Boro Deserved More

Romford (0) 1, Athletic Newham (1) 2 – Wednesday 15th November 2023 – Essex Senior League

Football has often been called The Beautiful Game, but to describe this game as such would be wide of the mark, for while the visitors clearly have some talented players and are capable of producing attractive football, the propensity with which they hurled themselves to the ground at the slightest hint of physical contact was a particularly unedifying spectacle. Anderson Baro was especially prone to this; on at least four occasions he appeared to be in urgent need of medical attention only to fully recover once his objective of earning a free-kick or a lengthy delay in play had been achieved.

Newham were dominant in the early stages and after a second minute shot from the ever dangerous Richard Kone had gone wide, they took the lead after nine minutes when Daniel Izekor flicked home a low cross from the right with the aid of a generous deflection that gave Jake Anderson no chance.

Izekor was then only denied by a last ditch intervention by Kris Newby after the Newham player had dispossessed Darren Phillips after 17 minutes and five minutes later Izekor laid the ball off to Kone, whose shot Romford were grateful to see pass harmlessly across goal.

Romford were not without chances however, as Lewwis Spence shot low and hard but straight at Newham keeper Wilkinson Boateng, and then Phillips fired over the bar after the ball had been laid back to him from a low cross that stemmed from the unlikely source of Michael Turner on the left flank.

With 37 minutes played, a moment of high controversy. Hassan Nalbant had a clear run at Boateng’s goal, but appeared to be dragged down by the last Newham defender, Christopher De Nguidjol. The expected free-kick and potential red card did not materialise, much to the disgust of Boro manager Dan Spinks, whose expression of displeasure earned him a yellow card from referee Liam Giles.

Newham’s Andrew Greenslade was booked for kicking the ball away after conceding a free-kick in the last minute of the half, and in the five minutes of additional time, Boro’s Flynn Hamilton was cautioned as Baro went down for the umpteenth time after being fouled while Michael Adu also went to ground in exaggerated fashion after an aerial challenge with Kris Newby.

The second half opened with two long range efforts from Romford. Hassan Nalbant’s shot proved a comfortably catch for Boateng, but the Newham goalkeeper was nowhere near Spence’s shot from the halfway line that drifted tantalisingly wide of the left hand upright.

Kris Newby was yellow carded after 52 minutes for a foul on the fragile Baro which led to a melee in which the Romford skipper was struck by a Newham player who was also cautioned.

Newham doubled their lead rather against the run of play after 64 minutes when Izekor found himself alone and suspiciously offside looking in the Romford penalty area and rolled the ball past Anderson.

Boro pulled one back with ten minutes of normal time remaining when Newby’s right wing corner was not gathered by Boateng and the ball fell kindly for Charlie Morris to convert from close range. Two minutes later and Nalbant was denied a penalty when, from Ashaan Siddik’s ball in from the right, he was on the end of a significant push in the back but frustratingly, the referee was in the minority in seeing nothing amiss.

Little was seen of Newham as an attacking threat by this stage and an equaliser would have been no more than Boro deserved. Kris Newby had a free-kick saved after 82 minutes and in the fourth of eight added minutes (and frankly there could have been double that, what with the frequent injuries to Newham players that required treatment and their time consuming late substitutions) Charlie Morris had a cracking shot from outside the box turned away by Boateng.

Boro missed the chance to go back to the top of the table with this defeat, but the result was harsh on a side missing four or five players who have been regular starters in recent weeks.

Romford: Jake Anderson, Jamie Hursit, Charlie Morris, Kris Newby, Darren Phillips, Michael Turner, Amaree Robinson-Jones, Lewwis Spence, Hassan Nalbant, Flynn Hamilton (Ashaan Siddik, 68m), Jacob Wiggins (Lee Hursit, 73m). Unused subs: Toheeb Elegushi, Wayne Baker, Junior Luke.