A game of two halves. A Jekyll and Hyde performance. Like chalk and cheese. Take your favourite cliché of contrasts and it can be applied to this game.

For forty-five minutes it looked like Boro were purging themselves of the disappointment of Saturday’s FA Vase defeat. After just seven minutes, Alex Balisani ran at the Little Oakley defence and set up Tom Richardson for a shot from the edge of the penalty area that crashed into the roof of the net.

With fourteen minutes played, Scott Doe made it two with a near post header from a corner on the left, and it appeared that Romford were on course for a comfortable evening. It certainly seemed only a matter of time before the net was found again, and Camilo Restrepo was only denied by the outstretched foot of Little Oakley’s former Boro keeper Billy Lawlor after 28 minutes, while Tom Richardson was a whisker away from a decent connection on Danny Hurford’s low cross after 40 minutes.

In response, Little Oakley’s best effort was a shot by Daniel Rowe that Matt Cafer had to save low at his right hand post. Other than that, they were restricted to long range and off-target efforts.

The only low spot for Boro in the opening period was a 15th minute injury to Jacob Wiggins that required him to be replaced by Bleron Ademi, but otherwise, Boro’s first half performance was one to enjoy.

Boro’s second half was woeful. Too many sideways passes across the back four allowed the visitors ample time to set up defensively and pick off the Boro attacks. All too often, possession was conceded inside Boro’s own half. Too many free-kicks were conceded (two led directly to Little Oakley goals), and too little was seen of Boro as an attacking force, with Tom Richardson’s 77th minute header that Lawlor saved comfortably the only on-target effort of the half.

It took just two minutes of the second period for the visitors to reduce the deficit. A free-kick from the right touchline was played in low and Scott Doe’s attempted clearance deflected the ball past Cafer.

After 54 minutes, a Little Oakley corner was only partially cleared and Jordi Fapple was just off target with a shot from the corner of the box, and just before the hour mark, Nathan Rowe was close to an equaliser with a shot from range that was just off-target.

Ominously, Boro’s ponderous passing game at the back had already ceded possession deep inside their own territory once, when they did it again after 57 minutes. Little Oakley’s Mason Lumley took charge and delivered a low cross from the right that Harry Harvey swept home to make it 2-2.

Harvey and John Thain went into the referee’s notebook for fouls in midfield on Jake Gordon and Alex Balisani within the space to two minutes, but Boro rarely looked like turning possession from set plays into efforts on goal. The best that Boro could muster was a short corner routine that ended with Restrepo’s shot harmlessly off-target and that 77th minute header from Richardson.

Little Oakley, meanwhile were dogged in defence, tenacious in midfield, and frequently threatening up front. There was a bleak inevitability about their third goal, which stemmed from another unnecessarily conceded free-kick in Boro’s own half. The ball was delivered to the far post, headed across goal and then into Cafer’s net by Daniel Rowe for what proved to be the winner.

Romford: Matt Cafer, Kris Newby, Danny Hurford, Jacob Wiggins (Bleron Ademi, 15m), Joe Heath, Scott Doe, Jake Gordon (Lewis Smith, 71m), Adalberto Pinto, Tom Richardson, Alex Balisani, Camilo Restrepo. Unused subs: Warren Beattie, George Cox, Jake Anderson