PLAYER/MANAGER Jake Hutchings wants to "beef up" his Braintree Town side to meet the physical challenges they are encountering in a tricky spell of Vanarama National League South action.

The Iron head to third-placed Slough Town on Saturday looking to bounce back after a disappointing run of results that have seen them lose their last three outings.

The latest of those came with a 4-0 loss to Hampton and Richmond Borough at Cressing Road last weekend when Hutchings, who did not play due to a hamstring problem, was left ruing mistakes from his team that allowed the Beavers to take an early hold on the game that they never relinquished.

However, being on the sidelines allowed the Iron boss a chance to evaluate his team from a different perspective and as he and coach George Borg continue to remodel the side, he said he wanted to see a greater physical presence from his side.

Hutchings said: "I know the talent is there in the squad at this moment, but we are looking to make a couple more additions and hope to have them in the building ahead of Saturday's game. "I think that we are quite a physically small side and we can be physically dominated by some sides so we are looking to beef up the squad a bit with a couple of new additions.

"I think we have experience in the dressing room and the talent is certainly there but we do need a bit more of a physical presence.

"I have no doubt at all about anyone's technical ability.

"If they didn't have it then I know (former manager) Glen (Driver) wouldn't have brought them in and we wouldn't be where we are in the table.

"We just need to make sure we can match teams in the physical game.

"Teams will want to stop us playing sometimes and we have to match that battle before we earn the right to express ourselves."