Angelo Harrop's first competitive match at the Dunmow Group Stadium resulted in the points being shared following an eventful tie with the Hampshire outfit.
Paul Doswell's Hawks were fresh off the back of an opening day triumph over Slough Town and looked to carry that momentum into their away trip against The Iron.
After ninety minutes, the two sides played out a 1-1 draw, with goals coming from James Roberts and Levi Amantchi. The game began at a slow pace, though quickly livened up after the visitors were struck down to ten men in the wake of Jason Prior's dismissal within twenty minutes.
Not only did the red card cause much more open spells of play for both teams, it lead to the deadlock being broken just after half an hour, however this preceded a wave of domination from the hosts for the rest of the first forty-five and subsequently the remainder of the match.
Story of the match
Visitors Havant arrived in Essex with an unchanged lineup from last week's win, hopeful of repeating the feat once more, this time away from home.
Contrastingly, the home side made two alterations to the starting eleven, Kyron Farrell replacing the injured Leon Davies, along with Bermudian international Willie Clemons being preferred over Chris Regis.
Braintree made the brighter start with last week's scorer Alfie Matthews curling a free-kick into a dangerous area which was tipped out for a corner by keeper Ross Worner. The resultant corner would lead to nothing, as an attempted counter-attack from Havant was thwarted by a well-timed challenge from debutant Farrell.
Not long later, the visitors seemed the likelier to score, with chances coming from Paul Rooney and Jake McCarthy, yet neither shots troubled the man between the sticks for hosts, Jack Sims.
Nineteen minutes gone and disaster struck for The Hawks succeeding a scuffle on the side-line, which ultimately culminated in Jason Prior lashing out at Braintree skipper John White with a kick, the former receiving a straight red for his actions.
Despite the reduction of players, Doswell's men pressed on and eventually found themselves in front, Roberts netting a spectacular strike across goal, beating Sims with ease and finding the top corner from range.
Still numerically disadvantaged, Harrop appeared to switch up the playstyle of his team, making use of the extra space and spending more time in possession before picking out the right pass. Players were given the freedom to drive forward in search of clearer opportunities, and a succession of set-piece chances came as a result.
Making his first competitive start, Clemons had two headers that were impressively kept out, the earliest causing a scramble in the six yard box, and the latter forcing an unbelievable save from Worner, who flung himself across the face of his goal to deny Clemons once more, shortly before half time.
Once the second half commenced, Iron began to play with a noticeably higher degree of freedom, leading to a spell of opportunities which really should have resulted in an equaliser. Lively winger Clemons was again involved, with another header, and similarly to earlier chances, Worner denied the Burmadian. On the other flank, Ben Fowkes creatively weaved his way into the area and had his shot blocked, target man Amantchi attempted to recover the possibility of a leveller with a reactionary effort that was also well intercepted by the Hawks defence.
Substitute Aaron Blair almost made an immediate impact, lobbing the goalkeeper, only to see his effort trickle wide of the far post, and the score remain 1-0. Having made his threat known, Blair, and the majority of the home support, thought they had found their elusive equalising goal, only for the linesman to rule out the superb curved strike, silencing the home crowd.
The Iron were not to be denied, however, as Amantchi, who had struggled to make his mark so far, latched on to a smart cross from Farrell. He powered a strong header beyond the reach of the goalkeeper and the ball landed over the line after the shot crashed off the crossbar, at last levelling the scores.
Inside a short span of time, the hosts came within millimetres of snatching the lead, first through Regis being denied by the post and the ball agonisingly rolling along the goal-line, swiftly followed by fellow substitute Blair directing a loose ball towards goal only to be incredibly cleared off the line by central defender Joash Nembhard.
It was not to be for the home side, as the referee signalled for full time, the final score remaining 1-1. This elevated Braintree Town to 16th in the table, while the visitors Havant & Waterlooville dropped to 5th.
Player of the match
He may have lost the clean sheet late on, but there was nothing he could do about the one shot that beat him, Ross Warner stopped everything that came at him, and you can't help but imagine that without him between the sticks, Braintree would have scored more than just the one.