Thamesmead Town 0 (0) - (0) 1 ROMFORD Attendance 50 - Bayliss Avenue‏

Daniel Jones, on his return to the club nearly opened the scoring on five minutes when he swivelled in the area but could only fire over, then two minutes later Eddie Hart headed just over from Callum Ibe’s left wing cross. At the other end Aaron Omand tipped a long distance free kick wide on twenty minutes before a long period where neither team could threaten the target although Romford did enjoy most of the territorial advantage. On forty minutes and after good play by Eddie Hart, Callum Ibe curled a shot towards the far corner but the crossbar denied him then moments later Daniel Jones’s reverse pass found Eddie Hart but the striker hit his left foot shot wide. In first half stoppage time Thamesmead should have broken the deadlock when a quick one two found midfielder Jack Hopkins racing through but Aaron Omand stayed on his feet for a long time before saving low to his left.

Aaron Omand was forced into an early save in the second half before Callum Ibe beat two men down the left wing and pulled back for Eddie Hart, and just as the Boro faithful were expecting to see the net bulge the Thamesmead keeper flung himself to his left to tip the ball wide. On fifty-two minutes Romford did finally break the deadlock when Robbie Norris threw in the ball to Samuel Kemp and his deep cross was volleyed home on the run by Eddie Hart. Two minutes later, and from a Thamesmead free kick Romford thought they had thrown away their advantage when the linesman gave a foul in the box for shirt pulling but Adem Ramadan’s penalty struck the crossbar. Suddenly the referee started dishing out cards left , right and centre to both teams for not much at all before Romford became very wasteful in front of goal. First Samuel Kemp broke the offside trap and tried to round the keeper but the Thamesmead number one got his foot to the ball to clear before next up was Daniel Jones who managed to hit the keeper when clean through even though it looked easier to score. From the resulting corner Nathan Cooper headed the ball low into the corner but once again man of the match Rob Budd somehow kept the ball out. The referee inexplicably decided to play five minutes injury time and in the third minute of it Abs Seymour broke through and was brought down by Derek Duncan who was shown a second yellow card. Two minutes later Thamesmead substitute Lee Coburn received his second soft yellow card to reduce the hosts to nine men and make it that much easier for Romford to see out the game and earn a valuable three points.

THAMESMEAD (0) 0

ROMFORD (0) 1 EDDIE HARTE 52,

ROMFORD: AARON OMAND, ROBBIE NORRIS, TYLER HAYES, NATHAN COOPER, PAUL CLAYTON, GEORGE COCKLIN, SAMUEL KEMP (REECE COSSON 89), ABS SEYMOUR, EDDIE HART, DANIEL JONES, CALLUM IBE SUBS NOT USED NICK REYNOLDS, SOLOMON AKINSHADE, JACK BARRY.

YELLOW CARDS: GEORGE COCKLIN 54, SAMUEL KEMP 69, NATHAN COOPER 69, ROBBIE NORRIS 73, CALLUM IBE 85.