Tonbridge Angels 2 (1) - (2) 2 ROMFORD Attendance 133 - Longmead Stadium

After two recent poor league performances where Romford had shipped eleven goals fans of the club were not too confident about this visit to Ryman Premier opponents pushing for promotion who had named twelve of the sixteen players from their previous league match in their squad for the evening, but it was Romford who were the better team throughout the match. They had the ball in the back of the net inside five minutes but the offside flag was up early to deny Chinedu McKenzie and Will Green lead a counter attack a few minutes later, but after a good run his shot sailed wide of the goal. These opening exchanges should have posted a warning to the hosts but another fine move gave Romford the lead in the twelfth minute when some neat passing freed McKenzie to race down the left wing and on reaching the byline he was able to pull his cross back to Nick Reynolds to sidefoot into the far corner from ten yards giving Boro the lead and also moving him to within one goal of Danny Benstock's club goal scoring record since the reformation in 1992. Tonbridge counter attacked but did not really create anything of substance with Callum Chafer twice tipping the ball over the bar more as a safety procedure than anything else while at the other end Romford looked dangerous on every attack with Reynolds sending the ball across goal and only just out of reach of Kai Bichard running in unmarked. They doubled their lead in the twenty-seventh minute when the ball was won in midfield and passed to McKenzie who flicked it around the defender to Will Green running down the left wing. Looking up, he picked out the returning Greg Akpele at the far post who controlled the ball, cut inside his man and smashed an unstoppable shot high into the net from close range. Both teams had huge penalty shouts turned down, firstly Ryan Mallett was shoved to the floor while trying to get on the end of Reynolds' long throw and then a few minutes later at the other end a push on a Tonbridge player from a corner was also ignored by the referee. The Boro continued to press forward with some great attacking moves that deserved another goal but they could not find a third and then right on half time and against the run of play Bradley Fortnam-Tomlinson beat his man wide on the right before cutting into the area and with the Romford defenders standing off, drilled a low shot past Chafer.

Chafer had to be alert early on in the second half when saving low down after Tonbridge attacked straight from kick off and then from a corner the ball fell kindly to Alex Akrofi but he fired way over. James Ishmail was unlucky not to extend Romford's lead in the fiftieth minute but his diving header from Mallett's corrner went just wide of the post then in the seventy-first minute a fantastic piece of skill from McKenzie was desperately unfortunate not to give the visitors a third goal. After a Romford attack the ball was half cleared and McKenzie gave chase and with his back to goal somehow shot on the turn and chipped the ball to the far post and with the keeper well beaten the ball hit the inside of the upright and bounced clear. With luck on their side the hosts hit back and equalised six minutes later when Mitchell Nelson headed home a corner from six yards but Romford still pushed forward and nearly won it in the last minute when Chris Taylor chased a long ball and got round the keeper. Forced out wide, he crossed to McKenzie whose header hit a defender on the line and was scrambled out to Ayo Olukoga who smashed the ball against the underside of the bar before it was booted clear. Tonbridge themselves had a chance to win it but Chafer was on hand to make a smart save low down and the game went to penalties .

Tonbridge's Tom Parkinson and Akrofi both scored while McKenzie hit the target for Romford but Taylor's effort was saved. Chafer stopped Luke Allen's shot and James Ishmail brought the scores level before Nelson scored for the hosts. Akwasi Marfo's shot was saved leaving Ugo Udogi the chance for glory and even though Chafer got a hand to it, it was too well placed to stop and gave Tonbridge the chance to fight it out in the quarter finals.

TONBRIDGE ANGELS (1) 2 FORTNAM-TOMLINSON 45, NELSON 77 (PENS: PARKINSON /, AKROFI /, ALLEN X, NELSON /, UDOGI /)

ROMFORD (2) 2 NICK REYNOLDS 12, GREG AKPELE 27 (PENS: CHINEDU MCKENZIE /, CHRIS TAYLOR X, JAMES ISHMAIL /, AKWASI MARFO X)

ROMFORD: CALLUM CHAFER, RYAN BOSWELL, AKWASI MARFO, JAMES ISHMAIL, DANNY COSSINGTON, RYAN MALLETT (JONATHAN ADEBAYO 81), KAI BICHARD, GREG AKPELE (AYO OLUKOGA 74), CHINEDU MCKENZIE, NICK REYNOLDS (CHRIS TAYLOR 69), WILL GREEN