Alan Devonshire admits he may keep Charlie Strutton out of Braintree Town’s starting line-up tonight despite his striker’s red-hot form in front of goal.

The Iron host Welling in the Vanarama Conference Premier looking to win a third game in a row with Strutton hoping to add to his tally of three goals in the last two games against Wrexham and AFC Telford.

Those games are the only two the 25-year-old striker has started this year and his form has helped Braintree turn a corner after a run of ten league games without a win, But Devonshire feels he may have to look after a player who is still working his way back to full fitness after suffering a broken leg last season.

The Iron boss said: “I don’t want to put too much pressure on Charlie as he’s just coming back from a very bad injury.

“I really don’t know if he’ll be ready to start tonight.

“I want to look after him and don’t want to get into the type of situation of over-playing him and then seeing him have to come out for a couple of weeks.

“I don’t want that to happen.

“He needs to play as much as he can but we have to use him intelligently because it was a bad break that he had.

“I’m pleased for the lad because he’s now got three in two games and it helps us.”

Strutton getting closer to full fitness is just part of an improving overall injury situation for the Iron and Devonshire said the benefits of that were apparent in their 3-1 victory last weekend.

“A lot of players are getting fit and you could see that at Telford,” he added.

“You could see the difference in Marksy (Sean Marks) as he’s played four games now after having a bad back injury with injections in his back.

“It has taken him a while to get back to himself but now you are seeing the rewards of it and there are a few of them like that like Painey (Matt Paine) and Kenny Davis.

“Hopefully we can push on now and keep everyone fit to move up the league.”