Tilbury 3 (0) - (0) 1 ROMFORD Attendance 81- Chadfields‏

Romford fan Michael Woods completed his sixteen mile trek from Westlands to Tilbury in a staggering five hours eleven minutes raising over £1000 so the club can buy a defibrillator.

Unfortunately on the pitch Romford could not match his efforts and they spent most of the first half on the back foot with keeper Michael Gooch tipping an inswinging corner over his crossbar in the eighth minute while three minutes later the hosts missed a glorious chance to open the scoring when the forward shot wide from six yards after getting on the end of a cross. Romford were having difficulty getting out of their own half and Tilbury missed another golden chance when Tony Martin headed straight at Gooch when an inch either side would have resulted in a goal. A flurry of bookings due to mistimed challenges in the damp conditions followed before Romford got their first chance on thirty-eight minutes. Akwasi Marfo did well down the left and crossed to Nick Reynolds but the defender did just enough to put him off his shot. Five minutes later and Romford again nearly took the lead when Marfo and Chinedu McKenzie linked up before the latter found Luke Stanley who cut in from the right and hit a left foot shot across the keeper, but the ball hit the post and came back out at an awkward height for McKenzie and allowing the ball to be cleared by the recovering Tilbury defence.

Romford continued on the attack straight after the break and it was only three minutes before they did take the lead when the Tilbury keeper hit a clearance straight to Luke Stanley and his cushioned header found McKenzie clean through and he made no mistake, curling the ball into the far corner. Romford could only hold the advantage for thirteen minutes though, as a long ball into the area was headed home by Martin as he out jumped Gooch in the Romford goal. Then from a corner another free header gave Tilbury the lead when Eimel Aitken nodded in the cross on sixty-four minutes before nine minutes later former Boro forward Martin hit a his free kick against the bar and Jack Carlile was on hand to poke home the rebound after it seemed to take an age to drop back down from a height into the goalmouth.

With the two goal cushion Tilbury were now content to see the game out and although Romford managed to create some half chances in the time remaining there was no further score.

TILBURY (0) 3 MARTIN 61, AITKEN 64, CARLILE 73

ROMFORD (0) 1 CHINEDU MCKENZIE 48

ROMFORD: MICHAEL GOOCH, ROBBIE NORRIS (TOM POTTER 78), LUKE STANLEY, DANNY COSSINGTON, MATT FREW, CONNOR GOLDSTONE (LIAM BURGESS 68), JAKE GIDDINGS, RYAN BOSWELL, NICK REYNOLDS (LEE WEEMES 78), CHINEDU MCKENZIE, AKWASI MARFO SUBS NOT USED CHRIS TAYLOR, GEORGE WOODWARD

YELLOW CARDS: CHINEDU MCKENZIE 27, MATT FREW 30