Romford 3 (2) v Concord Rangers 2 (0) - Attendance 88

Concord made the early running as you expected from a team full of confidence from coming into this match on the back of eleven unbeaten league matches of which only one was a draw.

During the first ten minutes Martin Heed had to leave the field suffering from the ill effects of an injury incurred last Saturday but Boro were fortunate enough to be able replace him with their forward hit man Toran Senghore.

Try as they might and with their initial superiority the visitors couldn’t get the ball into dangerous positions around their opponents’ goal due to solid home defensive play.

In fact most of the Concord efforts during this period consisted of long range shooting which either went wide or high or direct to Neil Finn in the Romford goal with Paul Shaves, Steve King, Kayan Kalipha and Danny Heale all being guilty of such misses

At this stage Boro began to come more into the game and had their moments with Kurt Smith particularly giving his opposing defence lots to think about.

It was this player who gave the home side a deserved 1-0 lead on 21 minutes when he chased a through ball into the visitors’ penalty area and bested two defenders by courtesy of an awkwardly bouncing ball which he swept across ‘keeper Dale Brightly into his net.

Concord still failed to make anything out of their attacks and paid the penalty when Romford’s lead increased to 2-0 some twenty minutes later.

A Smith run down the left and turn goalwards along the dead ball line was followed by and low ball from him across the visiting goalmouth with a subsequent shot rebounding off Brightly to Toran Senghore who drove the ball firmly into goal.

At the back end of the first half Brightly was also forced to make some further important saves to prevent his team going three or even four goals behind before the interval whistle which came after four minutes of added time.

Concord came out determined to raise their game as the second period developed and they subsequently reduced their deficit to a single goal on 60 minutes when Steve King scored with one of his trademark headers from a free kick supplied from the near their right touchline.

Just five minutes after this Boro went down to ten men when midfielder James Gammons was adjudged to have downed Concord’s Michael Begg with an over robust tackle and received a straight red card.

This incident was also interesting in the fact that it appeared to give every visiting player the opportunity to be an amateur referee and give the official man in the middle their advice on the subject as well as being joined in this verbal exercise by the visiting bench and the vociferous away supporters from various places on the terraces or in the stand.

Not that this interference swayed the proper referee of course although it was symptomatic of the behaviour of the Concord players throughout the game which sometimes boiled over into almost childish tantrums as decisions didn’t go their way and because they were never able to get the game under the control that they felt they had the right to enjoy because of their opponents’ determination to prevent them doing so.

For his part the referee may have seemed to be a little over fussy at times but he had a strong hand on things and kept control of a game where emotions constantly bubbled along just under the surface on the pitch and at the team benches.

The visitors tried even harder to take advantage from this turn of events in their favour but their hosts defended vigorously and attacked on the break when ever the opportunity afforded.

They were rewarded for their refusal to submit on 85 minutes when Smith was pulled down in the box and his team mate Paul Kavanagh converted the resulting spot kick to give them a two goal clear lead again at 3-1.

Trying to maximise on their one man advantage the visitors began to pile on the pressure but the home side dealt competently with everything that was thrown at them.

Eventually, however, Concord managed to break through the Romford defensive cordon with Joao Carlos scoring on 90 minutes to set up a nail biting finale in their attempts to get a point or even three out of the game.

The 90 minutes deadline came together with six agonising minutes of added time for Boro players and fans to endure until, to great rejoicing both on the field and terraces, the final whistle went with Boro holding on for a hard fought 3-2 win and three valuable point.

Romford squad: Finn, Clayton, Neville, Libby, Toms, Gammons, Heed (Senghore 9), Barry, Smith, Thomas, Kavanagh. Subs not used: Protheroe, Jones, Oxby and Mulrooney (GK).

Brentwood Town, who beat run away league leaders Lowestoft Town this same Tuesday evening, are Boro’s next guests at Mill Field, Aveley this Saturday, March 13th and the following Tuesday evening they entertain Great Wakering Rovers.