Heybridge Swifts 1 (0) - (1) 1 ROMFORD Attendance 117 -Scraley Road‏

They got off to a flyer after only thirty-four seconds when straight from kick off the visitors maintained possession before Akwasi Marfo, who was restored to the starting line up found a bit of space and curled an effort towards goal that was parried by the keeper but Nick Reynolds was on hand to smash the ball home. The Boro had all the play in the opening quarter and in the fifth minute Adeyinka Cole danced his way into the penalty area and pulled the ball back to Jamie Dicks who fired just over the bar. It was Dicks again at the centre of the action when his right wing cross nearly dipped in at the far post but was just about clawed away by the Heybridge stopper five minutes later. The game's first controversial decision came in the eighteenth minute when as Heybridge passed the ball along their own back line Cole nipped in to steal it and was clean through, but the attacking midfielder was wrestled to the ground. The referee gave the foul but not only failed to produce the mandatory red card, but to the amazement of everyone in the stadium did not even show a yellow. George Woodward took the free kick and it was heading in before being pushed away by keeper Sambridge. Reynolds had a great chance to double Romford's lead in the twenty-third minute when Marfo's clearance fell kindly to him but the striker volleyed just wide from thirty yards when he could maybe have taken another touch when advancing on goal and Reynolds was unlucky again two minutes later, heading over when out jumping Sambridge. Heybridge then had their first serious attack and should have equalised but a low right wing cross was pushed wide by the forward with the goal gaping on twenty-seven minutes. Then four minute later after a clear foul on a Romford player was ignored Boro keeper Michael Gooch had to tip over a powerful drive from twelve yards and then from the subsequent corner the ball was headed off the line. On thirty-eight minutes Gooch made two fantastic close range saves to deny the Swifts forwards before in first half stoppage time Dicks beat his man in the box and was clipped. Ryan Boswell took the penalty but his effort was saved giving Heybridge a boost going into the break..

The quality of football after the interval could not live up to that in the first half with the standard of the refereeing probably being a major factor as he annoyed both teams by missing clear fouls and giving free kicks where there were none. Romford did have a couple of good chances with Marfo doing brilliantly to set up Cole, but his flying header was pushed away and George Woodward sending a free kick just wide with the keeper well beaten. Everyone could see the game was bubbling up and the challenges were getting heavier and later before Cole was sent off for a late challenge to reduce the Boro to ten men, but that advantage only lasted for four minutes as home defender George Doyle, son of ex-Boro man John was dismissed for a second bookable offence. With both teams down to ten men Heybridge seemed to cope better and created a string of chances and with five minutes to go grabbed an equaliser when a corner was not cleared leaving Jack Smith to scramble the ball home. With six minutes injury time to be played both teams had a chance to win the match with Heybridge hitting the bar from a long range effort and Romford's Matt Frew having his goalbound effort cleared off the line with virtually the last kick of the game. The draw left both teams on the same number of points but Boro with a game in hand.

HEYBRIDGE SWIFTS (0) 1 SMITH 85

ROMFORD (1) 1 NICK REYNOLDS 1

ROMFORD: MICHAEL GOOCH, RYAN BOSWELL, GEORGE WOODWARD, MATT FREW, TOM POTTER, DANNY COSSINGTON (REION MCFARLANE 88), JAMIE DICKS, JAMES ISHMAIL, NICK REYNOLDS (CHRIS BARRY 82), AKWASI MARFO (MICHAEL DIXON 69), ADE COLE SUBS NOT USED RICHARD WRAY, SAM COE

YELLOW CARD: JAMIE DICKS 45

RED CARD: ADE COLE 75