ROMFORD 0 (0) - (1) 1 AFC Sudbury Attendance 86 - Ship Lane

Sudbury started off like a train, pinging the ball around skilfully at speed and had a goal ruled out early on for offside. They actually went ahead after ten minutes when Callender flicked the ball first time through the Boro defence to Blackwell who went around Michael Gooch and shot in, despite the best efforts of Ryan Boswell on the line. Soon after it took a great last ditch saving tackle from George Tubey to prevent what looked a likely second and before the half hour was up they had a further goal adjudged offside and gone very near on another couple of occasions. However, Romford weathered the storm and towards the end of the first half started to probe the Sudbury defence. They created a decent opportunity when Nick Reynolds, playing in a more withdrawn role than usual headed on to Chris Taylor who hit the ball well from distance, but just wide of the target.
Early in the second half Gooch had to make a great save from a close in volley, but from then on the Boro defence started to play a higher line that the visitors found harder to break down and got them caught offside on numerous occasions. Going forward Romford were now causing Sudbury some problems, helped by three bold substitutions of attacking players for midfielders and a defender. On seventy one minutes Jamie Dicks was fouled near the half way line and put a well flighted free kick into the box that was half cleared towards Reynolds and his on target volley was only blocked on the line and fell very kindly onto a Sudbury boot to scramble clear from the crowded area.
The evening had seen a welcome return after injury by Greg Akpele, and he and Akwasi Marfo were beating defenders down the wings and putting in dangerous crosses but Sudbury were also defending well and the Boro attack were out of luck.
The final whistle brought a tenth consecutive win for the Suffolk club who are increasingly looking a good bet for the championship but Romford should not be downhearted after a good performance against such strong opponents.

ROMFORD (0) 0

AFC SUDBURY (1) 1 BLACKWELL 10,

ROMFORD: MICHAEL GOOCH, RYAN BOSWELL, JAMIE DICKS, MATT FREW, MOSHOOD OLAFUNMISHE (AKWASI MARFO 76), LIAM BURGESS, GEORGE TUBEY (JOE SCOTT 53), CHRIS TAYLOR (ZAK TALHA 69), NICK REYNOLDS, CHINEDU MCKENZIE, GREG AKPELE SUBS NOT USED TOM POTTER

Match Report by Phil Redwin