Ware 3 (0) - (0) 0 ROMFORD Attendance 69 -Wodson Park

After winning the toss Boro made the sensible decision to kick up Wodson Park's considerable slope in the first half which also forced their opponents to face the bright Winter sun. After only two minutes Will Green, who had been recalled to the starting line up raced past his marker down the left and squared the ball back to Nick Reynolds whose powerful sidefooted drive was too near to the keeper. Then Chinedu McKenzie set Green free through the middle but he could only shoot wide of the post. Boro continued to have the territorial advantage with Ware's only threats coming from dribbles down the left by the dangerous Gareth Price but the shooting chances he set up for his fellow forwards all went high and wide. On the half hour Green received the ball yards ahead of the Ware back line but was not offside having collected it from Chris Barry's long throw, and the winger's great cross looked to have set up Reynolds but the ball was taken off his toe by a desperate slide tackle from a home defender. Danny Cossington then went close with a header from the resulting corner before the first of a number of scuffles which always seem to break out when Boro visit Ware, resulted in a yellow card for either side.

Playing down the slope in the second half Romford were even more dominant than before the interval and it looked just a matter of time before they took the lead. Green's forty ninth minute shot from well outside the penalty area clipped the top of crossbar and a few minutes later substitute Kwasi Marfo's rising shot also came back off the bar after a clearance out from a corner fell to him. Any Romford supporter will tell you that a match at Ware will always be marked by at least one outrageous incident to the detriment of the visitors and this inevitably happened on the hour when the referee correctly blew for a push on Reynolds. Trouble was, despite having a clear view from only a short distance away he only awarded a free kick when the foul had actually been committed yards inside the penalty area.
As the game wore on both teams were finding it hard work to play too much football on the pudding of a pitch but chances were being created at both ends. Most were down the bottom end that Romford were attacking but McKenzie especially was having no luck in front of goal and was unable to add to his recent prolific scoring run having a clever lob well saved and being robbed in front of goal at the last moment as he was about to pull the trigger after being put through by Reynolds. It was looking increasingly likely that the first goal would be crucial and it came for the home team in the seventy ninth minute when Price received the ball in what looked like an offside position and he ran on to slot the ball past Callum Chafer. Momentarily there seemed a lifeline for Boro as the linesman stood with his flag raised but after a protracted conversation between the two he was overruled by the referee and the goal stood. Romford now had to throw everything forward and striker Chris Taylor was brought on for defender Barry and he was one of a number of Boro men who had efforts on goal blocked by some desperate defending. With a minute to go Romford were short at the back when a clearance was intercepted and after a coming together in box a dramatic fall by the Ware man in possession resulted in a penalty which was converted by Dean Mason. Worse followed in added time as another Ware breakaway lead to a shot that came back off the crossbar but fell perfectly for Laurence Vaughan to knock into an open goal and leave Romford on the end of a ludicrously lopsided scoreline that bore no relation to how the match had been played. However Boro followers have learned from bitter experience that such an injustice is always likely in this corner of Hertfordshire.

WARE (0) 3 PRICE 79, MASON 89 (PEN), VAUGHAN 90

ROMFORD (0) 0

ROMFORD: CALLUM CHAFER, RYAN BOSWELL, CHRIS BARRY (CHRIS TAYLOR 81), DANNY COSSINGTON, JAMES ISHMAIL, JONATHAN ADEBAYO, KAI BICHARD, GREG AKPELE (AKWASI MARFO 46), CHINEDU MCKENZIE, NICK REYNOLDS WILL GREEN (AYO OLUKOGA 64) SUBS NOT USED RYAN MALLETT & ASHER MODESTE

YELLOW CARDS: GREG AKPELE 35, JAMES ISHMAIL 79, DANNY COSSINGTON 89, KAI BICHARD 90