Maldon Town 0 (0) v Romford 0 (1) - Attendance 77

Maldon mostly dominated play during the first quarter of the game raiding down both flanks but the Boro back line of Oxby, Neville, Port and Clayton stood firm and repulsed all that was thrown at them.

On around the half hour mark, the visitors, having been on the back foot until then, began to mount attacks of their own and really took the game to their hosts playing the ball around the park and combining well with each other from defence through the midfield where Nelson and Tubey linked effectively with wingers Nyman and Burnett to get the ball through to strikers Clarke and Gammons who was taking a forward role in place of the injured Jones and their strong play gave the Maldon defence a great deal to think about with Boro being unlucky not to take at least one goal lead into the half time break.

Romford continued their general dominance during the second half and were eventually rewarded on 53 minutes for their determined play when skipper Paul Clayton reacted sharply to a ball that came to him on the corner of the left hand goal area and placed it firmly across the Blues keeper and into the net.

It must be noted that this game was played by both teams in a reasonably sporting manner and was an excellent example of end to end football to watch despite the efforts of the man-in-black in the middle who continually disrupted play with seemingly unnecessary free kicks and actually booked four men from each side for what appeared to be reasonably innocuous tackles. Indeed on 70 minutes he sent off the Maldon goalkeeper Madden who, he said, had spat at Gammons after they both went for a 50/50 ball in the home area. The keeper claimed that he was just clearing his mouth of a clump of grass after that particular melee but this explanation made no difference.

After that episode, the Blues surprisingly put their tall centre forward between the posts. To their credit they never gave up and tried their hardest to get back on terms with their ten men mounting a number of counter attacks but were not able to take advantage of some resulting corners.

Boro, for their part, brought on a forward Noakes and midfielder Barry to freshen up their attack but, while the visitors continued to look dangerous, they never really managed to trouble the stand in home keeper who was himself up in around the visitors’ penalty area for one of the home corners when the final whistle blew.

Romford squad: Mulrooney, Oxby, K.Neville, Port, Clayton, Tubey, Nelson (Barry 90), Nyman, Gammons (Noakes 74), Clarke, Subs not used: Whitnell and Matthews (GK).

This Saturday, August 29th, Boro have an important away FA Cup Preliminary Round tie at local neighbours and fellow Ryman One North side Redbridge. Bank Holiday Monday August 31st we are due to play a home league match with Wingate & Finchley!

Please check on our club and other football websites and in the national press if there are any changes to this fixture.