Barkingside 4 (0) - (0) 0 ROMFORD Attendance 114 - Cricklefields‏

..... disastrous second half.

Barkingside who have already been relegated but are still trying to avoid the bottom spot in case of reprieves kept that hope alive by chalking up their best league win of the season against a strangely below par Boro. Unable to get their nice football going on a boggy, bumpy pitch the visitors had to resort to long balls and in a very poor first half performance by both teams the only real chance came when Side beat Romford's offside trap, but after the initial effort was blocked by Michael Gooch he produced a stunning double from the follow up to deny the forward.

The game opened up early in the second half with Barkingside beating the offside trap again only for Gooch to once again be on hand to deny the hosts. At the other end Nick Reynolds twice went close in quick succession, first muscling his way through and having a goal bound shot blocked then after good work by Akwasi Marfo, he fired over from the edge of the area. The breakthrough came on fifty minutes when a long free kick found lanky Luke With unmarked in the box and his header across goal was met by George Lutaaya to head home. It was two nil fourteen minutes later when Romford lost the ball in midfield and a stab forward found Tyrone Scarlett unmarked and clean through and the ex-Boro striker's first time effort beat Gooch. James Ishmail went close for Romford heading wide a Marfo cross while With should have been shown a red card after kicking out at Jamie Dicks whilst the Boro man was grounded, but the referee amazed the whole stadium by only showing him a yellow. It is not the first time this season that Romford have seen this sort of offence by opponents dealt with very leniently and to rub salt into their wounds With quickly made it three, heading home a long ball into the box. He then got a second, this time from the spot after a Barkingside sub was tripped in the box. Despite this grievance Romford could not complain too much about the result but to their credit did not give up even though the match was gone. Late on they at last started to play something like their normal game and right up to the end of added time were still desperately trying to pull at least one goal back.They will hope for better at promotion play-off chasing Cheshunt on Saturday.

BARKINGSIDE (0) 4 LUTAAYA 50, SCARLETT 64, WITH 79, 83 (PEN)

ROMFORD (0) 0

ROMFORD: MICHAEL GOOCH, RYAN BOSWELL, CHRIS BARRY, MATT FREW, JAMES ISHMAIL, DANNY COSSINGTON (TOM ANDERSON 65), JAMIE DICKS, REION MCFARLANE (GREG AKPELE 65), NICK REYNOLDS, JOE PAXMAN (MICHAEL DIXON 57), AKWASI MARFO SUBS NOT USED CHRIS TAYLOR & TOM POTTER