Romford (0) 0, SOUL Tower Hamlets (4) 8 – Saturday 11th October 2025 – Essex Senior League

Although Tower Hamlets might just be the best side that Romford have faced so far this season, they barely had to get out of second gear to condemn Boro to a third consecutive defeat in which seventeen goals have been conceded.

The evergreen Steve Carvell ran the show for Hamlets and he was aided and abetted by a band of willing runners who cruelly exposed Boro’s weakness against the counter attack. It wasn’t as if Tower Hamlets constantly laid siege to the Boro goal so much as they bided their time and broke forward decisively time and again.

Tower Hamlets had two chances inside the opening minutes, hitting the bar with a cross in the opening 60 seconds before the ball was deflected wide and then Shermin Artmeladze forced a low save from Brad Davison.

It took Tower Hamlets until the 21st minute to score, Rhion Patel tapping home Nick Bell’s low cross after the full-back had been found – predictably – by Steve Carvell’s pass. Twenty-five minutes in and the same player made it two. Allowed to run at the Romford defence, he fired a shot from outside the box over Davison’s head. A third goal for the visitors came in the 39th minute when Samir Bihmoutine rolled the ball past Davison from Ash Siddik’s pass, before Carvell rounded off the first half with a goal from the penalty spot after Patel had been brought down by Callum Laver.

Ezra Agyiri went mightily close to a goal with the score 2-0 when he ran onto Flynn Hamilton’s pass, deftly lobbed Sidi Bakhai Haidara in the visitors’ goal, but instead of seeing the ball nestle in the net, could only watch as it cannoned off the bar. Boro had other first half chances: Agyiri curled a shot wide, and Hamilton had two efforts; one went wide, the other went over.

Hamlet sub Shomari Barnwell - who managed just one goal in five starts during his two brief spells with Boro – took just 40 seconds to net Hamlets’ fifth after coming on as a substitute at the start of the second half and after 56 minutes it was six as Bihmoutine curled in a free-kick from the edge of the box, although Hamlets might have had a penalty between the goals when Davison came off his line and collided with a forward.

Salim Miah was on the end of another quick Hamlets break to make it seven after 65 minutes and Davison saved from the same player with fifteen minutes remaining. While Hamlets were carving out clear cut chances, Boro were living off scraps; Dhillon Sandhu-Nelson’s cross was sidefooted well over by Kevin Musimami and Christian Adu Gyamfi headed Agyiri’s corner over the bar in Boro’s only real opportunities of note during the second period.

A stoppage time penalty completed the scoring. Carvell’s free-kick hit the arm of a Boro player in the defensive wall and referee Patrick Yates pointed to the spot. Taylor Gibson sent Davison the wrong way with his penalty.

This season is looking ominously reminiscent of Romford’s disastrous 2021-22 campaign and some points on the board are needed quickly to avoid a repeat of the outcome of that campaign.

Romford: Bradley Davison, Mayowa Ogunyemi, Charlie Hare, Callum Laver (Dhillon Sandhu-Nelson 59'), Teddy Desmond, Nick Reynolds, Ramzi Mahmoudi (Emmanuel Balogun 78'), Ezra Agyiri, Lewis Browne (Kevin Musimami 29'), Christian Adu Gyamfi, Flynn Hamilton (Charlie Ford 46')