Cray Wanderers 2 (1) - (0) 1 ROMFORD Attendance 142 - Hayes Lane

In the first minute of the match Aaron Omand mistimed his dive at the feet of Cray forward Cesc Fakinos and brought him down for a penalty. The Boro keeper escaped with a caution as the Cray man was heading away from the goal but could not prevent Chris Piper from opening the scoring from the spot. However, almost straight from the kick off a direct pass into the box found Ryan Imbert clear on goal before he was chopped down. To the amazement of the Romford supporters at that end the referee, who was quite a way behind the play booked the Boro forward for perceived simulation and disgracefully his linesman who was right on the spot would not draw his boss's attention to the injustice.

For the rest of the half there were few clear cut chances as both teams struggled to come to terms with the windy conditions and seemed to prefer the long ball option in attempting to get behind the two stubborn defences. For Romford a Ryan Imbert header went just wide, as did a Loui Hazlewood chip from the edge of box and Tyrone Scarlett and Abs Seymour had efforts not too far over the bar. At the other end Boro had to replace injured defender Luke McLeavy with winger Callum Ibe and Aaron Omand pulled off a couple of excellent saves before just before half time a Cray header came back off the crossbar.

Only two minutes after the break Romford were back on terms when Tyrone Scarlett beat his man on the right before cutting back across the edge of the penalty area and firing left footed into the goal past a number of defenders and the keeper. Boro resumed the attack straight from the kick off but almost immediately were pegged back again when the referee ignored a clear foul on Ryan Imbert just outside the box, and while the Romford man lay injured Cray broke upfield and a cross from the right was side footed home by Helge Orome. The home team now had a long time to defend the lead but it did not stop them from straight away starting the time wasting tactics which were acknowledged by the referee but produced little in the way of added minutes at the end of the match. With this and the constant disruption of a long series of niggling fouls and some desperate clearances into the stands Romford could not get the equaliser. Jack Barry shot just wide, Loui Hazlewood had a cross cleared off the line and then had a bullet header tipped wide by a superb full length dive by the Cray keeper as it was heading to the top corner.

CRAY WANDERERS (1) 2 PIPER 2 PEN, OROME 49.

ROMFORD (0) 1 TYRONE SCARLETT 48.

ROMFORD: AARON OMAND, SAMUEL KEMP, LUKE MCLEAVY (CALLUM IBE 34), JAMES ISHMAIL (ROBBIE NORRIS 83), NATHAN COOPER, JACK BARRY, LOUI HAZELWOOD, ABS SEYMOUR, RYAN IMBERT, JOE SCOTT (NICK REYNOLDS 75), TYRONE SCARLETT SUBS NOT USED EDDIE HART, MANZI MBALA.

YELLOW CARD: AARON OMAND 2, RYAN IMBERT 4, CALLUM IBE 43, ABS SEYMOUR 64, NATHAN COOPER 67.