Grays Athletic 2 (1) - (0) 0 ROMFORD

It was a cagey opening with Romford's first decent chance coming on 20 minutes with Nick Reynolds heading wide. Two minutes later excellent interplay down the left between Tom Richardson and Jamie Dicks ended with the latter having a screamer tipped around the post. The resulting corner was taken short by Richardson and eventually crossed in for Reynolds to have a point blank header well saved.
On the half hour a Grays break down the left brought a great save from Aaron Omand and was cleared to the half way line where a foul on Jamie Dicks resulted in players from both sides getting involved in a scuffle and bookings for Dicks and a Grays midfielder. Then controversy, as Aaron Omand did brilliantly to push a fierce shot upwards onto the crossbar and then lay amazed as the ref accepted the signalling of a goal by the Grays sub acting as a stand in linesman, much to the amusement of the Grays support and dersion of those from Romford.The half ended with George Woodward smashing the ball just past the post after receiving a short free kick.
Most of the second period was a stop start affair with the intense heat starting to take it's toll on the players. Omand came up with another excellent save after 57 minutes and then Reynolds again headed just wide.
Grays extended their lead on 76 minutes from the rebound after hitting the post and then could have made it three after once again striking the woodwork. Despite bringing on more subs Boro could not get on the scoresheet with skipper Jack Barry coming nearest two minutes from time.

ROMFORD: Aaron Omand, Paul Preston, Jamie Dicks (George Woodward 33), Scott Truman (Taj Hussain 46), James Ishmail (David Ottley 86), Nathan Cooper, Jack Barry (c), Abs Seymour, Nick Reynolds (Jordan Thomas 79), Tom Richardson (Miguel Lopes Dematos 79), Paul Clayton
UNUSED SUBS: Davis Boateng, Matt Toms,

YELLOW CARD: Jamie Dicks 30

CELEBRITY WATCH: After Jonjo Shelvey being a spectator at Barking, today's match was graced by the presence of Boro legend Paul (Plank) Evans.

MATCH REPORT BY PHIL REDWIN