AFC Sudbury 3 (2) - (2) 6 ROMFORD attendance 255

Romford started brightly and nearly opened the scoring on four minutes when from a Joe Oates free kick Sudbury's Michael Shinn headed against the underside of his own bar and the ball bounced out. On thirteen minutes Ryan Imbert used his strength and turned the defence but when trying to take on Fred Howe in goal the keeper managed to tackle the ball off the striker.
Romford continued to pile the pressure on Sudbury and they hit the bar for the second time when Michael Sammut's deep cross was layed back by Joe Turner and Tom Richardson volleyed the ball from eighteen yards against the top of the bar and over. A minute later and the Boro got the goal their play deserved when Tom Richardson made a powerful run at the Sudbury defence and when he got into the box drilled the cross in for Paul Clayton to side foot home from four yards.
Three minutes later and it was two goals to nil when after Sudbury had cleared a Romford corner Joe Oates put the ball back into the box, Paul Clayton headed to Jack Barry whose cross come shot was poked home by Ryan Imbert from inside the six yard box.
Sudbury's first real chance came on the half hour when Romford failed to clear a corner and Danny Green's effort was cleared off the line. Back at the other end and after Nick Reynolds had found some space his shot went just wide.
Sudbury got back in the game against the run of play when Lee Boylan raced into the box and was brought down by Joe Oates. It looked like Oates played the ball but the linesman gave a penalty and the full back luckily escaped with a yellow card when he could have been the last man. Boylan buried the penalty into the bottom right of the goal. Romford immediately went down the other end and Nick Reynolds hit a volley that was brilliantly saved by Howe. Just before half time Joe Turner had a chance to get Romford's third but his free header was deflected just past the post.
In the third minute of injury time Sudbury managed to make the game level when Boylan latched on to Leon Antoine's lay off and blasted the ball past the helpless Atu Ngoy in the Boro goal.
Unlike last week Romford were in no mood to throw away another two goal advantage and Nick Reynolds restored the lead when from Joe Turner's corner he chested the ball down and shot past Howe into the goal on forty-eight minutes.
Six minutes later and Ryan Imbert got on the end of a long ball and headed just wide before being clattered by Howe in goal. Boylan missed his chance for a hat-trick when he shot weakly after good work by Dave Cowley.
On sixty-six minutes Paul Clayton received the ball after good link up play and cut in unleashing a great shot that again hit the Sudbury bar before getting another chance seconds later that this time was tipped round the post by Howe. Two minutes later Romford got a free kick just outside the box and Tom Richardson belted the ball goalward and Howe made another save, but from the follow up Ryan Imbert cheekily back heeled the ball into the goal from Jack Barry's cross.
Ryan Imbert nearly got his hat-trick when he raced clean through but shot wide of the goal. On seventy-two minutes Tom Richardson picked the ball up on the left wing and ran at the Sudbury defence before cutting in and curling a superb shot past Howe into the bottom corner.
Just as Romford were starting to coast Boylan scored a deflected effort with thirteen minutes to go to claim his hat-trick and panic the away fans into thinking they could throw away another lead, but what Boylan could do Ryan Imbert could do too and he shot past Howe on eighty-three minutes when the goalkeeper and centre back left the ball for each other. There was still time for Howe to produce another good save, this time from Nick Reynolds when the powerful striker curled the ball goalwards from the edge of the area.
Atu Ngoy made a routine save from Antoine in injury time and the final whistle went with Boro earning a fantastic, well deserved three points.

AFC SUDBURY 3 BOYLAN 34,45+3,77
ROMFORD 6 PAUL CLAYTON 23, RYAN IMBERT 26, 70, 83, NICK REYNOLDS 48, TOM RICHARDSON 72.

ROMFORD: ATU NGOY, JAMES ISHMAIL, JOE OATES, JACK BARRY, MATT TOMS, PAUL CLAYTON, MICHAEL SAMMUT (ALFIE HILTON 87), JOE TURNER (LEWIS PAYNE 77), NICK REYNOLDS, RYAN IMBERT, TOM RICHARDSON.

YELLOW CARDS: JOE OATES 38, MICHAEL SAMMUT 45.