Martin prepares for Millers friendly

Romford manager Paul Martin wants a nice, clean contest with landlords Aveley tonight (7.30pm).

Boro face the Millers in their final pre-season friendly before the new Ryman League campaign gets underway at the weekend.

And Martin is hoping his players emerge unscathed, after seeing Abs Seymour injured in the 5-1 defeat at Hythe Town on Saturday.

He said: “We got bullied basically, but I was disappointed with the referee as there were a few bad tackles and Abs could now be out for up to four weeks with ankle ligament damage.

“We’ve got to wait for the swelling to go down and will get Pete (Shepherd) to have a closer look on Thursday.

“But once Abs came off, we collapsed a little bit. We had too much of a young side out to be honest, with nine or ten others missing.

“We didn’t realise how strong and physical they would be and we took a couple of under-18s, who learnt how aggressive it can be.

“It was like a cup tie to them, they didn’t hold back!”

Keke St Hilaire netted the Boro consolation, but Martin should have more of his more senior members available this evening.

He added: “We need to give a few people an hour or so as it’s our last workout before the league starts.

“But we’ve got to make sure we don’t get any knocks for Saturday,” he added.

Romford open their Division One North campaign at Harlow on Saturday.