Haringey Borough 7 (4) - (0) 1 ROMFORD Attendance 116 - Coles Park

They had last played at Coles Park shortly after reformation twenty four years ago, but it was an unhappy return for Boro as costly defensive errors allowed Haringey to go in at half time with a four goal lead, leaving the visitors with a mountain to climb.
Straight from the kick off the home team showed that they had mastered the techniques needed to cope with the ball coming very fast off their new artificial surface and Callum Chafer had to tip over a shot in the first minute, but ironically Boro conceded the first goal just as they had settled down and looked threatening in a good attacking spell. A wayward pass was intercepted and Markus broke quickly into space down the Boro left and squared it across for strike partner Benjamin to side foot home in the tenth minute. Nine minutes later Markus again got free down the same wing and this time was able to lob the onrushing Chafer to put the hosts two up. He then registered his second in the twenty fifth minute after being given too much time on the edge of area and it was only another four minutes before Benjamin did likewise to put Haringey seemingly out of sight before a third of the match had been completed. As the half drew to a close Romford's best effort came after Chinedu McKenzie had won the ball and fed Jamie Dicks whose shot beat the keeper but landed on the roof of the net.
Things got worse for Boro in only the second minute of the second half when a speculative shot came back off the post and was crossed back in for Benjamin to complete his hat trick. This prompted Paul Martin to send on all three substitutes and their was an immediate improvement with Romford putting Haringey on the back foot for the first time in the match. On fifty two minutes a defence splitting pass put McKenzie clean through to smash the ball past the advancing keeper and reduce the deficit. Almost from the kick off Ayodeji Olukoga had a shot charged down, but then in their first attack for some time a Haringey forward was pulled down giving Markus the opportunity to hit home a beautifully flighted free kick and register the second hat trick of the game.
Everything that could go wrong was going wrong for Romford, but at no stage in the match did anybody throw in the towel and straight from the kick off they went back on the attack. McKenzie dribbled into the box before being tripped and stepped up to take the resulting penalty. What happened next will long be remembered by everybody who witnessed it with the referee who up to then had had an excellent game, probably making the biggest blunder of his career. McKenzie easily beat the keeper, but the ball hit the metal bar at the back of goal and came straight back out. Amazingly it appeared that the official for some reason had not seen it go in and actually gave a free kick against McKenzie for handball because he had picked up the ball to waste no time in getting it back to the centre spot where he naturally thought Haringey would be kicking off. All the Boro protests eventually prompted the ref to consult his linesman but apparently he was the only other person in the ground who had not seen it go in.
Fired up by the sense of injustice Romford gave a much better account of themselves from then on and shaded the rest of the match, although Haringey did get their seventh near the end through substitute Asamoah to complete a miserable afternoon for Boro in North London.

HARINGEY BOROUGH (4) 7 Benjamin 10,27,47 Markus 18,24,58 Asamoah 84

ROMFORD (0) 1 Chinedu McKenzie 52

ROMFORD: Callum CHAFER, Jonathan ADEBAYO, Tarren DHARIWEL (Ashley BANKOLE 47), Matt TOMS, Ryan BOSWELL, James AGE (Danny COSSINGTON 47), Ryan MALLET, Jamie DICKS, Chinedu McKENZIE, Ayo OLUKOGA, Will GREEN (Chris TAYLOR 47)
Subs Not Used: Stephen Reynolds, Nick Reynolds.

Yellow Card: Ashley Bankole 59.

Match report by Phil Redwin