Dereham Town 1 (1) - (0) 0 ROMFORD Attendance 156 - Aldiss Park

It was a very warm and sunny October day for Boro's longest away trip of the season and they suffered a blow before the start when striker Nick Reynolds pulled up injured in the warm up and had to be replaced by Michael Clarke. However, the visitors started very strongly with the forwards seemingly able to run and pass their way through the Town defence at will, but they could not find the finish to beat keeper Elliott Pride who was to look very assured for the entire match. Things changed in the twenty first minute when a through pass from midfield dissected the Romford defence and Daniel Beaumont had the space to take a couple of touches to slot home and give Dereham the lead.

The contest now settled down into more of a midfield battle with neither side showing too much creativity. The home team did nearly extend their lead before the break in what would have been controversial circumstances when after initially allowing play to continue a Dereham man on the ground and some hysterical appealing persuaded the referee to book Boro skipper Danny Cossington for what appeared to be a fifty-fifty tackle. Fortunately Beaumont's resulting free kick clipped the bar and went over.

The second half continued in much the same vein right up until the last ten minutes of normal time when Romford finally stepped up their game and a fine run and shot from Ernest Okoh forced Pride into a very good save. They now started to pile on the pressure and from a corner Okoye's thumping header rattled the crossbar and came back down into the goalmouth to be scrambled clear. And with the very last kick of the game Greg Akpele's shot from the edge of the area looked to be heading in before swerving at the last instant to hit the post and come out a second before the final whistle was blown.

It was a game that could have gone either way, but once again in what is becoming a theme we saw what was mostly a decent refereeing performance marred by the official indicating during the play that he was taking note of time wasting but then failing to add on anywhere near the correct amount at the end.

Dereham Town (1) 1 Beaumont 21,
Romford (0) 0

Romford: Rhys Hughes, George Forrest, Nathan Joseph, Jamie Marsh, Ayo Olukoga, Danny Cossington (C), Max Bradford, Danny Jones (Nathan Okoye 68), Michael Clarke (Greg Akpele 60), Khadean Campbell, Ernest Okoh
Unused Subs: Chris Taylor, Max Bolton, Nick Reynolds

Yellow Card: Danny Cossington 24