men when Louis Riddle was shown a straight red card after an incident involving Tubbs.