The Adam Lakeland era got off to the worst possible start as FC Halifax Town lost 3-0 at Braintree Town on the opening day of the season.

A new-look Town side had a day to forget here, conceding some soft goals and looking disjointed going forward.

What positives there were - controlling the game for spells, producing some decent football in spells - paled in comparison to the scoreline and the overall ineffectiveness of The Shaymen's performance.

Things can only get better.

As starts to the season go, not many sides will surely have had a worse one than Town's, as they fell behind just three minutes in when Lewis Walker glanced in a cross from the left.

Veteran striker John Akinde was causing problems from the off, and got sight of goal 15 minutes in, but couldn't find the target under pressure from Adam Adetoro and Shaun Hobson, one of seven debutants in the starting line-up for Town.

The hosts were combative, hard working and physical, none more so than Akinde, who was proving hard to handle up top.

Halifax had started slowly by comparison, lacking the control and command from their final friendly at Curzon Ashton, playing more frantically and frenetically, taking longer to settle.

The difference was exemplified 20 minutes in when Adetoro ambled back for the ball near his own byline but Braintree's diminutive Fletcher Hubbard ran full pelt to get there first and win a throw.

Owen Bray and Josh Hmami had efforts off target before Hmami's tame effort was easily saved after 25 minutes.

Braintree were creating more opportunities though, with Akinde and Aidan Francis-Clarke going close.

While Akinde was highly effective as a focal point, Town's opposite number Will Harris was badly lacking in decent service, especially from wide areas.

It just wasn't coming together as an attacking force, as Halifax laboured to break the hosts down.

And it went from bad to worse when a bizarre goal doubled Braintree's lead: a looping header looked to be fairly simple for Sam Johnson to claim but the Halifax skipper spilled it under pressure from Frankie Terry and it bobbled in.

It wasn't even half-time in the first game and Town were already needing the reset button.

The Shaymen did at least come out for the second-half with a renewed sense of purpose and on the front foot, beginning to dominate the game, but didn't make the most of the positions they got in.

Harris finally got a glimpse of goal just before the hour mark but his shot was brilliantly blocked by George Langston.

Slowly but surely, Town were making inroads, producing more effective football and penetrating the Braintree defence.

But all that was in vain when Walker converted from close range after Halifax failed to clear a free-kick with 20 minutes left.

From bad to worse to worse still.

Substitute David Kawa had sight of goal late on from Harris' lay-off but skewed a shot well wide, which kind of summed things up.

Seven minutes of added time seemed unnecessarily generous in prolonging the agony, before the day was rounded off when Harris' penalty was saved after Tom Pugh had been barged over in the box.

Braintree: M Terry, Francis-Clarke, Langston, Smith, F Terry, Vennings (Omore 89), Miranda, Thorpe (Cooper 90), Hubbard (Judge 70), Walker, Akinde (Kamara 62). Subs not used: Pinnington, Hockey.

Scorers: Walker (3, 70), S Johnson (og 34)

Shots on target: 3

Shots off target: 9

Corners: 1

Halifax: Johnson, Crowe, Hobson, Adetoro, Latty-Fairweather (Kawa 81), C Johnson, Hugill (Pugh 90), Bray (Cappello 68), Hmami, Cooke (Jenkins 90), Harris. Subs not used: Ford, Tarima, Mills.

Shots on target: 1

Shots off target: 3

Corners: 7

Referee: Isaac Searle

Attendance: 1,011 (79 away)

Town man of the match: No-one really stood out. Very difficult to pick anyone, but I'll go for Josh Hmami, who at least tried to make things happen in the number ten role.