Harlow Town 3 (0) - (1) 1 ROMFORD Attendance 313 - The Harlow Arena

Once again injuries and unavailability stretched the Boro squad with some barely fit players having to sit on the bench and they had a 6th minute scare as a shot from the edge of the penalty area whistled narrowly past the post. At the other end a Harlow defender received an early yellow card for a shirt pull which prevented Chinedu McKenzie being played through. As always, Harlow's main tactics as they pressed forward were attempts to feed prolific ex-Romford striker Alex Read but he was being frustrated by a number of offside flags and good man marking by Danny Cossington who had been switched from his usual midfield role to central defence.
After thirty three minutes a two footed challenge on Charlie Portway in midfield saw the perpetrator only receive a yellow card and Chis Barry swung the free kick into the packed penalty area. Matt Toms had come forward to pose an aerial threat, but the ball dropped to his feet and he was able to place it past the keeper and just inside the post to give Romford a shock lead at the interval.
By the start of the second half the skies had darkened and the wind blowing towards the Boro goal had picked up considerably as the home team pushed forward with a lot more urgency and Stephen Reynolds making his debut in goal tipped over a fierce shot from Read. Then McKenzie could have put Romford further ahead when he ran clear towards the Harlow goal but their keeper Hughes was very fast off his line as he had been all afternoon and blocked the shot.
After sixty six minutes Harlow finally got the breakthrough as Read picked up a loose ball just outside the area and although again looking offside, the linesman's flag stayed down and he lobbed Reynolds for the equaliser. Four minutes later and the turnaround was complete as Read again showed his deadly finishing qualities, holding off Cossington to turn in the box and smash the ball high into the net.
Boro were now on the backfoot and for a while the visitor's goal was under constant pressure from a string of attacks, but they rallied and threw caution to the winds with attacking substitutions and put together some attacks of their own. Five minutes into added time they won a free kick in a dangerous area and with nothing to lose sent everybody including keeper Reynolds into the Harlow penalty area. Matthew Mitchell's kick found Will Green at the far post and for a moment his header seemed to be heading under the crossbar, but Hughes just managed to claw it out and the ball was booted long upfield. Reynolds and his defence raced back but could not prevent the cross which was converted by Wixon to give to give Harlow a flattering two goal winning margin.

HARLOW TOWN (0) 3 READ 62,66, WIXON 90

ROMFORD (1) 1 MATT TOMS 33

ROMFORD: STEPHEN REYNOLDS, RYAN BOSWELL (NICK REYNOLDS 84), PAUL PRESTON, DANNY COSSINGTON, MATT TOMS, JONATHON ADEBAYO, RYAN MALLETT, HAYES THOMAS, CHINEDU MCKENZIE (WILL GREEN 84), CHARLIE PORTWAY, CHRIS BARRY (MATTHEW MITCHELL 76)

YELLOW CARDS: RYAN MALLETT 40, MATTHEW MITCHELL 90