Braintree Town manager Glen Driver says there can be no room for sentiment as he whittles down his Iron squad on the back of their pre-season defeat by Brentford on Tuesday.

Driver had said last week that he expected to be trimming down playing personnel following Saturday's trip to BetVictor Isthmian League division north side Bury Town, however, that may change in the wake of the 4-0 loss against the B's.

The Iron boss wasn't pleased with some of what he saw in that game and said there were lessons from it that he would have to learn, so he said he would be wasting no time in moving players on if they weren't showing him what he wanted to see.

“We have to get the ball rolling now," said Driver.

“You can make mistakes in giving the ball away but when you haven’t got the fitness to get around the park then three days is not going to make any difference.

“We will make decisions on what we’ve seen out on the field, but there can’t be any room for sentiment.

“We can’t have any sentiment because we don’t have the time to.

“We have to be hitting the ground running when we go to Bath.

“Nothing is won in pre-season and this was our first loss, but we now look forward to the Bury game and there will definitely be some decisions made before then.

“We are looking to bring one or two more in in areas where we feel we’re weak and if players become available before Bury then they will play there, if not then we’ll go with what we have got."

However, the defeat by Brentford wasn't without some areas for encouragement for the Iron boss.

Driver added: “I thought there were positives, like Jayden Gipson at centre-half and Femi Akinwande did really well in the second half but we have to support Tom Richardson more.

“We were leaving him exposed up there.

“We are playing in a three, but because we couldn’t retain the ball against a side like that, we just didn’t really create.

“But look at the previous games we’ve had and he had got four in two.

“Against Brentford, we didn’t give him enough opportunities to get in behind, but there were positives.

“We were still being brave; we gave away the first goal through a mistake on the edge of our box, but we still stuck to our principles.

“What we do have to do though, is make better decisions.

“Our work rate was another positive and even though we were 4-0 down, we strung a few good moves together and got shots away on the edge of their box and we got in behind.

“So there were a few positives but not many."