Romford 3 (2) v East Thurrock United 2 (2) - Attendance 114

The home side started off strongly with a three man move which led to an unsuccessful corner and this action was followed by two successive corners by their visitors which also had the same result.
Play continued end to end with both sides showing great skill in poor conditions and it was the Rocks who next had the opportunity to make something out of a free kick but failed to do so.
Romford’s Kurt Smith then was then twice given too much to do to chase long through balls and, in between these, became the provider of a pass to his colleague James Gammons who shot too high from well outside the penalty area.
It was East Thurrock who opened the scoring on 15 minutes when the ball bounced around in the home penalty area and Boro’s Jay Taylor in his attempt to head it away under great pressure could only manage to drop it at Kris Newby’s feet giving him the simple task of blasting it past Neil Finn in the home goal from close in.
Romford almost equalised just after this when Smith was put through one-on-one with visiting keeper Richard Wray who managed to beat the ball away for a corner.
End to end play resumed with the home side having, perhaps, slightly the better of the exchanges at this stage. Boro received their reward for this on 24 minutes when Smith dummied a cross from the right by Richard Oxby, turned and hit a left footed shot across Wray into the net from the edge of the area and the home side went into a 2-1 lead almost immediately afterwards with a Paul White header from a Bobby Port free kick.
After this the Rocks fought back and quickly equalised with a header by Steve West from a Newby cross.
Both sides still had more to offer in the first half, and Boro thought that they had taken the lead again with Chris Thomas heading in a head on by White from another Port free kick only to be given offside.
Following this the home side were unable to take advantage of a number of corners from both flanks taken by Paul Kavanagh with Steve Willis, in particular, just not managing to his header on target.
East Thurrock also had the same lack of success with their attacks. The closest they came to scoring being a Max Cornhill shot which failed to trouble his opposing keeper. And so half time finally arrived with the scores still even at 2-2.
Play resumed after the break and the Rocks with the advantage of the wind and rain at their backs began to take advantage of some skilful mid field play to mount a number of regular attacks on their opponent’s goal but the Romford defence stood firm and dealt with everything that was thrown at them. The home forwards, for their part, tried their hardest to keep the visiting defence busy.
This scenario continued until mid way through the half when, after some home substitutions, the overall balance of possession evened out and Boro began to mount more attacks on their visitors’ goal.
Play continued in a similar fashion until, in the second minute of added time, Boro’s Toran Senghore headed the ball clear from his penalty area and Smith just beat his marker to the ball at the half way line for Port to take it quickly along the right wing. Looking over to his left, Port picked out Martin Head, who was running in on the left and wide of the East Thurrock defence, for a pin point cross.
Heed took the ball down, ran past the outside of his defender and hit the ball right footed across Wray and into the far side of the net to give Boro an unexpected 3-2 lead.
Another four minutes of added time had to be suffered by Boro players and fans alike before the final whistle blew to give the home side an unexpected, hard won and gutsy victory.

Romford squad: Finn, Barry (Senghore 65), Taylor, White (Truman 71), Willis, Gammons (Heed 78), Port, Oxby, Smith, Thomas, Kavanagh. Substitutes not used: Neville and Mulrooney (GK).

Boro now have two league matches before the Christmas break. This coming Saturday, December 12th,
they visit Harlow Town and on Saturday, December 19th, they welcome Cheshunt for a return fixture at Mill Field.

(In the photo below Paul Kavanagh almost deceives Rocks 'keeper Richard Wray with a long distance cross cum shot from the left later on in the second half which Wray just managed to tip on to his cross bar . Had there been any Boro player following up he might have had a chance to score from the long rebound into the penalty area).