ROMFORD 1 (1) - (2) 2 Dereham Town Attendance 61 - Ship Lane‏

For the opening half hour a confident Boro produced some of their best attacking football of the season with some great passing combinations. After only seven minutes Danny Cossington, returning to the midfield after a long injury lay off picked up the ball and found Jamie Dicks out on the right with a superb diagonal crossfield pass. Dicks cut inside and played a one-two with Chris Taylor before smashing an unstoppable thirty yard shot into the net. Buoyed up by this early score Romford continued to pile on the pressure with Dicks firing over after another good move, James Ishmail coming forward to head against the crossbar from George Woodward's corner and a number of half chances created but not finished. However, there is always a worry in the back of the mind when such superiority cannot be capitalised on and Dereham had a good effort tipped over by Gooch with their first serious sight of goal. Even though, it was still a shock when they unexpectedly equalised on thirty four minutes when a long ball into the goalmouth by Matthew Cooke seemed to gather pace with the wind, beating Gooch and dipping under the crossbar. Seven minutes later the turnaround was complete as a ball played through the Boro defence was hit first time on the half volley by Ryan Crisp to give the visitors a rather fortunate lead at the break.

Romford started the second half well and almost immediately went close with a left foot shot not too far past the post by Taylor. However, after a while Dereham whilst still not having the territorial advantage began to look very dangerous on the break and could have easily gone further ahead. Tom Potter had to make a desperate clearance after a shot from close in and a Gooch miscued kick straight to a visiting forward looked on it's way back in, but the keeper made amends with a point blank save. Dereham then hit the same post twice in as many minutes with a header and a shot, but Boro survived and then rallied again and went looking for the equaliser. Tom Anderson headed over and then their best chance fell to Nick Reynolds after seventy three minutes. There was nothing wrong with his volley that was hit with power and heading for the top corner but Willam Viner in the away goal some how got a hand to the ball and it flew inches wide of the post. Dereham now put up the shutters and apart from a flicked Reynolds header in added time that went just wide, were able to see out the game and record a league double over Boro.

ROMFORD (1) 1 JAMIE DICKS 7,

DEREHAM TOWN (2) 2 COOKE 34, CRISP 41

ROMFORD: MICHAEL GOOCH, RYAN BOSWELL, CHRIS BARRY (GREG AKPELE 70), JAMES ISHMAIL, TOM POTTER, JAMIE DICKS, GEORGE WOODWARD, DANNY COSSINGTON (BESFORT SADIKU 63), NICK REYNOLDS, CHRIS TAYLOR (AKWASI MARFO 70), TOM ANDERSON SUBS NOT USED MATT FREW & RICHARD WRAY