Havering's men battled to a 4-3 win at Braintree to maintain their 100 per cent record in the East League on Saturday.

They started poorly, with Braintree’s midfielder having acres of space and able to find their striker who slid the ball past an onrushing Andy Gaut to open the scoring early on.

Havering pegged Braintree back and Alex Lee pressured a defender into a mistake before calmly slotting past the keeper to level.

But Havering's joy did not last long as a short corner routine from Braintree put the ball into the bottom left-hand corner to regain the lead.

The visitors hit back again when a short corner was well struck by Harry Andrews, with Adam Willett controlling the ball and beating the keeper to make it 2-2.

But Braintree scored a third just before half time at another short corner as a shot was drilled into the bottom right-hand corner.

After a sluggish first half Havering fought hard to get back into the game after the restart and when Liam Appleyard’s short corner shot was blocked, Andrews bundled the ball home to level matters once again.

And Havering finally got themselves in front when a long corner from Paul Dover found Liam Purton and he squared the ball to Appleyard to jink past two defenders and slide the ball past the keeper to give Alex Lee the easiest of tasks to score.

Havering held on to their lead despite a shaky performance.

The seconds were held to a goalless draw by their Braintree counterparts and fellow strugglers as their quest for a first win of the season continues.

They had a goal chalked off due to an illegal back-stick from Michael Hinton, while the visitors were denied by a solid performance from Paul Afteni in the Havering goal.

Havering go into a local derby with Upminster next Saturday under pressure to take three points to avoid going into the Christmas break at the foot of the table.

Havering's women were on the wrong end of a 7-0 defeat at Cambridge City, who looked strong from the start.

Defenders Bukki Olodo, Steph Prowse, Monica Dubb, Alex Semon and Nic Earle proved an early match for the hosts, as Sophie McCoy made a couple of good saves in the goal.

Havering created an early chance as Emily Gilkes-Tarsey chased a loose ball and combined with Sue Harwood to get the ball into the D but couldn’t quite get the shot away.

City's pressure proved too much, though, and when their forward intercepted a pass, they pushed through to score the opener, adding three more before the break.

The home side scored two quick goals in the opening minutes of the second half before Havering began to rally and build some pressure of their own.

Pippa Wilson and Harwood combined on the left and Emily Martin was unlucky not to get on the end of the final cross.

Bethan Isherwood and Dubb made cracking goalline saves and worked well to get the ball out of the defence as Catherine Johnson, Katie Griggs, Gilkes-Tarsey, Isherwood, Martin and Wilson continued to battle in midfield.

But City added a seventh midway through the second half, with Johnson seeing hopes of a consolation dashed when her penalty corner strike was well saved.