Danny Cowley hopes Michael Cheek will help provide his Braintree Town team with a bigger goal threat than they had last year.

The 23-year-old striker joined from Chelmsford City last weekend and Cowley (pictured right) has targeted goals as an area where he feels they could improve from last season.

The Iron only found the target 56 times in the Vanarama Conference Premier last year and the new manager is looking for a higher return from their 46 games.

He said: “Braintree did lack goals last season and we felt it was probably due to the way the team was set up.

“I think it was a low-risk strategy that was used last year.

“That’s not a criticism because it worked for them, but I think that’s the reason why they didn’t score as many goals as you would need to finish in the top part of the league.

"We’re pragmatic people and we’re looking to understand the players at the club before we put our strategies in place, but we are used to our teams scoring plenty of goals.

“That was always the case at Concord, where we finished as joint top goal scorers at home in the Conference South last year.

"I always look through my team to see where the goals will come from and if you can see 70 to 80 then you’re doing well.

“We try to build a defence behind the attack.

“That’s our ultimate strategy and we’ve identified that as an area for us to work on.”