Harlow defeat annoys boss ahead of Soham visit

Romford manager Paul Martin was left disappointed after his side’s last-gasp 1-0 loss at Harlow on Tuesday.

Boro were so close to earning a hard-fought point, but fell to Alex Read’s 88th-minute header at a corner.

It was the fifth consecutive time that Read has scored against his former club and Martin was convinced the goal could have been avoided.

He said: “I could see that Read kept peeling off the keeper and finding space at the far post.

“Unfortunately our right-back switched off and an individual mistake cost us a point.”

The game was played on Harlow’s new state-of-the-art 3G pitch and Martin admits his men were not convinced by it.

He said: “A lot of our players didn’t like it. The surface is very quick and the ball doesn’t hold up.

“It’s good for the tempo of the game, but Harlow have a slight advantage because they’re more used to playing games on it.”

Martin admitted his men were “outclassed” in Saturday’s 4-0 defeat at Cheshunt, in which Omer Riza and Josh Cooper both scored twice in the first half.

He said: “We lost 2-1 at Grays in the FA Cup and looked a Ryman Premier team, but the following week we looked more like a team from the Dog & Duck.

“I’ve got no arguments about the result – we were outclassed, but it was one of those days when nothing went right.”

Martin was furious with the sixth-minute penalty that put the hosts in front, adding: “The ball hit Paul Clayton on the arm when he was on the ground.

“The referee didn’t think it was a penalty, but said he had to give it because his linesman flagged. It was almost comical.”

Romford finished with nine men after Joe Oates was sent off for a bad tackle and Abs Seymour was stretchered off with a knee injury. Seymour was set to have an MRI scan this week to determine the extent of the damage.

Boro host Soham tomorrow (Saturday) and East Thurrock in the League Cup on Wednesday as they look to put a three-game run of defeats behind them.

“My only concern is that we’re not scoring as regularly as we were last season,” added Martin.