The Soham pitch was slippery and heavy going but it had stood up as well as could be expected after the recent very wet weather and both teams produced a good end to end battle with plenty of goalmouth action. Boro had most of the territorial advantage early on and a neat turn from midfielder Kai Heather allowed himself space to fire off a shot in the first minute that was not too far wide. Soham were not able to capitalise on some half chances of their own and vastly experienced Romford debutant Kris Newby was posting a lot of questions down the right for the home defence especially when his free kick into the area saw two Boro shots in quick succession having to be blocked in front of goal. Shortly after, the visitors defence was disrupted when injury forced off centre back Tom Potter but this allowed another newcomer, Kieran Simms to deputise and slot in well at the heart of the defence for the rest of the game

It now developed into a good, hard fought contest but things changed in the thirty fifth minute. A scramble in the Soham penalty area saw Newby come sliding in with a challenge that was normal only a few years ago but apparently nowadays a hanging offence. One footed along, along the ground and actually missed both ball and man but with sufficient impetus to cue hysterics from the entire home team. Newby and a defender had words and touched heads with the Soham man being slightly more forceful and the referee jumped in and showed him the red card. The linesman was then consulted and Newby was also shown red, but a more sensible punishment for both players would have been yellow as neither were really guilty of violent conduct. The half finished with Heather's free kick going past the post.

An early Romford corner in the second half was headed wide and then a Soham shot had to be well saved by Rob Budd as both teams picked up where they had left off. Soham then took the lead in the sixty second minute when a big gap appeared in the Boro defence allowing Lewis Clayton to run through and drive his shot into the corner giving Budd no chance. The hosts were now on the front foot and more accurate shooting on a couple of occasions might have seen them go further ahead before Romford gathered themselves together and started to get back into the match and push forward for the equaliser. Ernest Okoh had a great run down the line but his final ball just eluded Nick Reynolds and then Greg Akpele went on a mazy dribble which should have won a penalty twice over, with a foul and then a hand ball failing to stop the Romford substitute before his cross was hacked clear. Target man Reynolds was certainly relishing the conditions but might have done better with a close in shot which clipped the outside of the post but he made amends after eighty minutes with a lovely goal, curling in his shot from the corner of the area after equally good build up play from Akpele and Ayo Olukoga.

Both teams might have stolen the points towards the end with a Soham header from a good position sailing just past the post and Romford going even closer in the very last seconds when Okoh's shot was blocked with the keeper beaten and Chris Taylor a whisker away from reaching the ball to put it into an open goal.

Team: Rob Budd, Jonathon Nzengo, Sam Mvemba (Carlos Djalo 73), Nathan Okoye, Tom Potter (Kieran Simms 29), Chris Taylor (c), Kai Heather (Greg Akpele 58), Ayo Olukoga, Nick Reynolds, Ernest Okoh, Kris Newby
Unused Subs: Chiduben Onokwai, Danny Cossington

SOHAM TOWN RANGER (1) 1 Clayton 62
ROMFORD (0) 1 NICK REYNOLDS 80

Red Card: Kris Newby 36