Matt Paine says he and his Braintree Town team-mates are thriving on the experience of being in the Vanarama National League play-offs rather than wilting under the pressure.

The 28-year-old former Colchester United trainee was part of the Iron team that earned promotion as Conference South champions in 2011, but trying to get up via the play-offs is new to him.

However, Braintree are no strangers to battling against the odds and Paine insists that they will have no fear when they head to Grimsby Town for the first part of their two-legged play-off semi-final on Thursday.

He said: “This is the first time I’ve played in the play-offs so it’s a whole new experience for me.

“It’s something that players thrive on and something we’ve strived to achieve over the last few seasons.

“This season we’ve done it and it’s a journey that could now take us anywhere.

“There is no pressure on us at all.

“We’re a very small club playing against the likes of Grimsby and we’ll go out just as we have all season to enjoy ourselves and let the result take care of itself.

“The form we’ve had recently will give us a hell of a lot of confidence and that recent fixture against Grimsby will give us even more confidence.

“We will go there on Thursday with nothing to fear and look to play as we have for the majority of the season.

“It’s a slightly different feeling as we went straight up from the Conference South in 2011, but the work we’ve put in all season has been unbelievable.

“The feeling of being so close to the Football League is incredible and what an unbelievable feeling it would be to go all the way.

“But there is still a lot of hard work to do.

“There are two hard games against Grimsby to start with and we have to take it one game at a time.”

Braintree will head to Blundell Park on Thursday knowing that they have already won there recently.

A Taylor Miles goal earned a 1-0 victory against the Mariners just three weeks ago and, as part of a four-game winning run to end their season, Paine feels that will bolster their confidence further.

“I think we’ll have a slight edge having gone there and won recently,” he said.

“They’ll remember that.

“It will be quite fresh in our minds and I’m sure it will be fresh in their minds.

“So we’ll go there full of belief and who knows?

“Another one-nil victory would make it lovely to come back to our home on Sunday.”

Paine had to play through the pain barrier to feature against Altrincham as he returned from an ankle injury that had looked like it may end his season a couple of weeks ago.

He said it was sore afterwards, but was prepared to suffer with everything that was at stake and hoped he’d be fit for action again tomorrow night.

He added: “I had a lot of strapping on it and it was swollen up after the game against Altrincham.

“But I’ll get to the physio and get it mobilised again and hopefully I’ll be there on Thursday to put another performance in.

“I think if there wasn’t so much to play for, I’d have called it a day for the season, but there is so much to play for that I’m willing to play through the pain.

“Over the summer, I’ll have to work on it to get the strength back, but I’ll be doing everything I can ahead of the game on Thursday to help it recover and be fit for the game.”