Braintree Town’s two-goal hero from Saturday, Michael Cheek, feels the Iron are the team who other sides would want to avoid facing in the Vanarama National League play-offs.

Cheek’s first-half brace set them well on the way for victory against Altrincham on a memorable day at the Avanti Stadium, with Mitch Brundle’s third goal sealing their 3-0 win after the break.

It was a result that secured third place in the league for the Iron and set up a two-legged play-off semi-final against Grimsby – with the first part of that coming at Grimsby Town tonight.

The former Football League side who Braintree will be facing have plenty of play-off pedigree, having made it to the final at Wembley last season and it is set to be an intimidating atmosphere at Blundell Park.

However, Braintree went there and got a win three weeks ago and Cheek said they would travel in confident mood after four straight wins at the end of the regular season.

“We know it will be a difficult game at Grimsby, but we’ll have nothing to fear,” said Cheek.

“They’ll have a lot of fans behind them and we know that but we will go there with the same mentality as we did the first time we went there.

“It’s in our hands now so we’ll just go there and give it our best shot.

“We’re going into the play-offs with really good form and I think other teams would probably want to face us least in the play-offs.

“Whatever happens, we’ll make sure we come away having given it our best shot.

“We’ll just take it each game as it comes now.”

Cheek’s twin strike against Altrincham meant he finished the season with 15 league goals in his debut campaign in the top flight of non-league football.

With another two coming in cup competitions, it has been a superb season since the former Stanway Rovers and Heybridge Swifts youngster moved from Chelmsford City last summer.

But he isn’t thinking about statistics just yet “I didn’t believe it would be like this in my wildest dreams,” he added.

“I’ll take it if comes, but all I’m thinking about now is the (play-off) semi-final.

“We’ve scored nine goals in our last three games so we’re doing well in front of goal now as a team.”