With a lot of the focus being placed on Braintree Town’s forward play in recent weeks, one important statistic at the other end of the pitch has slipped under the radar a bit.

Charlie Strutton’s strike in their 1-0 win against Wrexham last weekend was notable for it ended a run of 620 minutes of Vanarama Conference Premier football without a goal.

But the Iron’s shut-out of the Welsh side’s strike-force was their ninth clean sheet of the campaign and full-back Ryan Peters says their defence is looking to better last season’s tally that helped them to a top-six finish.

He said: “It was our ninth clean sheet and that’s not far off what we did last year.

“We’re aiming for the 20 clean sheets we had last season.

“I know a lot of focus has been on the strikers, but it’s not all about them, we all have to put in our part.”

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