Ten-man Boro keep final hopes alive
IT’S all to play for in the second leg at Lincoln United’s Ashby Avenue on Saturday after this highly entertaining draw at Rookery Park.
Romford suffered a horror start after losing captain Kris Newby to a straight red card in the opening five minutes following a sliding challenge on Tobias Liversidge.
Lincoln went in front through Finlay Dorrell six minutes later but Romford were level just before the hour thanks to a Matthew Cotton penalty.
The visitors thought they’d won it at the death when Elliott Dye slotted home but a rather fortunate Romford equaliser from Ash Siddik deep into time added on kept it perfectly poised for the second leg.
“It was an excellent performance,” said a relieved Romford boss Dan Spinks.
“The red card completely changed how we set up but they boys dug in like they have done all season.
“We’ll take the 2-2 and go there with eleven next week and hopefully do the job and get to Wembley.”
Newby’s dismissal by referee Alan Dale stunned this side of Essex into silence and it almost got worse for the hosts as Michael Jacklin headed just wide from the resulting free-kick.
Then, on 11 minutes, referee Dale was forced into another key decision when Jack Park was brought down in the box and captain Cotton stepped up and slotted the ball past Jake Anderson and into the bottom left corner to put Lincoln a goal up.
Led by experienced midfielder Sam Deering, Romford went about finding their feet but although his excellent passing range was creating chances for Darren Phillips and Hassan Nalbant, neither could find an equaliser. Adelberto Pinto also headed wide.
Despite their numerical disadvantage, Romford continued to ask more questions and after Pinto tried an audacious effort from the right that bent just wide of the target, they found the equaliser on 58 minutes.
Deering’s lifted ball over the top of the defender found Dorrell in behind down the right and the ball bounced up perfectly for him to smash it into the top right corner past a bemused Jack Steggles.
As space appeared, both sides went out looking for a winner – Dorrell again going close for Romford with a volley which flew over the crossbar.
But on the stroke of fulltime, a defence-splitting pass beat Daniel Nakipov-Getmansky all ends up and Dye slipped in to slot home into the bottom left corner of Anderson’s net.
The United Counties League side thought they had done enough but, seconds later, a long ball caused the Lincoln defence problems but an attempted clearance hit Siddik on the chest and ricocheted into the back of the net, sparking jubilant home celebrations. ★★★★★