"There's Only One Team In Romford!"

Grays Athletic 3-2 Romford                                                                   Wednesday 2^nd January 2013

Attendance: 262
Referee: Mr E. Kaye.

The derby in Romford did not disappoint which included a penalty, a sending off and a stoppage time winner, the latter of which came from defender Junior Baker to move Grays Athletic up to second.

The home side flew out the blocks from the start and by the 9^th minute had took the lead after the lively Jared Small whipped in a tempting cross which evaded Chris Clark in goal to find the oncoming Joao Carlos to score his 10^th of the season.

Grays Athletic didn’t rest on the laurels and a minute later were awarded a free-kick 30 yards out which didn’t put Harry Agombar off from shooting, and shoot he did and a wicked deflection off the wall which may go down as an own goal took it past the helpless goalkeeper to make it 2-0.

The home side took their foot off the gas a little bit after the two quick fire goals but 10 minutes later left-back Danny Bunce produced a magical run weaving in and out of four Romford players like they weren’t even there only to hit a tame shot straight at Chris Clark.

Romford didn’t get going until the 27^th minute when midfielder Michael Sammut struck a hopeful shot from 20 yards only to see it bounce off the post.

Minutes later the woodwork came to the rescue for Grays Athletic again after right winger Lewis Francis hit a wonder strike with the outside of his right foot only for it to smash against the crossbar and Nick Reynolds failed to keep his header down from the follow up with the goal at his mercy.

The first half finished scrappy from both sides with Grays Athletic looking settled at 2-0 and Romford unable to find a way through a resolute defence led by the commanding Junior Baker.

The Romford manager clearly gave his players a clear telling off at half-time as they came out controlling the midfield and challenging the home sides defence straight away with a lot of free-kicks being awarded to Romford.

Lewis Francis was the man responsible for taking free-kicks for Romford and after three in just eight minutes he managed to cross in a peach that found Romford captain Paul Clayton with plenty of space to place his header into the back of the net to bring the away side straight back into the game with an hour played.

Eight minutes later and Romford had completed the comeback after a dubious penalty decision was given after substitute Kurt Smith was allegedly brought down by Kamurasi. Francis took the resulting penalty but the Grays goalkeeper saved it but was unable to prevent the follow up from Ben Jones levelling the score.

Grays Athletic were shell-shocked Romford deserved to be back in the game as the home side sat back too much but on the 75^th minute Joao Carlos ran past two players to then drill a shot/cross towards the back post and Jeff Hammond was inches away from putting Grays back infront.

Jeff Hammond was involved minutes later but for all the wrong reasons. A reckless challenge led to him getting his second yellow and he went off for an early bath.

Romford started to push higher up the pitch now with the extra man but meant they left gaps at the back and inevitably a winner was going to come and it was Junior Baker that grabbed the headlines after he gambled on a Joe Sweeney low cross to stab home from two yards out to send the home fans into raptures.

Grays Athletic managed to move up to second with that win, extending their unbeaten run to nine games now and keep up the hunt on league leaders Maldon & Tiptree.

Teams
Grays Athletic: Kamurasi, Pope, Bunce, Baker*, Kirby, Hall (Sweeney 76), Beaney, Small (J. West 61), Carlos (Marshall 85), Agombar, Hammond (Sent off 82).
Subs not used: Lalite, D. West

Romford: Clark, Salmon, Dicks, Clayton, Payne, Sammut, Richardson, Francis, Woodward (Smith 68), Reynolds, Jones (Hunt 80).
Subs not used: Hilton, Ngos, Oates