Ship Lane outfit picked up one point from the week, but a lot more injuries

Romford manager Paul Martin is facing an injury crisis after a bruising week for Boro.

Greg Akpele was forced off in the 2-1 Ryman North defeat at Thamesmead Town last weekend and has chipped a bone in his knee. And Sam Burton broke his collarbone at Waltham Abbey on Tuesday, while captain Matt Frew has a swollen foot.

All three are unavailable for the visit of Redbridge tomorrow (Saturday) and Dan Cossington is out through injury as well.

Martin said: “It is looking like 12 to 15 weeks for Sam so it won’t be until the New Year that we have him back.

“Then on Wednesday we found out that Greg is likely to be eight to 10 weeks as well, so that is two key players we are without now.

“Also Matt has a swollen foot so won’t play this weekend and it means young Tom Potter has to step up. He did well at Thamesmead, the trouble is just finding him a partner now because normally I would put Dan back in there, but he is injured as well!”

Although Romford took the lead at Thamesmead through Akwasi Marfo, they conceded twice before half time and were beaten 2-1.

On Tuesday they went ahead again, this time through Chinedu McKenzie, but Abbey equalised with six minutes remaining.

Now Romford switch their attention to playing basement boys Redbridge before hosting Aveley at Ship Lane on Wednesday.

Martin added: “I said that I wanted four points from the Waltham Abbey match and Redbridge game.

“If we can get a result now on Saturday it will give us some confidence going into the Aveley match. We want to try and get three points against Redbridge because afterwards we have Aveley, Bury Town and Hornchurch, which is tough.

“We just need to knuckle down and if we do get the wins it is great and if we don’t, we don’t. At the moment we’re comfortable, seven points off the bottom three and I always want around 20 to 25 points before Christmas.

“We have 14 right now so we aren’t too far off that target and we have 13 matches to go so things are looking all right for us.”

At Thamesmead, Romford come up against their former captain Jack Barry and Martin praised his old player.

He added: “We had some good banter with Jack and he was the best player on the park. I am not just saying that because he was my old captain, but he really was good and looked comfortable against us and we couldn’t get near him. He looks like he is enjoying himself at Thamesmead and I am pleased.”