Enfield Town 2 (1) v Romford 0 (0) - Attendance 201

It took the visitors a little while to get settled on a wet but temperate evening at Brimsdown and, while they did so, Town mounted a number of raids which were comfortably dealt with by the Boro defence who also helped to launch several attacks by their own forwards.

The visitors gradually got into their stride and, with them playing their usual short passing game, the contest became more balanced with speedy raids being made at both ends but without any success. Notable Boro efforts included hard shot from Dean Nyman which the home keeper just managed to palm away for a corner and a crashing George Tubey volley from just outside the home area which skimmed off the top of the Town crossbar leaving their keeper struggling.

When it seemed that half-time would arrive goal-less the home side scored just five minutes before the break. This coming from a head high swinging cross from the left which was met accurately in the middle of the visitors penalty area by Stuart Blackburne who steered the ball accurately into the Romford net

While Town were attempting to add to their lead Boro also mounted a number of attacks in the early second period the most notable of these being a run and crossshot from Dean Nyman which went wide and another too wide Tubey shot and then another volley from the same player from a chest down by Jimmy Noakes which also just missed the target.

An hour into the game left full back Kevin Neville had to be replaced by Paul Kavanagh after a studs up tackle which the referee failed to penalise and Romford continue to compete well with their opponents. A number of possible opportunities for the visitors went begging including a Noakes header from a Kavanagh corner and a volley from the same player which failed to trouble the home keeper.

On 70 minutes Remi Nelson, after receiving two yellow cards in swift succession was given his marching orders. To the watching crowd this seemed to come about because of a poor refereeing decision concerning a throw in on the far touchline and his failure to deal with the situation with proper professional understanding. A situation I have to say which was repeated from time to time throughout the whole course of the game.

This loss of their main mid field creator and reduction of players on the field somewhat blunted Boro’s attempts to get an equaliser and they made a double substitution just afterwards to adjust the balance of the team but gradually found themselves under more and more pressure as Town took advantage of their superiority in numbers and gained the upper hand.

The final part of the game consisted of many home attacks and corners on the visitors’ goal with Danny Mulrooney in the Boro goal making some outstanding saves but unfortunately he could do nothing about Enfield Town’s second and final goal on 82 minutes.

This came from a corner on the left which was headed back across the Romford goal and pounced on by an unmarked Stuart Blackburne, standing just inside the goal area on the left, who scored his second goal with ease.

More Town attacks, interspersed with an occasional Boro breakaway, failed to produce any more goals before the final whistle.

Romford squad: Mulrooney, Oxby, K. Neville (Kavanagh 60), Clayton, Barry, Tubey (Cosson 74), Port, Noakes (Clarke 74), Nyman, Burnett. Substitute not used: Matthews (GK).

Boro are in Ryman Division One North action again this coming Saturday October 10th at home to Waltham Forest and visit Concord Rangers on Tuesday evening October 10th.