Boro battle back for point

27 November 2009

ROMFORD boss Paul Martin was delighted to see his side battle from two goals down and take a deserved point at Brentwood.

And Martin hopes his men can return from Wingate tomorrow with more reward after ending their four-game losing streak.

Martin said: "It all depends who turns up. We didn't turn up on Saturday, but we did against Brentwood. We went 2-0 down against Potters Bar and our heads went, but against Brentwood we went 2-0 down, got our heads up and worked hard for each other.

"We're still giving away sloppy goals and we've got to limit our mistakes at the back, but we can compete. We've got a big squad, but we can't keep a consistent side at the moment and it's hard."

Paul White faces a four-game ban after being sent off - for the second time this season - in the closing stages and Martin added: "It was the heat of the moment. He was kicked by one of their players, flicked his leg out and the referee saw it. He's apologised, but he let the team, the fans and his manager down. It's a shame as he was having a good game."

Les Whitton's in-form Brentwood had a strong wind in their favour in the first half but Kurt Smith had the first chance after three minutses, heading over a Paul Kavanagh corner.

Blues opened the scoring when Dee Okojie cut in from the right and hit a low shot past Neil Finn, but Steve Willis went close with a header from Smith's corner at the other end, before the hosts were forced to replace goalkeeper Jim Hasell, who was suffering with food poisoning, with Nick Pyne.

The change did not appear to unsettle Blues, though, as they doubled their advantage when Ross Parmenter collected the ball on the left and ran through to score.

Boro rallied and got some reward on the stroke of half-time when a Kavanagh corner on the right found Toran Senghore just outside the box and the striker hit a hard shot through a crowd of players to halve the deficit.

Boro captain Paul Clayton was replaced by Jay Taylor during the break after picking up an injury and Finn saved well from Petrit Elbi after the restart, before Joe Sweeney blasted over.

Smith was too high with his shot at the other end but made amends just past the hour, hooking home a Kavanagh corner to level.

Boro forced further corners and Martin Heed hit a post, with the visitors also having two good penalty shouts turned down.

Centre-back White received a straight red card in the 72nd minute, after an off-the-ball incident, but brave Boro forced a succession of corners in the closing stages in search of a winner.

Martin added: "It's very tight now at the bottom and teams have got games in hand on us, but it's too early to start worrying. We'll see where we are when they are 10 games left."

Romford: Finn, Barry, Neville (Thomas 77), White, Willis, Clayton (Taylor 46), Heed, Port, Smith, Senghore, Kavanagh.