Ware 4 (0) v Romford 3 (2) - Attendance 145

It was Ware who had the better of the early exchanges but Romford gradually settled down and posed the most threats as the game developed. Jack Barry’s header from a Paul Clayton free kick could only find the home ‘keeper’s arms while, at the other end number 11 Luke Marshall forced a good save from visiting keeper Neil Finn when well placed.

Play continued to and fro with Boro probably having the better of the exchanges and it was they who took the lead on 36 minutes when a Paul Kavanagh corner from the right was met firmly by the head of centre back Jamie Libby and powered into the back of the home net.

Five minutes later, during a goal mouth scramble, Romford’s other centre back Matt Toms was first to a loose ball and crashed it low and hard into the Ware net to give his team a 2-0 interval lead.

The second half began and Boro increased their lead to 3-1 when another Kavanagh corner from the right was headed in by Toms via the bottom of the far upright and home keeper’s flailing arm.

Just one minute came THE incident. Finn, while standing at the edge of his area and waiting to clear the ball, was barged in the side as he ran back by the home number 5 Matt Turpin who was the last home player returning to his own half after a failed Ware attack.

The match officials chose not to see or just ignore this unwarranted act of thuggery; but as a result of this collision Finn was temporarily unable to continue and threw the ball to safety over his right hand side touchline.

Romford’s ‘keeper took a little while to recover but eventually the ball was given to a home player to throw to one of his colleagues to pass back to Finn in the time honoured way.

Unfortunately this player, Ryan Wade, decided otherwise and hit the ball high over Finn, who was still obviously suffering great discomfort, and into his net. This grossly unsporting behaviour was greeted with great delight by a number of his colleagues but not his own bench.

While all this was going on the referee seemed quite lost as what to do within the rules to redress this unfair situation eventually did nothing and let the goal stand.

The Ware manager, to his credit, requested that his players allow Romford to run through from the restart kick off and score thus redressing the balance of score once again. Although he asked twice for this to be done certain of his players decided not to co-operate in this sporting act of play and blocked the Boro players’ efforts. So the stunned visitors had to continue with only a one goal lead.

To their credit Boro tried to put this dreadful event behind them but were all obviously shaken by the incredibly bad behaviour of their opponents.

As a result of being unexpectedly just a goal behind Ware then really had their tails up and levelled the score at 3-3 on 65 minutes when their 11 Luke Marshall was able to run through and blast low past Finn.

One minute after this Romford suffered yet another blow when their impressive forward Toran Senghore received his second yellow card and a resulting red. This action was typical of the man in the middle who had given free kicks and yellow cards indiscriminately throughout the game to both sides for seemingly minor infringements.

As this wasn’t enough for Boro to bear the referee then decided that a home player had been fouled in the visitor’s penalty area and a spot kick ensued. Happily for them Finn guessed correctly and saved Wade’s attempt low down to his left.

Now reduced to ten men the visitors were really under pressure but seemed to be holding out for a draw and it seemed that they would succeed when Ware’s Adam Bolle headed against the ball against a Boro upright and to safety.

Sadly though for Romford dame fortune had her last card to play and six minutes into added time, in an attempt to head away a home free kick from the left, Libby diverted the ball into his own net.

So Boro went down 4-3 in a game that seemed to be theirs for the asking until bad sportsmanship and fate took a hand.

Romford squad: Finn, Clayton, Neville, Libby, Toms, Gammons (Thomas 78), Heed (O’Connor 90+5), Barry, Smith, Senghore, Kavanagh. Subs not used: Jones, Protheroe and Mulrooney (GK).

Boro’s next game is Tuesday evening March 9th at home to Concord Rangers and the following Saturday, March 13th, they entertain Brentwood Town at Mill Field.