Gateshead score late winner to beat fellow strugglers Braintree

Gateshead’s Keaton Ward scored in the fifth minute of added time to beat Braintree 1-0 and boost their National League survival hopes.

The on-loan Altrincham midfielder curled home from the left side of the penalty area as the second-bottom club bounced back from defeat at the weekend to make it 10 points from five games off the back of a 13-match losing streak.

Victory left them seven points from safety with two matches in hand on the two teams above them, one of whom is Braintree who had four good chances to win it themselves in the final 10 minutes alone.

Lewis Walker fired over before debutant goalkeeper Adam Desbois, signed from Slough earlier in the day, denied Chay Cooper and Aidan Francis-Clarke before producing his best save to block Sahid Kamara at close range.

The match began bizarrely when an attempted 40-yard backpass by Braintree’s Ben Drake’s sailed over Mason Terry and rebounded off the post with the goalkeeper forced to dive on the ball and concede an indirect free-kick, from which Joe Grayson’s shot was deflected wide.