Brentwood Town 2 (0) - (0) 1 ROMFORD Attendance 87

In a drab first half neither team could create much of an opening with Ryan Imbert forcing a first minute save for the visitors and Junior Luke rattling the crossbar from distance for Brentwood on twenty-five minutes. On forty minutes the Brentwood goalkeeper seemed to handle the ball outside the box after a mix up with his defender but neither the referee or his assistant were close enough to play to spot the incident. What we did get in the first half was a very stop start affair with every slight contact being deemed a foul, rarely playing advantages and stopping all quick free kicks.
Nick Reynolds replaced the injured Rob Whitnell at half time hoping to bring a bit more purpose to the Boro front line but it was Romford keeper Aaron Omand the team were thanking as the fine stopper produced a stunning save to deny the Brentwood forward when he found himself all alone in the box. On fifty five minutes Brentwood nearly broke the deadlock but Sam Batnick headed inches wide before five minutes later Martyn Stokes did give the Blues the lead getting the last touch on a free kick.
Romford had already been denied one penalty after James Ishmail was shoved in the box, and when Abs Seymour on a great run took it round the keeper, he was fouled. The midfielder tried to stay on his feet but was clearly unbalanced and unable to keep the ball in play. The referee pointed for a goal kick despite an injury to the keeper proving contact to the outfield player was made.
Romford were pushing forward and got the equaliser when Abs Seymour and Ryan Imbert linked up well on the edge of the box before finding Nick Reynolds who slotted home from six yards on seventy-four minutes. The striker thought he had made it two in three minutes but was ruled to have been offside after getting his head on the end of a cross. Brentwood were still making chances and Courtney White had his head in his hands after letting the ball go through his legs when free at the back post, but the home team did get the winner on eighty-three minutes when Sam Bantick found space on the right and his excellent effort beat Omand and went into the far corner to give Brentwood the three points.
Unfortunately we had another poor performance from the officials when they are being assessed by a league official. Wouldn't it be more sensible for the assessing to be unknown to the officials on the field as this always seems to ruin the games and you will rarely see a big decision being made with both the man in charge and his assistants seemingly worried they may lose their position. It may sound like sour grapes that I write this after a defeat, but I believe that Brentwood fans would agree about the inept handling of last night's game.

BRENTWOOD TOWN 2 STOKES 60, BANTICK 83,
ROMFORD 1 NICK REYNOLDS 74

ROMFORD: AARON OMAND, DAVID OTTLEY, GEORGE WOODWARD (DANIEL JONES 78), JAMIE DICKS, MATT TOMS, PAUL CLAYTON, ROBBIE NORRIS, ABS SEYMOUR, ROB WHITNELL (NICK REYNOLDS 45), RYAN IMBERT, JAMES ISHMAIL. SUBS NOT USED EDDIE HART, SCOTT TRUMAN, JACK BARRY.

YELLOW CARDS: GEORGE WOODWARD 23, MATT TOMS 60.