Braintree Town will face a trip to Brackley Town in the third qualifying round of the FA Cup - but only if they up their game when they head to Royston Town for a second qualifying round replay tomorrow night.

The draw for the next round has given the Iron a journey to face the Vanarama National League North side but only if they beat Royston at the second time of asking. 

They know they will have to do better than they did when the two teams met for the first time on Saturday when manager Brad Quinton said he would struggle to find any of his players worthy of a “pat on the back” following a disappointing performance.

It was an off day for the Iron as they made hard work of drawing 2-2 with their Evo-Stik Southern League premier division opponents in the second qualifying round tie.

“It was just very disappointing and not one that I saw coming if I’m honest,” said Quinton.

“My expectations of us as a team weren’t met.

“We didn’t press them and the fluent pace and tempo that we normally play at wasn’t there.

“We sat back and stayed off a bit and I’m disappointed with that.

“I couldn’t give any of our players a pat on the back.

“There were a lot of people off their game in terms of energy and passing levels and pass completions.

“Passes were backwards and sideways and it was slow.

“But we are in the hat again (for the next round) and that’s one way to look at it.

“We’ve got the replay and we have to go again.”

Brackley earned their place in the third qualifying round with a 3-0 win at Kingstonian on Saturday.