Waltham Forest 1 (0) v Romford 4 (2) - Attendance 78

The Stags defence was very jittery at the start and none so more than their keeper whose handling was very uncertain and it was from a long hard low shot from the visitors’ Paul Kavanagh that Kurt Smith was able to collect a rebound and open the scoring just a few minutes into the game.

The game then developed into a succession of Romford attacks interspersed with an occasional Waltham Forest breakaway which invariably ended with shots from so far out because of such effective defending that they hardly troubled Neil Finn in the visitors’ goal at all.

On 19 minutes the inevitable second Boro goal came when Smith was tripped chasing a ball into the home penalty area and Kavanagh smashed one of his trade mark spot kicks into the net.

Play continued in the same fashion up to the halftime break just before which the Stags had what was their best chance of the half to score only for Finn to tip a point blank header from Danny Gabriel over his crossbar for a corner which came to nothing.

The second half started with a little period of Stags pressure during which they had a couple of consecutive corners which were foiled by the Romford defence and then on 49 minutes Toran Senghore who had been a thorn in the home defence all through the game made a strong run into opponents half on the left and his low cross was bundled into the net by Smith to give the visitors a three goal clear lead.

Senghore himself was unlucky after another run just after this and it was half way into the second period for Romford to once again show their superiority when a Paul Clayton free kick from the half way line was headed on towards his own goal by a home defender and Chris Thomas coolly slotted the ball past the Stags keeper for a 4-0 Boro lead.

Shortly after this there was a slight kerfuffle in mid field as a result of which two home and one visiting players were shown yellow cards.

This event seemed to unsettle Romford more than it did their hosts and on 77 minutes the Stags Luke Hornsey reduced the deficit when a low cross went across the visitors’ goalmouth and he was able to touch the ball into the net from close in.

This goal completed the match scoring although Senghore and Smith both failed with slight chances to increase the visitors’ scoreline before the final whistle.

Romford Squad: Finn, Clayton, Neville, Truman, Toms, Gammons (Chalk 90+1), Thomas, Barry, Smith, Senghore, Kavanagh (Burnett 82). Subs unused: Libby, King & Mullrooney (GK).

This win took Boro up a further place in the Ryman One North League to 14th and they now have two home games. The first is this coming Saturday February 13th against Tilbury and the following Tuesday February 16th evening Redbridge are the visitors.