ROMFORD 1 (0) - (0) Chatham Town Attendance 65 - Ship Lane

On a night when people should have been concentrating on two teams trying to play football in the right way, all eyes were instead on a certain man in black who to say had a bit of a shocker would be an understatement. From the first whistle both teams where left wondering what was going to happen next as blatant fouls were missed while other seemingly innocuous challenges where penalised. Anyway rant over and back to the match.

Chatham kicked off and the ball found its way to their Captain Luke Hickey whose attempted back pass was short and seized on by Asher Modeste who rounded the keeper but was forced wide. Rather than shooting from a tight angle he pulled the ball back to Chinedu McKenzie who himself had a great opportunity to make it six goals in six games but instead unselfishly picked out Nick Reynolds, who hit a low left footed drive into the bottom corner with only twenty-six seconds on the clock. Chatham now had to attack and nearly grabbed an equaliser in the seventh minute but the forward could only fire a shot across Richard Wray's goal. Romford were forced into an early change as Tom Potter limped out of the action and was replaced by Ryan Boswell, but that disruption did not stop the Boro as they had the ball in the back of the net a second time but Modeste was adjudged to have fouled his man despite there being minimal contact before Reynolds turned the ball home. Romford should have had a penalty in the thirty-second minute when David Manu had his legs taken away by the visitor's full back but the referee, who was only yards away waved play on. Reynolds twice was only inches away from left wing balls that flashed across the goalmouth before right on half time Chatham should have been down to ten men when Hickey, who had already been booked committed what could only be called assault on Manu as the winger beat him for pace but despite the free kick being given the official decided that a stern telling off was the best course of action instead of a second yellow.

The second half was a lesson in poor finishing from the visitors as the numerous amount of chances they created were wasted, the most notable being from Tom Young when after doing all the hard work of beating his man and getting into a one on one position, fired wide of the goal from ten yards. Young again hit a good chance way over when free at the far post and a free header from a corner went well wide. At the other end Manu chased a short back pass again from Hickey but the keeper was just quick enough off his line to beat the Romford winger who was then comically booked for a foul on the Chatham stopper who did not make a meal of the slight touch on him and was actually along with his Captain trying to stop the Boro man going into the book. With time running out Chatham made two more good chances but despite finding the target this time Wray was at his best to keep the ball out both times. After five minutes of stoppage time the referee finally blew up and it was Romford progressing into the last sixteen.

ROMFORD (0) 1 NICK REYNOLDS 1,

CHATHAM (0) 0

ROMFORD: RICHARD WRAY, ASHLEY BANKOLE, PAUL PRESTON (RYAN MALLETT 64), TOM POTTER (RYAN BOSWELL 18), MATT TOMS, JONATHAN ADEBAYO (JAMIE DICKS 46), CHRIS TAYLOR, DAVID MANU, CHINEDU MCKENZIE, NICK REYNOLDS, ASHER MODESTE SUBS NOT USED AYO OLUKOGA & WILL GREEN

YELLOW CARDS: JONATHAN ADEBAYO 28, DAVID MANU 84