Every club has their bogey team and it’s fair to say the Hatters’ in recent years has been Braintree.
The Essex outfit have won the last three meetings between the two clubs, including two at their Cressing Road home.
On both of those occasions the Town didn’t even have a full-time manager in place. On their last visit, last March, John Still watched through his fingers as he saw his soon-to-be side slip to a 2-0 defeat.
“I said to Terry [Harris] in the car on the way home from that game to call up Dagenham and tell them that we’ve changed our minds,” the boss joked at his pre-match press conference on Monday.
However, there’s nothing funny about how stern a test the Town face in Essex on Tuesday night.
Alan Devonshire’s side have had an excellent start to the season and currently sit in sixth place in the Skrill Premier table. A fourth successive victory over the Hatters would propel the Iron above Still’s side in the standings.
“You must get sick of me saying this but it’s going to be tough, really tough,” explained Still. “They’ve had a decent start to the season and their home form is good.
“I’ve known of Braintree for a long time and one thing you’d never say about a trip there was ‘this was good…’ – because it’s always been a tough place to go, it’s that sort of place. Newport found out that out [in the FA Cup] on Saturday.
“But’s great and I love it. One of the joys for the job for me is the challenges. People go to Braintree and get beat and the challenge for us is to go there and not get beat. The more difficult the game the better the challenge, so I’m really looking for to it.
“Clubs do get associated with teams that they never beat or teams that they never lose to, and it’s the same for managers. There are clubs I’ve never beaten and clubs I’ve never beaten by. These things are all part of the challenge.
“For us, this season – other than one game, against Southport – I think we’ve been up for every game and I as far as I’m concern tomorrow will be no different. And, if that’s the case, we should give a good account of ourselves.”