ROMFORD 3 (2) - (2) 2 Needham Market Attendance 92

The visitors started very strongly forcing Romford onto the back foot and after already having a shot flash across goal, they won a corner that was only partially cleared and a deep cross found Samuel Nunn in acres of space at the far post to head home on seven minutes. Romford responded well, getting on the ball and playing some neat football on the edge of the Needham box. Tom Richardson and Abs Seymour were pulling the strings but could not find the killer ball until on twenty-one minutes when Abs Seymour picked the ball up and ran down the left, before using his strength to out muscle his opponent and after reaching the byline crossed the ball to Paul Clayton to fire home from a yard out. Boro were well on top but a quick counter attack down the left on twenty-seven minutes gave Needham a chance to retake the lead and they duly did when the ball made it's way to Kemer Izzet who unleashed an unstoppable shot that flew into the top corner from thirty yards. Needham had a strong penalty shout turned down when Scott Truman was adjudged to have played the ball and not the man first, but from another sustained period of pressure from Romford they once again equalised when Jack Barry headed home a corner from his brother Chris Barry on thirty seven minutes. After one minute of injury time the referee brought to an end this thrilling first half to the disappointment of everyone.
The second half had a lot to live up to but despite the best efforts of both teams it couldn't quite maintain the high tempo of the first. On fifty minutes Romford had a strong penalty claim of their own as Tom Richardson was fouled in the box but the referee waved play on. The game was still end to end and the visitors were starting to get a lot more of the ball but Boro's back line stood strong. On sixty minutes a sublime turn and shot deserved better for Sam Newson but the ball hit the top of the bar and went over to the relief of the Boro faithful. Neither team could find the target with their efforts and the game looked to be petering out to a draw when injury time goal specialist Tom Richardson brilliantly found some space on the right hand side and his powerful low shot somehow eluded players on the near post and slipped through keeper Andrew Plummer's grasp, went through his legs and into the net to give Romford their sixth win on the spin and keep their outside chance of a playoff spot alive for another week.

ROMFORD 3 PAUL CLAYTON 21, JACK BARRY 37, TOM RICHARDSON 90+2
NEEDHAM MARKET 2 NUNN 7, IZZET 27

ROMFORD: AARON OMAND, DAVID OTTLEY, JAMIE DICKS, JACK BARRY, SCOTT TRUMAN, PAUL CLAYTON, CHRIS BARRY (GEORGE WOODWARD 84), ABS SEYMOUR, DANIEL JONES, TOM RICHARDSON, EDDIE HART
(NICK REYNOLDS 79). SUBS NOT USED RYAN IMBERT, ROBBIE NORRIS.

YELLOW CARDS: PAUL CLAYTON 70