Romford 4 Afc Sudbury 1
Bostkik North
Saturday 15th September
Report by Gary Redwing
Romford produced a fantastic display of attacking football to beat AFC Sudbury and move up to fourth in the league.
Paul Martin was hoping the curse of the Manager Of The Month would not strike his team but any thoughts of that were firmly quashed in a devastating first half when Romford could have scored at least five. Ernest Okoh, Greg Akpele, Taylor Tombides and Jonathan Nzengo had already gone close when Danny Cossington won the ball and passed to Tombides who unleashed a fine strike into the top corner of the net in the thirteenth minute. It was nearly two minutes later when Okoh had a shot tipped round the post before The Boro did double their lead with another fine goal. A quick counter attack from Romford in the twentieth minute lead to Nick Reynolds crossing from the right to Cossington who was in the box but rather than shoot, the Boro skipper dummied for Tombides to stroke home his second from the penalty spot.
It was three, five minutes later when another fantastic Romford move saw Okoh, Reynolds and Tombides all link up before the ball was played to Nzengo. The full back ran at his man cut inside and smashed his shot into the top corner giving the keeper no chance. Straight from the kick off Sudbury attacked and their forward hit a great shot from distance that was tipped onto the underside of the bar by Rhys Hughes. Although the ball bounced down towards goal, the linesman was too far away to see if the ball was over the line and no goal was given.
The visitors did pull a goal back on the half hour, when hesitation in the Boro defence allowed Ben Hunter to sneak in and round Hughes to score into the empty net. Romford had chances to restore their three goal advantage but either poor decision making in the box or some great goalkeeping kept the score at three with Tombides unlucky not to complete his hattrick when he brought down a ball knocked forward, beat his man and fired toward goal but his shot was beaten away.
Romford knew an early goal for the visitors in the second half could see the start of an amazing comeback but the defence stood firm with the young centre back pairing of Nathan Okoye and George Forrest mopping up everything thrown at them. The game was still very entertaining despite the lack of chances but the substitutions for both sides slightly disrupted the flow. Akpele almost grabbed a fourth when his curling left foot looping shot just dipped over the bar and substitute Max Bolton nearly stabbed home at the end of another great move while Sudbury rarely threatened and the Boro eased to victory.
ROMFORD: RHYS HUGHES, AYO OLUKOGA, JONATHAN NZENGO, GEORGE FORREST, NATHAN OKOYE, DANNY COSSINGTON, CHRIS TAYLOR, TAYLOR TOMBIDES (MAX BOLTON 64), NICK REYNOLDS (KHADEAN CAMPBELL 56,) ERNEST OKOH (NATHAN JOSEPH 81), GREG AKPELE SUBS NOT USED TOBY BARLOW & JAMIE MARSH
ROMFORD SCORERS – TAYLOR TOMBIDED (13, 20), JONATHAN NZENGO (25)
AFC SUDBURY SCORER – HUNTER (30′)
