Welcome to Romford

[tenthreeleader]

What a kick in the teeth. I don't suppose the fact that it's superbly written enters into things

[neilhoskins77]

This story has taken a long, long time for me to catch up with, and in the last 20 posts or so, it was starting to look like I was going to be catching up just in time for a sneaky plus one invite to the Romford promotion party. I'm gutted for you to miss out in that way, and at home too. But what a story this is! I hope that the FMS Awards are brought back soon so you can get the credit you really deserve for this incredible save. Well done mate, and best of luck for next season.

[CFuller]

What a kick in the teeth. I don't suppose the fact that it's superbly written enters into things

I honestly would have preferred a kick in the teeth to that result.

This story has taken a long, long time for me to catch up with, and in the last 20 posts or so, it was starting to look like I was going to be catching up just in time for a sneaky plus one invite to the Romford promotion party. I'm gutted for you to miss out in that way, and at home too. But what a story this is! I hope that the FMS Awards are brought back soon so you can get the credit you really deserve for this incredible save. Well done mate, and best of luck for next season.

I know you've told me before about how much you like the story, and it's nice to hear from you again, Neil. Rest assured that, if we do go up next season, I'll be sending a party invite up to Newcastle so you can come along!

I have as much respect for your work as you do for mine, and although I haven't posted on your latest story, I have been reading along as always. Keep it up.

[CFuller]

It had been nearly a year since the iconic Nicky Reynolds left Romford FC. On 29 May, Reynolds returned to Ship Lane, but instead of banging in the goals like he did in the past, he would be finding some new match-winners. That's right - Nicky was our new scout!

Nicky had concentrated on his day job since his departure from Romford, and with his 31st birthday on the horizon, he had little desire to resume playing. However, when offered the chance to come back in a new role, he couldn't say no. He was the second former Boro player to join my backroom staff after Ricki Mackin, who'd been our head of youth development since 2013.

Nicky didn't take long to earn his crust. He alerted me to a speedy 18-year-old right-winger called Josh Telling, and after taking a look at the former Derby County trainee, I decided to sign him on a free transfer.

Josh was likely to act either as a back-up to, or even a direct replacement for, Dean O'Halloran. Dean had not yet made a firm decision on whether to stay at Romford following our play-off disappointment, and I was still open to any offers for him.

Telling arrived at around the same time as centre-back Aaron Connolly. The 21-year-old, who made a couple of cup appearances for Norwich City before leaving last year, was spotted by our former scout Dean Standen.

There was one other early addition to the Romford squad - and it came about by chance.

I was visiting the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London when I bumped into someone that I recognised instantly as a former Arsenal youth player. We got talking about our beloved Gunners, and their recent success in the UEFA Champions League Final, before I asked about how his career was going.

The player's career, it turned out, had been wrecked by injury, and he left Arsenal in 2018 without making a league appearance during seven years in north London. He hadn't signed for another club since then, although he did have a brief trial at German fourth-division club Viktoria Koln (I've not heard of them, either).

I told him about my job as Romford manager, and then asked him if he'd think about signing for the Boro. The player said that he'd certainly consider it, and a few days later, I offered him a club-record £400 per week. He did not take much persuading.

I could hardly believe what had just happened! Romford FC of the Conference South had just signed Serge Gnabry, who just half a decade ago was being touted by many as German football's next wunderkind!

The extremely athletic 23-year-old usually plays as an attacking midfielder or a right-winger. Serge also has a pretty good left foot, so I could actually use him as Graeme Montgomery's successor on the left wing.

At the start of the month, Boro chairman Leo Jones gave me an increased weekly wage budget of around £3,500. Our three new boys would cost a combined £800 a week, so our current total was up to approximately £2,700.

I shifted a trio of former youth players in order to save up some more wages. Liam Georgiou made his way to Southern League Division 1 Central side Wembley, Jordan Peters dropped into the Isthmian League Division 1 South with Crawley Down Gatwick, and Dave McGrath was released.

Completing the list of departures was midfielder Elliot Eaton, who left Romford after just one season to sign for Dunstable Town.

Kyle Thomas, though, was not going anywhere. The goalkeeper received an offer from ambitious Isthmian Premier club Maidstone United, and he turned it down to stay with us for another year.

Kyle's solid performances earned him a place in the Romford fans' best XI for 2018/2019. The full team was as follows: Kyle Thomas, Jordan Peters, Kieron Gray, Nicholas Lyskov, Russell Bradley, Dean O'Halloran, Fabio Saraiva, Romone McCrae, Graeme Montgomery, Duncan Greenwood, Garry Morath-Gibbs.

The Fans' Player of the Year was Kieron Gray, who had enjoyed a fantastic season at centre-back. I recently signed Kieron up for two more campaigns, so hopefully he can become an even better defender for us over that time.

With just one week to go until the start of pre-season, the fixture list came out for the 2019/2020 Conference South season. We got a real humdinger of an opening game, because on 10 August, we'd be hosting a Barnet side who were gracing League Two as recently as 2014. Three days after that, we'd be going all the way to Devon for our first away match against division newcomers Tiverton Town.

There was plenty more to look forward to over the course of the season. AFC Wimbledon - another former Football League side - were scheduled to visit Ship Lane on 23 November, and we'd have no fewer than four derby matches against Grays Athletic and Isthmian Premier play-off winners Aveley.

After the bitter disappointment of the season just gone, let's hope that this new term brings a bit more in the way of joy!

[neilhoskins77]

Chris, have you had any offers from other clubs during the course of this save? I would have thought a few Conference Premier clubs at the very least would have been trying to poach you by now.

[CFuller]

Chris, have you had any offers from other clubs during the course of this save? I would have thought a few Conference Premier clubs at the very least would have been trying to poach you by now.

Not a single one. I haven't even been linked with another club.

[CFuller]

Premier League

Manchester City's seven-year hold on the Premier League title was ended when their bitter rivals Manchester United roared back to life. The Red Devils were in imperious form, as they scored 79 goals and lost just twice on the way to winning the title by a 15-point margin. Neymar was consistently brilliant up front and found the net 19 times on the way to being named PFA Player of the Year. Austria left-back David Alaba also excelled under Marcelo Bielsa, who masterminded United's 20th league championship win - their first since Sir Alex Ferguson retired.

United may have romped home, but only three goals separated the next three teams. Arsenal - who reached all three major cup finals - scraped into 2nd place under new manager José Mourinho. His former club Chelsea were just behind in 3rd, though they would later successfully defend the UEFA Europa League title. As for the dethroned champions, Manchester City could only finish 4th. While attacking midfielders Nicusor Stanciu and summer arrival James Rodríguez delighted the sky blue supporters, City legend Yaya Touré ended his career on a downer.

Newcastle United boss Christian Gross retired on a high after leading them back into the top six. Magpies hotshot Damien King was named as the Premier League's Top Goalscorer after the youngster netted 26 times in another successful loan spell away from Old Trafford. Southampton came 8th, thanks to some exceptional displays from their Croatian winger Marko Skopljanac, but 2018 runners-up Liverpool had a massively disappointing season spent entirely in the bottom half. The Reds' finishing position of 11th was the highest they could get.

Fans of West Ham United and Sunderland are used to seeing their sides yo-yo in and out of the Premier League, and this was another season that ended in relegation for them. Like the Hammers, Reading possessed a leaky defence, and for the third time this century, they exited the top-flight after exactly two seasons. The Royals' final-day relegation came much to the relief of Stoke City and FA Cup winners Aston Villa.

Top Four: Manchester United (1st, 92 pts), Arsenal (2nd, 77 pts), Chelsea (3rd, 77 pts), Manchester City (4th, 77 pts).

Relegated: Reading (18th, 35 pts), Sunderland (19th, 31 pts), West Ham United (20th, 29 pts).

Championship

Wales will once again have a team in the Premier League after Swansea City won the Championship in impressive fashion. They scored 81 goals - the same number as Blackburn Rovers, who pipped a resurgent Leeds United to the other promotion place on goal difference.

Leeds' revival ended in the Play-Offs, where they suffered a Semi Final defeat to Nottingham Forest. Everton's bid for a top-flight return was quashed by Huddersfield Town, who then beat Forest in a dramatic Play-Off Final. An 86th-minute goal from Sean Scannell secured a 2-1 win for Huddersfield, meaning that the Terriers will grace English football's top division for the first time since 1971/1972.

Three players finished the Championship season level on 24 goals - Blackburn's Jordan Rhodes, Forest's Simon Cox, and Adam Le Fondre of 9th-placed Queens Park Rangers. The Top Goalscorer award went to the ever-deadly Rhodes, who played fewer matches than either Cox or Le Fondre.

A chaotic campaign for Blackpool on and off the pitch resulted in them being relegated to League One with a horrendous goal difference of -55. Two other northern teams suffered relegation heartache. Hartlepool United couldn't last longer than two seasons in the Championship, while Doncaster Rovers' stay there was even briefer.

Promoted: Swansea City (1st, 92 pts), Blackburn Rovers (2nd, 84 pts), Huddersfield Town (5th, 80 pts).

Also in Play-Offs: Leeds United (3rd, 84 pts), Everton (4th, 81 pts), Nottingham Forest (6th, 80 pts).

Relegated: Doncaster Rovers (22nd, 43 pts), Hartlepool United (23rd, 28 pts), Blackpool (24th, 25 pts).

League One

Three teams vied for two promotion spots at the end of a dramatic title race in League One. At full-time, Hull City booked a place back in the Championship, as did Bradford City for the first time in 15 years. Millwall were the unlucky team to miss out, and more agony was to come the Lions' way.

Millwall were beaten in the Play-Off Semi Finals by Colchester United, as Barnsley won the other Semi against Brentford. The Wembley showdown was decided by a 61st-minute strike from Colchester's former United States international Kenny Cooper. That meant back-to-back promotions for Kevin Blackwell and his U's!

Dagenham & Redbridge's struggles up front contributed to their relegation back to League Two. No fewer than six clubs were battling to avoid the other three relegation spots on the final day. Crystal Palace were among those who narrowly survived, but AFC Bournemouth, Notts County and Gillingham weren't so fortunate.

Promoted: Hull City (1st, 87 pts), Bradford City (2nd, 86 pts), Colchester United (6th, 70 pts).

Also in Play-Offs: Millwall (3rd, 86 pts), Brentford (4th, 80 pts), Barnsley (5th, 72 pts).

Relegated: Gillingham (21st, 49 pts), Notts County (22nd, 49 pts), AFC Bournemouth (23rd, 49 pts), Dagenham & Redbridge (24th, 36 pts).

League Two

Yeovil Town blew the other League Two teams out of the water, comfortably winning the title with 84 goals and 92 points! They can now get ready for a return to League One, as can the other two automatically-promoted teams - Stevenage and Wycombe Wanderers.

Both Play-Off Semi Finals were fairly close, with Torquay United squeaking past Shrewsbury Town and Stockport County narrowly winning against Crawley Town. The Final was also a tight affair, and the scores were level at 1-1 after 90 minutes. Danny Mullen scored for Torquay in the fifth minute of extra-time, and with the Hatters unable to fashion a reply, an excellent season for the Gulls ended in promotion!

Luton Town's financial problems of old resurfaced this season, and they dropped back out of the Football League. Hereford United also went down, with the relegated duo just one point behind lucky Burton Albion.

Promoted: Yeovil Town (1st, 92 pts), Stevenage (2nd, 74 pts), Wycombe Wanderers (3rd, 71 pts), Torquay United (5th, 70 pts).

Also in Play-Offs: Crawley Town (4th, 70 pts), Shrewsbury Town (6th, 69 pts), Stockport County (7th, 68 pts).

Relegated: Hereford United (23rd, 45 pts), Luton Town (24th, 45 pts).

Conference Premier

AFC Telford United made a blistering start to the campaign, and after winning a title battle with Milton Keynes Dons, they secured a Football League place for the first time in their history.

The Dons beat Dartford 3-2 and Port Vale defeated Grimsby Town by the same scoreline in the Play-Off Semi Finals. When it came to the Final, it was Port Vale who prevailed 2-1 thanks to a late winner from stalwart Lee Collins. After two seasons of rebuilding in the Conference Premier, the Valiants were flying back into League Two.

Dropping out of the Conference Premier were three former Football League members - AFC Wimbledon, Lincoln City, and Barnet for a second time. It would have been four, but Bury were spared because Tamworth were docked 10 crucial points for going into administration just before Christmas.

Promoted: AFC Telford United (1st, 93 pts), Port Vale (4th, 77 pts).

Also in Play-Offs: Milton Keynes Dons (2nd, 86 pts), Grimsby Town (3rd, 82 pts), Dartford (5th, 73 pts).

Relegated: Barnet (21st, 44 pts), Tamworth (22nd, 43 pts*), Lincoln City (23rd, 43 pts), AFC Wimbledon (24th, 39 pts).

* deducted 10 points

Conference North

Promoted: Harrogate Town (1st, 80 pts), Darlington (4th, 72 pts).

Also in Play-Offs: Gainsborough Trinity (2nd, 77 pts), Matlock Town (3rd, 74 pts), Hednesford Town (5th, 71 pts).

Relegated: Lowestoft Town (20th, 24 pts), Salford City (21st, 21 pts*), Worksop Town (22nd, 17 pts*).

* deducted 10 points

Conference South

Promoted: Boreham Wood (1st, 97 pts), Oxford City (4th, 66 pts).

Also in Play-Offs: Romford (2nd, 77 pts), Hayes & Yeading United (3rd, 69 pts), Woking (5th, 65 pts).

Relegated: Salisbury City (20th, 41 pts*), Bath City (21st, 33 pts), Worcester City (22nd, 30 pts).

* deducted 10 points

Regional Premier Divisions

Promoted from Northern Premier League Premier: Stafford Rangers (1st), Leek Town (3rd).

Promoted from Isthmian League Premier: Hythe Town (1st), Aveley (3rd).

Promoted from Southern League Premier: Wealdstone (1st), Tiverton Town (3rd).

[CFuller]

Major Transfers

• Manchester City beefed up their defence over the summer, spending £26.5million on burly Paris Saint-Germain centre-half Bruno Martins Indi. City then acquired England right-back Kyle Walker from Tottenham Hotspur for £16.5million. A few weeks later, they effectively rendered Walker's services obsolete by signing Dani Carvajal in a £17.25million transfer from Real Madrid, to whom they had just sold Sébastien Corchia!
  
• Arsenal eyed up improvements to their midfield. £20million Southampton midfielder James Ward-Prowse was followed to the Emirates Stadium by Nigerian winger Kingsley Aremu, who cost £25.5million from Ajax. Ward-Prowse only made two competitive assists for the Gunners in his first season, but Aremu recorded ten assists and scored 17 times.
  
• In their infinite wisdom, Tottenham paid out nearly £60million on FOUR centre-forwards! Two of them - Hervin Ongenda and ex-Valenciennes man David Henen - struggled for game time. Ongenda's former PSG team-mate Uros Zinic was more successful, as the Slovenian scored 21 Premier League goals. 11 more were scored by Japanese international Sunao Matsuo, who was signed from Fenerbahce.
  
• Less than a decade after turning out for Poole Town, Charlie Austin was offered a whopping £92,000 per week to join Fulham from Burnley for a club-record £21million. Austin didn't have the best of debut seasons at Craven Cottage, scoring just seven league goals, though he did keep his place in the England team.
  
• The biggest transfer out of the PL concerned the young Norwegian defender Stefan Skjelvik, who completed a £28million move to Bayern Munich after two seasons at Chelsea. Skjelvik missed much of the first half of the campaign with a torn hamstring, but still helped Bayern win another Bundesliga.
  
• After a fairly quiet summer transfer window, Manchester United flexed their financial muscles in January. United gave Spurs £29.5million for their brilliant American defender Dean Acres. They then paid £33million for 26-year-old Brazil superstar Moreira, and the right-winger showed plenty of promise until he broke his foot in late March.
  

Managerial Movements

• Arsenal took the bold decision in November to dismiss Luis Enrique - and hire former Chelsea and Manchester United boss José Mourinho as his successor! It was a move that paid dividends for the Gunners, who won the League Cup and their first ever UEFA Champions League. Luis Enrique quickly returned to England, as he struggled to right a flagging Liverpool side who had jettisoned Michael Laudrup.
  
• There is next to no stability at Fulham under Dmitrijs Morozs. A third of the way through his fifth season as owner, the Latvian sacked Chris Powell before appointing Neil Lennon as the SEVENTH manager of his reign. Lennon arrived from Athletic Bilbao, who ironically replaced him with Roberto Martínez - the man who was at the helm when Morozs acquired the Cottagers in 2014.
  
• While in charge of Stoke City, Stale Solbakken caught the eye of Sevilla, who appointed him to succeed José Ramón Sandoval late in March. After having their manager poached, Stoke did the same to Hibernian, pinching Colin Cameron from the soon-to-be-former Scottish champions.
  
• There was much upheaval at the end of the Premier League season. Following Christian Gross's retirement, Newcastle United brought in Mark Bowen from Wigan Athletic, who in turn hired Swansea City's Michael Appleton. Meanwhile, Malky Mackay lost his job at Reading and moved to fellow relegated side Sunderland as a replacement for his fellow Scot Alex McLeish.
  
• Alan Pardew stepped down as England head coach after the FIFA World Cup, with Brendan Rodgers taking over the Three Lions. Pardew would later return to management with Peterborough United, whom he led to a 14th-place finish in the Championship.
  
• Dutch champions PSV recovered brilliantly from John van den Brom's sudden departure to Valenciennes in November. Michael Skibbe continued where van den Brom left off, and delivered PSV's second successive Eredivisie title. Meanwhile, Skibbe's former team Hannover 96 were relegated from the Bundesliga.
  

Other Major Stories

• Arsenal celebrated their greatest ever victory in Marseille, where they beat Juventus 3-2 to lift the Champions League trophy. Captain Jack Wilshere's excellent double and a goal from Moussa Sissoko rendered Fernando Llorente's double for the defending champs meaningless. As a result, Mourinho became the first manager to win a European Cup with three different clubs - Porto, Inter Milan, and the Gunners.
  
• Real Madrid missed out on the Champions League Group Stage for the first time since 1996/1997 after losing a Play-Off on penalties to Marseille. They'll definitely be there next year after winning a close-run battle for the La Liga title. Los Merengues were surprisingly pushed all the way by Real Betis - a hitherto mid-table team inspired by the goalscoring of England international Danny Welbeck.
  
• For once, Inter Milan stuck with one manager for an entire season... and duly reaped the rewards! Marco van Basten made himself a hero on both sides of Milan by delivering Inter's first Serie A scudetto since 2010. As for AC Milan, they finished 9th in their most disappointing season for over two decades.
  
• The Bundesliga lost two stalwarts at the end of this season. Renowned manager Felix Magath called time on a distinguished career after leading Bayer Leverkusen to 3rd place. One of Magath's previous clubs, Werder Bremen, finished bottom, ending a run of 38 consecutive seasons in Germany's top division.
  
• Yaya Touré was followed into retirement by his old Manchester City colleague Carlos Tevez. The 35-year-old played out one final season at his beloved Boca Juniors before hanging up his boots.
  
• England lost a couple of friendlies to the United States and Holland, but the Three Lions were almost spotless in their first five qualifiers for the UEFA European Championship. The last of five consecutive wins saw England obliterate Malta 13-1, with Austin scoring four times and both Wilshere and Liverpool's Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain helping themselves to doubles. The solitary Maltese goal was actually the first that Rodgers' men had conceded in qualifying!
  

Cup Winners

FA Cup: Aston Villa 2-1 Arsenal.

League Cup: Arsenal 2-0 Liverpool.

Community Shield: Stoke City 1-0 Manchester City.

Football League Trophy: Tranmere Rovers 3-1 Portsmouth.

UEFA Champions League: Arsenal 3-2 Juventus - at Stade Vélodrome, Marseille.

UEFA Europa League: Chelsea 2-1 Valencia - at Stade Roi Baudouin, Brussels.

UEFA Super Cup: Chelsea 2-1 Juventus (aet) - at Stade Maurice Dufrasne, Liege.

FIFA Club World Championship: Juventus 2-1 Pumas - at BMO Field, Toronto.

Major European Leagues

Dutch Eredivisie: PSV (1st), Ajax (2nd), FC Utrecht (3rd).

French Ligue 1: Paris Saint-Germain (1st), Monaco (2nd), Lyon (3rd).

German Bundesliga: Bayern Munich (1st), Schalke 04 (2nd), Bayer Leverkusen (3rd).

Italian Serie A: Inter Milan (1st), Juventus (2nd), Roma (3rd).

Portuguese Primeira Liga: Porto (1st), Benfica (2nd), Sporting CP (3rd).

Russian Premier League: Anji Makhachkala (1st), FC Krasnodar (2nd), Rubin Kazan (3rd).

Scottish Premier League: Celtic (1st), Hibernian (2nd), Rangers (3rd).

Spanish La Liga: Real Madrid (1st), Real Betis (2nd), Atlético Madrid (3rd).

Award Winners

PFA Player of the Year: Neymar (Manchester United).

PFA Young Player of the Year: Marko Skopljanac (Southampton).

FWA Footballer of the Year: Nicusor Stanciu (Manchester City).

Premier League Manager of the Season: Roberto Mancini (Manchester City).

PFA Premier League Team of the Year: Joe Hart (Manchester City), Dani Carvajal (Manchester City), Etienne Capoue (Arsenal), Sunny Salami (Southampton), David Alaba (Manchester United), Kingsley Aremu (Arsenal), Nicusor Stanciu (Manchester City), Marco Verratti (Arsenal), Marko Skopljanac (Southampton), Damien King (Newcastle United), Neymar (Manchester United).

FIFA Ballon d'Or: Lionel Messi (Barcelona).

World Soccer World Player of the Year: Lionel Messi (Barcelona).

European Golden Shoe: Damien King (Newcastle United).

UEFA Best Player in Europe: Eden Hazard (Paris Saint-Germain).

FIFA/FIFPro World XI: Iker Casillas (Real Madrid), Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid), Javi Martínez (Bayern Munich), Gerard Piqué (Barcelona), Jordi Alba (Barcelona), Thiago (Barcelona), Sergio Aguero (Manchester City), Lionel Messi (Barcelona), Iker Muniain (Real Madrid), Oscar (Barcelona), Neymar (Manchester United).

[CFuller]

"Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place, and I don't care how tough you are, it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it.

"You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard you hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward; how much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done!"

We can all learn something from Rocky Balboa. Our last two seasons in the Conference South had been painful for very different reasons, and now we had to get off the canvas and hit back. This season, I wanted to us to battle for promotion... and I wasn't just thinking about the play-offs. I had the title in my sights.

The players were in a similarly bullish mood at the start of pre-season training. With the additions last month of three talented youngsters, including the classy and speedy Serge Gnabry, we had the makings of an exciting team.

Another new face arrived at the Boro just a few days into pre-season, and like Gnabry, he represented a significant coup. The good folks at Cardiff City very kindly allowed us to loan in their 22-year-old right-back Robbie Healey for the whole season! Robbie played 14 Championship games for Cardiff and was capped by Wales Under-21s earlier in his career, though he didn't build significantly on his early promise.

As one defender arrived, another left. We said our goodbyes to Danish defender Nicholas Lyskov, who received an offer from Conference Premier outfit Southport that he could not refuse.

While Lyskov packed his bags for a new challenge, three Boro boys committed their futures to Romford. Playmaker Fabio Saraiva and full-back Trevor Dunn both signed new two-year contracts - the latter after he rejected an approach from Witham Town.

Goalkeeper Kyle Thomas also announced his desire to stay at Ship Lane after turning down a second offer - this time from Woking.

Ironically, Woking had earmarked Kyle as a replacement for his Boro predecessor Roscoe Fryatt, who had just left Kingfield and signed a professional contract with AFC Telford United. Fryatt's move invoked a clause in his contract that entitled us to 20% of the transfer fee, so how much would we get? Well... what's 20% of nothing?

Telford used to be our parent club, but after they lent us just one player in the previous two seasons, our partnership ended amicably.

All in all, the first two weeks of pre-season went by without too many hitches. That meant a quiet start to his Romford career for our new physiotherapist Gary Ling. The former Billericay Town physio had taken over from John Kelly, who was dismissed at the end of last term.

For the third season in a row, our first friendly was at home to a Conference Premier team. This time, it was Dover Athletic who provided the opposition. There was one late addition to the Boro squad, as 18-year-old former Leyton Orient midfielder Jerome Davies started a month-long trial just in time to take part in this match.

13 July 2019: Romford vs Dover Athletic

The quality gap was all too obvious in the first half. While we played like we were starting pre-season, Dover's game was so fluent that it felt as if they'd never gone on their holidays! They utterly monopolised possession during the first period. Dover striker Jermaine Anderson narrowly missed their first chance to score in the second minute, and midfielder Callum McNish put a driver over the bar in the 19th. Another midfielder - Michael Thomson - had the Whites' best chance yet after half an hour, when his free-kick clipped the corner of the woodwork. Dover's good play would soon be rewarded. Daniel Morrison was having a difficult time trying to shut up McNish in the middle of the park, and when he let McNish race past him in the 36th minute, the ex-Southampton man made the most of his opportunity. An excellent finish sent us 1-0 behind, and by half-time, we hadn't even got close to equalising. Our strikers - especially Garry Morath-Gibbs - were starving from having so little possession, while Serge Gnabry did not look at all comfortable on the left wing. Worse still, we lost Fabio Saraiva to injury just before the break.

Our start to the second half was much more encouraging. Kieron Gray found Duncan Greenwood in plenty of space outside Dover's area on 47 minutes, but the Whites defenders eventually crowded Dunc out and forced him to miss. The skipper had another opportunity in the 58th minute. After a couple of excellent passes from debutants Jerome Davies and Josh Telling, Greenwood put his shot inches wide of the post. On 64 minutes, a promising cross from Telling was headed out of danger by Taylor McKenzie, who started a Dover counter-attack. What resulted from it was their second goal - assisted by Alan Fish, and finished by Tom Tipton from a tight angle. Fish's game would meet a watery end six minutes later. He was sent off for a trip on Brett Reid, which earned him a second yellow card and an early trip to the showers. I hoped that we would make the most of being a man up, but the closest we got to at least a consolation goal was in the 83rd minute. Reid's close-range header was excellently caught by Guy Feeley - the 16-year-old son of Whites manager Andy Feeley. Moments later, any chance we had of scoring was snuffed out. Like Fish before him, Boro forward Tom O'Reilly was dismissed for two bookable offences, and his sending-off condemned us to a 2-0 defeat. I was disappointed with how we'd started, but it was still early days.

Romford - 0

Dover Athletic - 2 (McNish 36, Tipton 64)

Friendly, Attendance 176

ROMFORD LINE-UP: Thomas (Millen), Healey (Dunn), Gray (James), Connolly (Reid), Bradley (Rafferty), O'Halloran (Telling), Saraiva (Davies), Morrison (Pollard), Gnabry (Scott), Greenwood (Koutinis), Morath-Gibbs (O'Reilly). BOOKED: Dunn, O'Reilly. SENT OFF: O'Reilly.

I hoped for an easier ride when we travelled to Rookery Hill, where we faced an East Thurrock United team still coming to terms with their relegation from the Isthmian League Division 1 South. Joining the Boro for this match was another midfield trialist - 24-year-old anchor man Khari Oriogun.

17 July 2019: East Thurrock United vs Romford

East Thurrock frightened us after just five minutes, when Sam Thompson's cross was met by a diving header from Wesley Cope that narrowly missed the target. That aside, we dominated the opening stages, as one would expect against a team three tiers below us. Turning possession into chances proved to be somewhat trickier. Josh Telling dragged a 7th-minute shot wide, and Gareth Stamp fired over in the 18th, but they were the only shots we had in the first half-hour. By the 28th minute, East Thurrock had taken a shock lead. It was a moment to forget for 15-year-old Danny Rafferty, who headed Connor Hubble's free-kick back to the Rocks midfielder and looked on in horror as Hubble smashed a shot into the top corner. That goal was all that was separating the two teams at half-time.

Less than a minute into the second half, Telling should have buried Rafferty's excellent cross into the East Thurrock net. Instead, Josh agonisingly headed it against the post before Bobby Dormer cleared for the hosts. Our poor luck continued after 53 minutes, when right-back Trevor Dunn picked up a thigh strain that would rule him out for three weeks. Over the course of the next half-hour, we cranked up the gears as we desperately tried to equalise. But the score remained 1-0 - mostly because of our continued profligacy rather than any particularly strong defending on East Thurrock's part. Johnnie Spong's 81st-minute effort was our seventh shot on goal, and like the other six, it never threatened the Rocks' goal. Five minutes later, with time quickly ticking away, we finally got an equaliser. Spong's cross towards Greenwood in East Thurrock's six-yard box was turned into the net by defender Chris Sivers, but I was in no mood to celebrate. We had failed to register a single shot on target against a team from the Kent Football League, and only that late own goal spared us from an embarrassing defeat.

East Thurrock United - 1 (Hubble 28)

Romford - 1 (Sivers og86)

Friendly, Attendance 45

ROMFORD LINE-UP: Millen (Thomas), Dunn (Healey), Reid (Connolly), James (Gray), Rafferty (Bradley), Davies (Embleton), Pollard (Oriogun), Telling (Scott), Gnabry (Spong), Koutinis (Greenwood), Stamp (Morath-Gibbs). BOOKED: Dunn.

That was another performance to quickly forget, and the Conference South promotion odds seemed to suggest that we had much work to do. AFC Wimbledon were ranked as 5-4 favourites ahead of Tiverton Town and Hayes & Yeading United, but we were given surprisingly long odds of 33-1, even though we were last year's runners-up. Did the bookies believe that the previous season was a false dawn?

[tenthreeleader]

No respect for Romford. Make them choke on it!

[CFuller]

No respect for Romford. Make them choke on it!

The way that FM calculates pre-season odds doesn't make much sense at times. There's no way that we should have been 33-1 for promotion, or that Tiverton should be among the favourites. Newly-promoted Tiverton, for goodness sake!

[CFuller]

Our next friendly was in south-east London against Thamesmead Town. The Mead have lost in the Isthmian Premier Play-Off Semi Finals in each of the last two seasons, so they are most certainly a team on the up.

20 July 2019: Thamesmead Town vs Romford

Thamesmead proved strong opponents at both ends in the early stages. After three minutes, goalkeeper Tom Beadle beat away a shot from Garry Morath-Gibbs, and defender Jordan Turnbull made an excellent tackle to stop Jimmy Scott from trying to convert the rebound. Speedy winger Oliver Soares missed the Mead's first shot in the 9th minute. The threat he posed would be limited after Kieron Gray's tackle seven minutes later left him with a minor injury. We conceded too many fouls for my liking in our previous two matches, and there were moments here when I thought we'd spiral out of control again. Thankfully, we didn't, but our problems with creating and converting chances were still causing concern. In the 34th minute, Beadle made another fabulous save to deny Fabio Saraiva. Four minutes later, an excellent attacking move from the Mead resulted in Ola Sogbanmu heading Tom Derry's centre into the net. Thamesmead were 1-0 up and looking solid - until George McCluskey came off injured soon after. His departure left a chink in the Thamesmead armour, and with just two minutes left until half-time, we opened them up. Morath-Gibbs won the ball off a hesitant Conner Fitzpatrick, and the knock-on found Tom O'Reilly, who raced through and pulled us level! At last, we had something to smile about!

Tom's leveller gave the whole team a boost of confidence for the second half. Our passing became much crisper, and Serge Gnabry showcased his considerable talent for the first time. The German's 48th-minute shot at goal had to be turned away by the impressive Beadle, who hardly made a mistake... until the 61st minute. Gnabry hit a low pass back to Jimmy Scott on the right touchline, and after spotting that Beadle had strayed from his goal line, Jimmy tried to curl the ball right into the far corner of the net! He couldn't have struck it any sweeter, and much to the disbelief of the home fans, we were leading 2-1! From then on, there was only one team in the match. Beadle's busy afternoon continued with an excellent fingertip stop from Gareth Stamp's low strike in the 66th minute. Two minutes later, he was beaten again, as the score changed to 3-1 Romford. O'Reilly made an excellent storming run towards goal before selflessly laying the ball off for Gnabry to smash it in. Serge had contributed to both of our second-half goals, and he almost set up another in the 82nd minute. 16-year-old Daniel Formaston could only fire Gnabry's through-ball into the side netting, but I didn't mind. Our first win of pre-season was already secured.

Thamesmead Town - 1 (Sogbanmu 38)

Romford - 3 (O'Reilly 43, Scott 61, Gnabry 68)

Friendly, Attendance 64

ROMFORD LINE-UP: Thomas (Millen), Gray (Healy), Connolly (Elliot), James (Reid), Bradley (Rafferty), Morrison (Stamp), Oriogun (Embleton), Scott (O'Halloran), Saraiva (Gnabry), O'Reilly (Koutinis), Morath-Gibbs (Formaston). BOOKED: James, O'Reilly.

Jerome Davies' trial period at Romford did not last very long. After playing just two games for the Boro, the midfielder left us to sign for Ashford Town (Middlesex).

Our next friendly was a special occasion, as Rio Ferdinand and his Cambridge United team came to visit us at Ship Lane. The U's finished 14th in the Conference Premier last season.

23 July 2019: Romford vs Cambridge United

Gareth Stamp had a number of early opportunities to draw blood for Romford. Gareth missed the target in the 10th and 17th minutes, but Dean O'Halloran's 11th-minute cross almost found Stampy before Cambridge keeper Ross Atkins punched it clear. United did not play anything like a higher-division team in the first half-hour. Rio Ferdinand's visitors looked far too cautious, and they only had one scoring chance through ex-Southend United teenager Elvis Issah, who dragged the ball wide after 28 minutes. I spotted an opportunity to pounce on their sluggishness, and urged my men to push forward at every opportunity. That paid off after 41 minutes, when Duncan Greenwood slotted the ball past Atkins, to the delight of most of the Ship Lane crowd! Duncan then missed a couple of long-range efforts just before half-time, at which point we were leading by his solitary goal.

Cambridge's performance deteriorated further in the second half. Captain Shane Williams pulled a hamstring when he was tackled by Serge Gnabry on 53 minutes. Five minutes later, the U's fell apart. Greenwood's flick-on from Kyle Greenwood's header went straight to Atkins, but Cambridge's number 1 seemed to be wearing Teflon gloves, as the ball slipped from his grasp! Like a great white shark, Stamp smelt blood, and he went in for the kill! It was 2-0 to Romford, and Ferdinand had an embarrassed look on his face. You could say that he looked like he'd been merked! The former England defender's team were completely out of sorts - so much so that they didn't even have a shot at goal in the entire second half! The last half-hour was a total anti-climax, and we cruised to a surprisingly comfortable win over professional opposition.

Romford - 2 (Greenwood 41, Stamp 58)

Cambridge United - 0

Friendly, Attendance 228

ROMFORD LINE-UP: Thomas (Millen), Reid (Gray), Connolly (Healey), James (Elliot), Morrison (O'Reilly), O'Halloran (Telling), Oriogun (Stocco), Gnabry (Saraiva), Bradley (Akpan), Greenwood (Pollard), Stamp (Morath-Gibbs).

This Romford team was really starting to come together, but I felt we were still one player short of a title-challenging squad. Before our next friendly, I brought in a man that I believed would be that 'one player'.

[Crackers786]

keep going with Romford I think you will win it this year.

on my fm game I have take over a Romford in the league below the conf south. they was near the bottem of the league got them up to mid table now just in feb

[CFuller]

keep going with Romford I think you will win it this year.

on my fm game I have take over a Romford in the league below the conf south. they was near the bottem of the league got them up to mid table now just in feb

The Isthmian Premier? Good luck in that division, and nice to hear that someone else is giving Romford a go.

[CFuller]

Last season, Connor Martin scored 13 goals and set up 10 more as Boreham Wood raced away with the Conference South trophy. With that record, you can understand how delighted I was when Wood manager Ian Allinson accepted my offer to take the 23-year-old Lancastrian on loan for six months. Connor was primarily used as a right-winger at Meadow Park, but I see him more as a ball-winning midfield dynamo.

Martin made his Romford debut in our mouth-watering home encounter with Dagenham & Redbridge. The Daggers had recently dropped back down to League Two after spending the last three seasons in League One. This was the first time we'd played them since the 2014 Essex Senior Cup Final.

27 July 2019: Romford vs Dagenham & Redbridge

Five years ago, Dagenham & Redbridge scored two early goals against us. They were much slower off the mark this time round. We had the first chance of the game after five minutes, when Fabio Saraiva's free-kick curled just past the post. Nine minutes later, a cross from Dean O'Halloran set up an even better opportunity. His cross was headed against the crossbar by Kenny Pollard, and Garry Morath-Gibbs looked set to finish the job... until Daggers defender Gerald Watkins did it for him! The Fulham loanee's own goal put us 1-0 up! Dagenham sought a quick response, and in the 22nd minute, Craig Tanner saw his low effort pushed away by Moses Millen. On-loan Everton winger Ian Robertson hit a strike from about 20 yards in the 27th minute, and Millen again rose to the occasion. Watkins almost made up for his own goal after 33 minutes, as his close-range free-kick came within inches of equalising. Despite increasing pressure from Dagenham, our defence was looking sharp. The same couldn't be said about Saraiva. Our playmaker regularly lost possession, and when Charlie Telfer's challenge left Fabio with a twisted ankle just before half-time, his disappointing day came to a premature end.

In the 49th minute, Boro midfielder Daniel Morrison lost the ball to Telfer. Kieron Gray then missed a headed clearance from Paul Taylor's long-ball, leaving Nick Darlow with a clear chance to score. Millen pushed his shot away, but Dagenham pressed forward again before Gray headed Watkins' cross out of harm's way. We clearly needed to tighten up after that scare, so that was what we did. Dagenham wouldn't threaten us again for a while, but our next frustrations came on the injury front. Gray went off with a knock after 54 minutes, and substitute forward Vasilis Koutinis was concussed in the 74th. Vas' concussion didn't hurt our attacking prospects, and it was only thanks to some impressive goalkeeping from Chris Lewington that we didn't get a second goal. Lewington saved a couple of good chances from Gareth Stamp in the 85th minute and Josh Telling two minutes later. The Daggers' blunt attacks failed to yield them any more attempts at goal, so after four minutes of injury time, a historic win for Romford was complete. This was the first time we had ever beaten a Football League club's senior team.

Romford - 1 (Watkins og14)

Dagenham & Redbridge - 0

Friendly, Attendance 475

ROMFORD LINE-UP: Millen (Thomas), Healey (Semanshia), Reid (James), Gray (Connolly), Rafferty (Bradley), O'Halloran (Telling), Morrison (Oriogun), Saraiva (Martin), Scott (Akpan), Pollard (Koutinis (O'Reilly)), Morath-Gibbs (Stamp). BOOKED: Saraiva.

The Romford fans went home feeling more buoyant than ever, but our victory did not come without a price. Vasilis Koutinis would miss the rest of pre-season with concussion, and Fabio Saraiva's twisted ankle meant that we couldn't expect him to return until September.

Three days later, we were at Scraley Road, where we faced Heybridge Swifts. The Swifts were about to start their eleventh successive season in Isthmian League Division 1 North, but they had little stability on the managerial front. Ex-Maidstone United chief Charlie Burns was their fifth coach in as many years.

30 July 2019: Heybridge Swifts vs Romford

You may remember from our Isthmian Premier days just how difficult we found it playing against Maidstone under Charlie Burns. I took on Burns in four matches, and didn't win any of them. His new team would also prove to be tricky opponents. Duncan Greenwood and Daniel Morrison both missed chances to put us on the front foot within the first 20 minutes, and by the 24th, we were on the back one. Arel Amu's lobbed pass played in Scottish teenager Willie Mathieson, who raced through the defence and slotted the ball into the far corner. Heybridge were off the mark, and our early poor performance showed little sign of improvement. Greenwood made a promising dribble into the Swifts area on 31 minutes, only to follow it up with a woeful finish. Our first shot on target came three minutes later, when Connor Martin's strike was tipped away by Derwayne Johnson. In the 40th minute, Johnson tipped a tricky Russell Bradley swerver onto his crossbar, and a mini-scramble in the six-yard box ensued before Paul McCone hacked the ball away. Heybridge were defending resolutely, but two minutes later, their resolve was at last broken. Trialist Khari Oriogun laid on an assist for Greenwood, whose cool finish made it 1-1 just before the break. Big Dunc was roughed up in a challenge from Swifts defender Steven Springett earlier on, and that had perhaps riled him into action.

Just two minutes into the second half, the beast was roaring again. Moses Millen's long goal kick was met by flick-ons from Josh Telling and Tom O'Reilly, and Duncan made it 2-1 Romford with another low strike! Our skipper had scored twice, but he wouldn't finish the day with a hat-trick. He received a yellow card soon after his second goal, and I quickly brought him off so as not to risk another booking. In the 59th minute, Serge Gnabry hit the side netting with a shot that could've given us a 3-1 advantage. Heybridge's second-half keeper George Howard played the goal kick short to Connor Mealand - a 17-year-old striker who'd just come on as a centre-back. Mealand hesitated on the ball, and O'Reilly tackled it off him before popping it into the net! With a two-goal lead that was looking more and more comfortable, we cruised through the final half-hour. Heybridge seldom threatened to hit back, while we had a hamper full of chances to make the scoreline more flattering. The majority of them missed the target, and our best came when Martin's stunning 83rd-minute volley hit the bar. The score remained 3-1 when the final whistle blew. At the fifth time of asking, I'd finally got the better of my old foe Burns!

Heybridge Swifts - 1 (Mathieson 25)

Romford - 3 (Greenwood 42,47, O'Reilly 59)

Friendly, Attendance 55

ROMFORD LINE-UP: Millen (Patterson), Healey (Rafferty), Reid (Connolly), James (Elliot), Bradley (O'Halloran), Oriogun (Embleton), Martin (Semanshia), Morrison (O'Reilly), Telling (Fitzpatrick), Gnabry (Stamp), Greenwood (Pollard). BOOKED: Bradley, Greenwood.

That made it four consecutive wins in pre-season for us, including two against higher-calibre opponents. There's just one more friendly to go, and if we win that as well, we'll head into the new Conference South season with bags of confidence.

[Crackers786]

The Isthmian Premier? Good luck in that division, and nice to hear that someone else is giving Romford a go.

Yeah its mine 4th club now. having started off with peterfields town, I am also manger of the Canada U20's team just make the world cup U20 in 2019, hope to be player over to England lol

[CFuller]

Yeah its mine 4th club now. having started off with peterfields town, I am also manger of the Canada U20's team just make the world cup U20 in 2019, hope to be player over to England lol

Must be some commute from Romford to Canada! I hope you don't have to travel abroad too many times per season!

I was actually looking at the Canada U20 squad in my game a few hours ago, before you even mentioned them. Their current head coach is Tomasz Radzinski - the former Everton and Fulham striker. Canada have some very good newgens in my game, and some of them have made their way into English football.

[Crackers786]

Must be some commute from Romford to Canada! I hope you don't have to travel abroad too many times per season!

I was actually looking at the Canada U20 squad in my game a few hours ago, before you even mentioned them. Their current head coach is Tomasz Radzinski - the former Everton and Fulham striker. Canada have some very good newgens in my game, and some of them have made their way into English football.

yeah lol I played a game at 3pm in England and played a internationtal at 8pm lol I just checked the league I am in and it the Isthmian First Div North so sorry 2 div under the conf south

[CFuller]

There would be no changes to the captaincy ahead of the new season. Duncan Greenwood kept the armband for a third year in succession, and the injured Fabio Saraiva remained as vice-captain.

To cap off this pre-season, we went to Ramsgate in Kent for a meeting with the Isthmian League Division 1 South stalwarts.

3 August 2019: Ramsgate vs Romford

Our start to the match could best be described as sloppy. A poor pass from captain Duncan Greenwood in the very first minute allowed Ramsgate to go on the counter. Moments later, Charlie Barnett opened up our defence with an excellent pass to Emmanuel Akiotu. The winger's shot hit the post and deflected off goalkeeper Kyle Thomas' back before bouncing over the byline for a Rams corner. A minute after that, Akiotu's attempted cross to striker Jordan Kiffin slid too far, and Ramsgate's early purple patch came to an end. We then put our hosts under some pressure, though not much. Connor Martin's strike didn't quite hit the target in the 11th minute, and Duncan Greenwood's effort in the 22nd was comfortably caught by Lewis Batchford. Ramsgate troubled us again four minutes later, when Kyle had to tip Paul Lorraine's byline lob away from a lurking Kiffin. It wasn't a worrying sign of things to come, though, because we'd got our act together by the 33rd minute. A woeful pass from Ramsgate's Ricardo Morais led to an excellent team move by the Boro, which ended with Garry Morath-Gibbs' final ball being tucked home by Jimmy Scott. That gave us the opening goal, which our impressive young centre-back Larry Elliot almost complemented in the 42nd minute, but Batchford caught his header just in time.

If our first goal was impressive, our second - in the 49th minute - was even more special. The last of 17 consecutive Romford passes was hit perfectly by Martin to Morath-Gibbs, who raced through and found the far corner of the net! 2-0 to the Boro! Surprisingly, that was Garry's first pre-season goal. He should arguably have followed it up, but he hit a couple of poor shots in the 53rd and 65th minutes before being replaced. Ramsgate - who missed the last of their four attempts at goal after 52 minutes - were simply no match for us, so the closing stages were about giving experience to some younger players. Midfielder Gary Stocco was one of the beneficiaries, and he headed just wide in the 69th minute. Another one was winger Josh Telling, who found the net after 77 minutes with an excellent volley from Russell Bradley's cross. It seemed appropriate that a former Derby County trainee should score against the Rams... but Josh was denied his moment by the offside flag. The scoreline therefore remained at 2-0 until the end. An efficient performance meant we headed into the new league campaign with five successive wins on the board. We were most definitely raring to go!

Ramsgate - 0

Romford - 2 (Scott 33, Morath-Gibbs 49)

Friendly, Attendance 61

ROMFORD LINE-UP: Thomas, Elliot (James), Connolly (Healey), Gray (Reid), Embleton (Stamp), O'Halloran (Telling), Martin (Gnabry), Morrison (Stocco), Scott (Bradley), Greenwood (Pollard), Morath-Gibbs (Formaston).

Performances in pre-season don't usually suggest how a team will fare once the serious stuff kicks off, but our friendly results were very encouraging. In seven matches, we recorded five wins (including three clean sheets), a draw, and just one defeat right at the start.

Having seen how my players performed in different roles and different formations, I now had a good idea of what my starting XI would be for our opening fixture.

Dean O'Halloran was one of those in my preferred eleven. The winger had wanted to join a bigger club after our failure to win promotion last season, but there weren't any teams prepared to stump up a transfer fee for his services. Dean therefore agreed to stay at Romford for one more season at least.

Dean's decision to stay meant Josh Telling's chance would have to wait. The 18-year-old had not performed especially well since his arrival, so I thought it would be best for him to get some first-team experience elsewhere.

That's where Maidenhead United came in, taking Josh on loan for five months until the New Year. I hoped that our promising starlet would thrive in the Southern League Premier Division.

We sold season tickets to 162 supporters this summer, and the vast majority of them were at Ship Lane for our opening game against Barnet. I can still remember when Barnet were in League Two and we were in the Isthmian North, but our fortunes had dramatically changed over the last seven seasons, and we started this match as the bookies' favourites.

Barnet were in financial turmoil, as relegation from the Conference Premier led to them entering administration for the second time in as many years. As a consequence, they started the campaign with a 10-point deficit that put manager Kevin Nolan under early pressure. Nolan was the fourth successive ex-Premier League player to manage the Bees after Edgar Davids, Scott Parker and Jon Stead.

Were we going to inflict some opening-day pain on the Bees, or would there be an early sting in the tale?

[CFuller]

(All ages correct as of 1 August 2019)

GOALKEEPERS

Moses Millen (age 18, English)

Moses will surely be our first-choice keeper in the future, but right now, he's too vulnerable in the air.

Conor Patterson (age 16, English)

Conor, who really likes to rush off his line, has yet to make his competitive debut for the Boro.

Kyle Thomas (age 22, English)

On the whole, Kyle is a reasonably consistent goalkeeper who has turned down other clubs to stay here.

DEFENDERS

Russell Bradley (age 21, English)

Left-flanker Russell is brave and hard-working, but he doesn't fare too well in high-pressure matches.

Ashley Clark (age 17, English)

Ashley showed promise when called upon last term, and the lanky defender will hope to build on that.

Aaron Connolly (age 21, English)

Though he's only 5ft 11in, Aaron is still a force in the air and should be an important player for us.

Trevor Dunn (age 21, English)

Tough-tackling right-back Trevor is quick and agile, but he is also rather prone to injuries.

Larry Elliot (age 16, English)

If Larry's encouraging development continues, expect the young centre-back to feature for the seniors.

Kieron Gray (age 21, English)

Since his arrival three years ago, Kieron has blossomed from a fragile teen to our defensive linchpin.

Robbie Healey (age 22, Welsh)

Robbie is on a season-long loan from Cardiff City and will be our regular right-back.

Keston James (age 18, English)

Keston was magnificent at the back end of last season, and the giant centre-half is making big strides.

Danny Rafferty (age 16, English)

Danny is our youngest ever senior debutant, and I can see a bright future for the brave left-back.

Brett Reid (age 18, English)

Brett's game stalled after a bright start to his first season here, but he's still developing mentally.

Malachi Semanshia (age 15, Barbadian)

Malachi is a very fit wing-back, but at 5ft 8in, he is one of the shorter players in our team.

MIDFIELDERS

Felix Akpan (age 16, English)

I hope that Felix can develop quickly and give us an option in our problem position on the left wing.

Johnny Embleton (age 17, English)

Johnny was a prospect 12 months ago, but his passing in pre-season was worryingly wayward.

Zak Fitzpatrick (age 16, English)

I am looking forward to seeing how right-winger Zak develops over the next couple of years.

Serge Gnabry (age 24, German)

Serge has excellent technique and is supremely athletic, but I'm not sure what his best position is.

Connor Martin (age 23, English)

Connor is a tireless workhorse of a midfielder whose performances could make all the difference for us.

Daniel Morrison (age 19, English)

Daniel was a regular starter last season, but the ball-winning middleman has to work even harder now.

Dean O'Halloran (age 23, Irish)

Enigmatic and explosive, Dean is about to kick off his sixth - and possibly last - season at Ship Lane.

Fabio Saraiva (age 26, Portuguese)

Advanced playmaker Fabio is currently injured, but expect him to shine again once he returns.

Jimmy Scott (age 19, English)

Wideman Jimmy is eager to impress this season after what was a frustrating first campaign with Romford.

Johnnie Spong (age 17, English)

Young right-winger Johnnie is another player who has speed but little in the way of technical ability.

Gary Stocco (age 16, English)

Gary can develop into a decent defensive midfielder if the teenager builds up his strength.

Josh Telling (age 18, English)

Speedy newcomer Josh will spend the first half of this season on loan at Maidenhead United.

FORWARDS

Daniel Formaston (age 16, English)

Daniel regularly gets into good positions - his problem is with finishing the chances he gets.

Duncan Greenwood (age 23, English)

Duncan bagged 23 goals last season, but I know our captain can get even more over the next nine months.

Vasilis Koutinis (age 19, Greek)

It's a big season for Vasilis, as the young trequartista looks to become an established first-teamer.

Garry Morath-Gibbs (age 18, English)

Garry is like a fox in the box, and he has scored 16 times in each of the last two campaigns.

Tom O'Reilly (age 18, English)

Tom is adept up front and on the flank, so if he keeps his cool, he could make a real impact soon.

Kenny Pollard (age 19, English)

Kenny's development has stagnated recently, so I'm thinking of loaning the target man out again.

Gareth Stamp (age 19, English)

Gareth is speedy, composed and consistent - but he hasn't scored as often as I would've liked.

BACKROOM STAFF

Manager: Christopher Fuller

Assistant Manager: Wayne Daniel

Coaches: Simon Glover, Dean Standen, Sammy Winston

Head of Youth Development: Ricki Mackin

Physio: Gary Ling

Scout: Nicky Reynolds

[CFuller]

10 August 2019: Romford vs Barnet

Barnet were quick out of the blocks, and they almost caught us napping! Thankfully, Kyle Thomas was wide awake from the start. After just 22 seconds, the Boro keeper pushed a shot from Daniel Griffiths behind his goal. Kyle made another important save less than a minute later - this time from George Sterling's low bullet. That won Barnet a second corner, from which the Bees' Welsh defender Aaron Holloway headed just wide. Barnet kept up the early pressure as we gave the ball away with alarming regularity. Griffiths hit a powerful strike just inside the Boro box in the sixth minute, and Thomas superbly tipped it over the bar! Sterling missed another chance in the 9th minute, and the deadlock was at last broken about four minutes later. It may surprise you to learn that Romford scored the opener! We won a corner against the run of play, and Jimmy Scott's delivery found Aaron Connolly, whose header looped into the net! Unbelievably, we'd scored with our first shot on goal! After 16 minutes, we did it again with our second, which Connor Martin exquisitely drilled into the far corner! We were in heaven at two goals up, but things threatened to unravel in the 23rd minute. Dean O'Halloran - whose cross set up Connor's goal - was brought down by a crunching tackle from Barnet defender Leon Boothe, and he had to be stretchered off. Barnet then pulled a goal back about five minutes later. 37-year-old midfielder Mark Kerr - yes, THE Mark Kerr of Championship Manager fame - provided an excellent centre for Griffiths to tap in. We did well to keep our cool after losing half our lead, and we almost scored again in the 34th minute through Kieron Gray, whose header was caught by Aljaz Cotman. Six minutes after that, Cotman thought he had Duncan Greenwood's header covered. He tipped it onto his bar, but the ball bounced down perfectly for Garry Morath-Gibbs, who volleyed us into a 3-1 lead!

Barnet's defence looked as dishevelled as the late Amy Winehouse's hair, and ten minutes after the restart, their mood went back to black. Substitute Trevor Dunn knocked a perfect pass to Serge Gnabry, who broke clear and selflessly allowed Morath-Gibbs to score the goal that made it 4-1 Boro. That was Garry's second of the afternoon, and he narrowly missed out on a hat-trick in the 56th minute. There wasn't to be a treble in the end for GMG, who came off injured after 67 minutes. In the preceding minutes, Griffiths had missed a couple of chances to put Barnet back in with a shout. He next tested Thomas after 81 minutes, when Kyle pushed away his close-range volley. By then, Griffiths' team-mates had already given up hope of salvaging anything from this match. Duncan could've piled on even more misery for the Bees with an injury-time lob that went just over the bar. Soon after, the whistle blew on an excellent 4-1 win that put us joint-top with Bromley, who swatted Slough Town by the same score.

Romford - 4 (Connolly 13, Martin 16, Morath-Gibbs 40,55)

Barnet - 1 (Griffiths 28)

Conference South, Attendance 610 - POSITIONS: Romford 2nd, Barnet 22nd

ROMFORD LINE-UP: Thomas, Healey (Morrison), Gray, Connolly, Bradley, O'Halloran (Dunn), Martin, Gnabry, Scott, Greenwood, Morath-Gibbs (O'Reilly).

Dean O'Halloran gashed his leg in the first half, so he was facing at least a fortnight out. Garry Morath-Gibbs' injury wasn't quite as worrying, but he too would stay at home when we travelled to Devon for our next match.

This was a journey into the unknown for us, because as far as I knew, we had never played against Tiverton Town before. Tivvy started their maiden Conference South campaign with a 4-2 loss at Canvey Island.

13 August 2019: Tiverton Town vs Romford

Local teenager Steve Tindall had Tiverton's opening effort in the 8th minute, and he fired it over the crossbar. A minute later, Romford captain Duncan Greenwood hit a 25-yarder that had the same outcome. Tiverton kept on shooting hopelessly from difficult positions, as midfielder Chris Worsley volleyed wide in the 13th minute. Striker Matthew Jones went a bit closer for them in the 19th minute, skimming his effort inches past the post. The contest needed livening up, and after 25 minutes, we did just that. Serge Gnabry and Jimmy Scott both came inside to pressurise the Tivvy defence, and Scott's pass into the box was tapped by Greenwood towards Connor Martin. Connor then repeated his Barnet heroics with another tidy finish, and we had our noses in front! The game soon reverted to type, with neither team producing anything particularly brilliant prior to half-time. A couple of minutes before that point, Tiverton defender Mike Ryan's long ball found Jones, who squared it to Tindall on the edge of the area. Tindall just had to pick his spot, but he fired over the bar, much to the home fans' dismay and our relief!

Gnabry's 51st-minute swerver made Tiverton keeper Leon Carey sweat as he awkwardly pushed it away. Three minutes later, Tivvy sub Wayne Donovan tried a banana shot of his own. Unlike Gnabry, he didn't trouble the target. The hosts needed to be taught how to find the net, so after 61 minutes, our defender Kieron Gray gave them a lesson. Gray's 10-yard header from Daniel Morrison's corner beat Carey at his left-hand post, and though Duncan tried to claim the final touch, Kieron got the credit. We had a two-goal cushion, and with Tivvy's divvies continuing to misfire, another Boro victory was all but secure. A bad day for the hosts worsened in the 71st minute, when Gray twisted Donovan's ankle. Tiverton had already used up their quota of substitutes, so the Yellows got even mellower. When another substitute - Paul Whittle - was forced off injured in the 87th minute, Tivvy were reduced to nine men. That meant we could sail to a comfortable 2-0 victory.

Tiverton Town - 0

Romford - 2 (Martin 24, Gray 61)

Conference South, Attendance 390 - POSITIONS: Tiverton 19th, Romford 1st

ROMFORD LINE-UP: Thomas, Healey, Gray, Connolly, Bradley, Scott (Dunn), Martin, Morrison, Gnabry, Greenwood (Koutinis), O'Reilly (Stamp).

Two wins from two - it doesn't get much better than that! We were now at the very top of the table, sharing the best record with Weston-super-Mare. If we were still there in 40 matches time, it really would be super!

[tenthreeleader]

Solid start for Romford, and some very clever and incisive matchwriting from their boss.

[CFuller]

Solid start for Romford, and some very clever and incisive matchwriting from their boss.

What else would you expect from a manager who also happened to be a former journalist?

[CFuller]

The Boro fans were buzzing when they arrived at Ship Lane for our next match. Hampton & Richmond Borough's supporters were not so optimistic, having seen their side lose twice in their opening fixtures. Unsurprisingly, we were tipped by many to record a third straight win - and in turn inflict another defeat on the Beavers.

17 August 2019: Romford vs Hampton & Richmond Borough

A sloppy start from Romford allowed Hampton & Richmond to have a number of chances inside the first 15 minutes. They didn't get particularly close to taking the lead, though. Russ Penn dragged his 5th-minute effort wide, and Richard Brodie's header three minutes later was comfortably gathered by Kyle Thomas. In the 13th minute, during one of our first attacking forays, Romford midfielder Daniel Morrison went down hurt after clashing with Alfie Laird. It looked like Danny had hurt his knee, so I brought him off and rejigged my team. The changes didn't help us to settle into the match. We needed Kyle to bail us out again in the 22nd minute, as he made an excellent save from Moses Makasi's crashing 30-yarder. Seven minutes later, H&R goalie Matthew Bulman caught a long-distance attempt from Garry Morath-Gibbs. Messrs Thomas and Bulman made another save each later in the period, and with neither team looking particularly threatening, the two keepers remained on course for clean sheets.

There weren't any real signs of improvement during the opening exchanges of the second half. Hampton & Richmond winger Paul McCall failed to hit a clean strike in the 48th minute. In the 61st, Thomas hit a very unclean throw past his centre-back Aaron Connolly... and into the path of Beavers midfielder Michael Cain! That could've been a critical mistake, but Cain wasn't able to find Brodie in the penalty area, and Kyle gratefully pounced on the loose ball. We went back on the attack moments later, but Bulman easily dealt with Jimmy Scott's strike. The rest of the match was dominated by awful shooting from both teams' main strikers. Brodie had a Beavers debut to forget, as he troubled the target with just two of his six shots. Duncan Greenwood was even worse for us, missing the net three times within the last 15 minutes. Even with both defences tiring, and with the speedy Gareth Stamp replacing Duncan in the dying moments, there was no prospect of a late goal at either end. Our perfect start to the season was over and we slipped to 3rd place, although we at least remained unbeaten.

Romford - 0

Hampton & Richmond Borough - 0

Conference South, Attendance 606 - POSITIONS: Romford 3rd, Hampton & Richmond 18th

ROMFORD LINE-UP: Thomas, Healey, Gray, Connolly, Bradley (Dunn), Scott, Martin, Morrison (Reid), Gnabry, Greenwood (Stamp), Morath-Gibbs. BOOKED: Dunn.

Daniel Morrison twisted his knee in the first half, so he would miss the next three to four weeks of action. His injury left us a bit light in the central midfield department - at least until Fabio Saraiva resumed training.

Target man Kenny Pollard would also be absent from the first-team for a while, but for a different reason. Kenny struggled in pre-season, so I felt that he needed to go on loan again to sharpen up his shooting. KP would spend the next three months playing for Faversham United in the Isthmian Premier.

A week after our goalless draw against Hampton & Richmond, we made the short trip to Mill Field to renew our rivalry with Aveley. The Millers had progressed into the Conference South after successive promotions, but they were already looking like small fish in a much bigger pond. They took a solitary point from their first three matches, scoring once and conceding nine times, and were second-from-bottom.

24 August 2019: Aveley vs Romford

Unlike in our previous two matches, we started positively and pushed forward whenever we could. After five minutes, Serge Gnabry surged onto Garry Morath-Gibbs' flick-on and evaded Aveley full-back Josh Jirbandey's lunge to give himself a good view of the goal. Alas, he got caught up in the moment and blasted the ball well off target. Two minutes later, Duncan Greenwood cushioned a header to Connor Martin, who volleyed to Morath-Gibbs. Garry chested Connor's ball sublimely and powered it into the far end of the net! That opening goal spurred Garry on to later score another. It didn't come in the 19th minute, when Leigh Bedford caught GMG's shot after Greenwood had set it up with a clever backheel. On 30 minutes, our young frontman cut out Bedford's awful goal kick, turned past Millers captain Ian Barnett, and raced through to score again! That put us 2-0 ahead on the scoreboard, and performance-wise, we were absolutely battering Aveley. Had Bedford not caught Jimmy Scott's 36th-minute shot, the half-time score would have made even grimmer reading for the Mill Field faithful.

While Garry was having a whale of a time, Duncan was floundering. A one-two with his strike partner in the 57th minute sent Greenwood clear, but a terrible attempt at a long-range chip continued Big Dunc's wait for his first league goal this season. The skipper was angry at himself, and I was soon getting annoyed that we hadn't killed the game off. An excellent tackle from Jirbandey denied Morath-Gibbs his hat-trick on 68 minutes. About three minutes later, Bedford got his fingertips to Greenwood's next effort. On the defensive side of things, we did a mighty fine job of restricting Aveley's chances. Aaron Connolly - who took the captaincy after Dunc's substitution at the 75-minute mark - hardly ever mistimed a challenge at centre-back. I say hardly ever because, with six minutes to go, he was booked for a push on Patrick Drmola. At that point, I elected to take Aaron off as a precaution. Keston James took his place, both as centre-half and as captain. Curtis Edwards then took the Millers' free-kick from 30 yards out - and flighted it perfectly into the net! With four minutes left, our lead had been cut to 2-1. Aveley had history when it came to fighting back from 2-0 down against us, so I was getting a little nervous.

More chances to suffocate the revived Millers came and went. Substitute Vasilis Koutinis spurned a couple in the 88th minute, while Morath-Gibbs missed another potential hat-trick goal from five yards out in injury time. When the three added-on minutes were about to run out, Aveley roused themselves into a final attack. They pressed forward after intercepting Kyle Thomas' clearance, and when Edwards found Nico Harris with a through-ball into the Boro box, I held my breath. Harris went for a left-footer... and he scuffed it wide. After the final whistle blew seconds later, I breathed out in relief. We had just scraped through in a match that should've been over by half-time.

Aveley - 1 (Edwards 86)

Romford - 2 (Morath-Gibbs 7,30)

Conference South, Attendance 602 - POSITIONS: Aveley 21st, Romford 3rd

ROMFORD LINE-UP: Thomas, Dunn, Gray, Connolly (James), Bradley, Scott (Healey), Martin, Gnabry, O'Reilly, Greenwood (Koutinis), Morath-Gibbs. BOOKED: Connolly.

A win is a win regardless of the final score, but I was in no mood to heap gushing praise on the players at full-time. If we lost focus against more adequate opposition, we weren't bloody likely to get away with it.

I demanded much greater concentration when we played host to 8th-placed Bromley in our last match of the opening month. Dean O'Halloran and Fabio Saraiva were both back in the squad after their injury lay-offs, and Dean was fit enough to play from the start.

31 August 2019: Romford vs Bromley

It was very windy at Ship Lane, and we almost blew Bromley away very early on! Tom O'Reilly hit a stunning 30-yard strike after just 26 seconds, and Daniel Stapleton did brilliantly to tip it over the crossbar. Dean O'Halloran lofted the corner towards big Duncan Greenwood, whose header cleared the bar. About two minutes later, Bromley defender Karlton Watson made a poor clearance from O'Reilly's cross into the six-yard box. Connor Martin flicked it back there, and Garry Morath-Gibbs was on hand to head in his fifth goal in just four league games! We held the early lead, but we could've let it slip in the 11th minute. Thankfully, Ed Seabrook wasn't as deadly in the air as Garry, with the Lilywhites striker's close-range header flying over. Within the next five minutes, we missed a couple more aerial efforts through Aaron Connolly and captain Greenwood. Worryingly, our out-of-form skipper was also struggling to find the target with his feet. Duncan's free-kick skimmed just wide in the 21st minute, and his next attempt four minutes later didn't get any closer. This was another disappointing performance from Big Dunc, who picked up a knock two minutes from half-time. Otherwise, it was another strong first-half display from Romford. We kept the ball well and retained a 1-0 lead over Bromley, who lost Watson to injury late in the period.

We were going well, but I wanted to see us crank up the pressure in the second half. Alarmingly, we seemed to go in reverse! We allowed Jake Reed to have a crack for Bromley in the 49th minute, and Kyle Thomas had to stay switched on to turn the shot away. Moments later, I brought Duncan off after he picked up a booking - the first of four second-half yellow cards for Romford. At the same time, I switched formation from 4-4-2 to 4-2-3-1. It would not be my finest hour tactically. After 55 minutes, Bromley midfielder Glenn Gould broke free to pick up Seabrook's through-ball and slide it to Reed, who provided a clinical finish. The Lilywhites were back on level terms, and our confidence dipped. Morath-Gibbs missed two chances to complete his third double of the campaign in the 59th and 63rd minutes. The next real opening came Bromley's way after 79 minutes. Jonathan Wafula shrugged off a knock before firing a free-kick at goal, and Kyle got down to smother his swerving effort. Five minutes later, Martin tried to restore our lead in style, but his long-distance strike was only ever heading into Stapleton's hands. Despite having the lion's share of possession and many more shots than our opponents, we had to settle for a 1-1 draw.

Romford - 1 (Morath-Gibbs 4)

Bromley - 1 (Reed 55)

Conference South, Attendance 614 - POSITIONS: Romford 4th, Bromley 9th

ROMFORD LINE-UP: Thomas, Healey, Gray, Connolly, Bradley (Reid), O'Halloran, Martin, Gnabry, O'Reilly (Scott), Greenwood (Saraiva), Morath-Gibbs. BOOKED: Greenwood, Connolly, O'Reilly, Martin.

On the face of it, we seem to have started the season strongly. We are in 4th place at the end of August, we are among five teams still boasting unbeaten records, and we've only conceded three goals to date.

To me, though, there are a couple of causes for concern. We have already dropped four points at Ship Lane, and there are signs of - dare I say it - arrogance creeping into the team. That's not what I expect from potential title challengers.

[CFuller]

For most Conference South teams, September began with midweek league fixtures. That wasn't the case for us, because we were instead gearing up for our first game in the Essex Senior Cup.

The luck of the draw - or lack thereof - forced us into an away game at Hullbridge Sports in Round 1. Would a mixture of regular starters and backup players do a job on the Essex Senior League outfit? Or would we suffer the humiliation of being the first side to exit the Essex Senior Cup?

4 September 2019: Hullbridge Sports vs Romford

The gap in class was evident after just six minutes, when a fantastic pass from Vasilis Koutinis created our opening goal. Vasilis spotted some space in the Hullbridge box, and he weighted a superb lob for Tom O'Reilly to run onto and tap home! A 1-0 lead for Romford could've been doubled in the 11th minute, when Serge Gnabry's effort was tipped away by Emmanuel Baker. Nine minutes later, the man who gave us the advantage almost lost it! Tom's poor headed clearance from Jermaine Pike's free-kick looked like it was going to trickle into the Boro net... until a quick-thinking Russell Bradley hacked it away! Koutinis later had a couple of chances to get on the scoresheet before he played his part in our second goal on 36 minutes. Vas picked up Connor Martin's header into the area and played it short to Jimmy Scott, who centred it for Gnabry. Serge's low and powerful strike was too quick for Baker, and we went two goals up! We were surely cruising into the next round!

Hullbridge weren't quite so easy to take apart early in the second half, thanks to some dogged defending from their left-back Brett Cook. After 56 minutes, I decided to give Duncan Greenwood a run-out. I hoped that this would be the game in which Duncan ended his drought. Within three minutes, I got what I had prayed for. Gareth Stamp's through-ball set up a golden chance for Greenwood, who emphatically put it away! Duncan was mighty relieved, and the other Boro boys were delighted at having taken a 3-0 lead... perhaps a little too delighted. Hullbridge lost their inhibitions after the third goal and really upped their game. In the 63rd minute, Moses Millen tipped wide a stunning strike from Sports winger Kim Kelly. Two minutes later, Tom Fairhurst sped through the Romford defence, only to thump his shot against Millen's right-hand post. The other post took a hit in the 69th minute from Ben Richmond's header. Some shaky Boro defending in the 71st minute presented Fairhurst with another opportunity from just outside the six-yard box. Fairhurst struck a post again, and the ball bounced across our goalmouth before Bradley booted it into the stands. Hullbridge had been denied by the woodwork no fewer than three times! With a bit more luck or accuracy, the Sports might've forced extra-time, but at the end of the evening, we won by a comfortable 3-0 scoreline. That booked us a Round 2 meeting with Southend United's reserves at Roots Hall later in the month.

Hullbridge Sports - 0

Romford - 3 (O'Reilly 6, Gnabry 36, Greenwood 59)

Essex Senior Cup Round 1, Attendance 34

ROMFORD LINE-UP: Millen, Dunn, James (Gray), Reid, Bradley, Scott, Martin (Saraiva), Gnabry, O'Reilly, Koutinis (Greenwood), Stamp. BOOKED: James.

That was the Essex Senior Cup over and done with for another few weeks, so now it was time to press on with more important matters. Our first league match in September was another difficult home game against mid-table Kingstonian, whose new signing Matt Godden had already scored seven goals so far! If we didn't shut Godden up and get a good result, we risked dropping out of the play-off zone.

7 September 2019: Romford vs Kingstonian

Matt Godden was still a little tired after his midweek game, so Kingstonian put him on the bench to begin with. Starting up front for the K's were Barry Dowling, who powered a shot high and wide in the 5th minute, and Caolan Lavery, who went slightly closer in the 11th. In between those efforts, Connor Martin's first chance for Romford was beaten away by Paul Parkinson. Duncan Greenwood also had a go on 20 minutes, though he put it inches wide. Over the next few minutes, we looked to stretch the game out and play through the Kingstonian defence. Our plan came together after 26 minutes. Dean O'Halloran's drilled cross didn't quite reach Garry Morath-Gibbs, but Kingstonian defender Zac Costello's block knocked the ball to Serge Gnabry, who was lurking just inside the area. Serge found a gap in the backline, and he shot through it to open the scoring for Romford! That single goal remained the difference at half-time. The K's were unable to level after some poor shooting from Lavery, whose 38th-minute strike was blocked by Kyle Thomas. That was the Canadian's only shot on target from four attempts.

Kingstonian boss Alan Dowson readied his star man Godden to come on early in the second half. While he was warming up, our main attacking weapons shot us into a two-goal advantage. Greenwood set up a 49th-minute goal for Morath-Gibbs, who tucked in his sixth of the campaign, despite the visitors' calls for offside. Godden was swiftly brought onto the field, with Kingstonian fans desperate to see him find the net quickly. Kieron Gray and Aaron Connolly were determined not to let him past, though, and they shut him out brilliantly. Godden's day would get even worse in the 68th minute. Greenwood's second assist of the day set up a second goal from Morath-Gibbs, who matched his opposite number's tally of seven goals this season! It was 3-0 to the Boro, and with victory almost assured, our focus turned towards keeping a clean sheet. Aaron went some way to ensuring it by heading Elliott Hodge's cross off the line in the 74th minute. He and Kieron both had storming performances at centre-half. The only sniff at goal they gave Godden was on 82 minutes, when the ex-Scunthorpe United man fizzed a shot past the post. Our defence had done what was required - they kept Godden and co quiet. A 3-0 win marked arguably our best team performance so far, and we stretched our unbeaten run in all matches (including friendlies) to 13!

Romford - 3 (Gnabry 26, Morath-Gibbs 49,68)

Kingstonian - 0

Conference South, Attendance 611 - POSITIONS: Romford 4th, Kingstonian 12th

ROMFORD LINE-UP: Thomas, Healey, Gray, Connolly, Bradley (Dunn), O'Halloran, Martin (Saraiva), Gnabry, Scott, Greenwood, Morath-Gibbs (Stamp).

Just before our next game, our sought-after goalkeeper Kyle Thomas turned down an offer from St Albans City. This actually wasn't the first time St Albans had approached Thomas about a move to Clarence Park. They'd spent the last few weeks stalking Kyle as relentlessly and unsubtly as John Hinckley pursued Jodie Foster, and even if they did shoot the US President, Kyle was definitely not going to fall for them

There was less positive news as far as Fabio Saraiva was concerned. Fabio was still getting back to full speed after his twisted ankle when he bruised his head in a training session. That put him back on the sidelines for at least another week.

Our unbeaten start to last season ended in the seventh game, when Oxford City beat us 2-0. Would that seventh hurdle trip us up again when we visited Wealdstone?

The last time we crossed swords with Wealdstone was more than five years ago. Since then, the Stones had on several occasions come very close to reaching the Conference South under manager Chris McCready. They finally managed it earlier this year after winning the Southern League.

11 September 2019: Wealdstone vs Romford

If we won this match, which had been pushed back a week because of our cup game, we would go up to 2nd place. The early signs from us were very positive. On 11 minutes, Aaron Connolly intercepted a clearance from Wealdstone defender James Yeboah and played the ball to Jimmy Scott, who blasted it just over the crossbar. Four minutes later, Connolly's free-kick found Garry Morath-Gibbs just outside the Stones area, and Garry flicked it forward before slotting past the approaching goalkeeper Tim Deasy. GMG had netted for the EIGHTH time this season, and we were in the ascendancy! Andy Procter conceded the free-kick that led to the opening goal, and he wanted to make up for that with a swift equaliser for Wealdstone. Procter was caught offside as he tried to level in the 18th minute. Two minutes later, from the very edge of our penalty area, the 36-year-old midfielder curled a shot around Kyle Thomas and into the net. That leveller was not in the script. Neither was an injury to Serge Gnabry, who in the 33rd minute went down hurt after an apparent clash of heads with Wealdstone striker Matt Harrold. We were considering what to do with Serge when, two minutes later, Yeboah made a firm challenge on Morath-Gibbs. Garry went down with a bit of a thump, and we could tell quickly that something was wrong. Our star frontman had to be stretchered off, and I also subbed Gnabry at the same time. Without either Garry or Serge, the momentum shifted away from us, and Thomas had to save Harrold's diving header in the 43rd minute to keep the scores level at 1-1.

I gave the players a stern ticking-off at half-time, and also made my final substitution by replacing a very nervous Russell Bradley with Brett Reid. Exactly five minutes into the second half, Reid failed to block a fierce shot from James Dayton, and the right-winger blasted Wealdstone into a 2-1 lead. We were on the back foot for the first time in a competitive match this season. By the 53rd minute, our first defeat was looking even more likely. Dayton got the better of Brett again, sending a cross to Brian Woodall in the six-yard box. Woodall's first shot was parried by Thomas, but the striker slid in the follow-up. Wealdstone had scored for the third time, matching their tally from the previous six matches! Another goal could've followed on 58 minutes, but Thomas caught Harrold's header. Kieron Gray and Trevor Dunn then picked up a yellow card apiece as our frustrations threatened to consume us. The Stones let a few more half-chances slip before putting the seal on their second win of the season after 78 minutes. Procter set the Stones' fourth goal up with a fabulous lob to Woodall, who knocked the ball past Thomas for a second time. That was the end of our unbeaten start. It was a disappointing evening for all of us - especially Greenwood, whose league drought continued when Deasy saved his injury-time volley. Worse was to come later that night, when we learnt that Garry had fractured his ribs and wouldn't be back for the best part of two months.

Wealdstone - 4 (Procter 20, Dayton 51, Woodall 53,78)

Romford - 1 (Morath-Gibbs 15)

Conference South, Attendance 445 - POSITIONS: Wealdstone 14th, Romford 4th

ROMFORD LINE-UP: Thomas, Dunn, Gray, Connolly, Bradley (Reid), Scott, Martin, Gnabry (Morrison), O'Reilly, Greenwood, Morath-Gibbs (Koutinis). BOOKED: O'Reilly, Gray, Dunn.

The seventh-game curse had reared its ugly head again. We'd been beaten for the first time this season, and there was perhaps worse to come, because we would need to battle our demons just three days later.

[CFuller]

It had been almost exactly four months since Woking crushed our promotion dreams with a 5-1 thrashing at Ship Lane. We still hadn't forgotten about that harrowing result when we arrived at the Kingfield Stadium to play the Cards for the first time since then. Jon Stead's team were in 18th place, and still awaiting their first win of the campaign, so this was a great chance to get some sort of payback.

14 September 2019: Woking vs Romford

Garry Morath-Gibbs' replacement Gareth Stamp had a great chance to score after four minutes, but he was denied by a fine save from Woking's Scottish keeper Paul Archdeacon. Moments later, Serge Gnabry had a go from about 30 yards, and missed by inches. Soon after that, one of Woking's more dangerous players - winger Jack Maloney - was hurt in a collision with Boro right-back Robbie Healey, though he carried on. With Maloney not at 100%, the Cards struggled to create decent scoring chances. Two rare opportunities for the hosts came in the 17th minute, when Danny Gardner and Lee Lynch both missed. After 26 minutes, one of our wingers suffered an injury - and unlike Maloney, Jimmy Scott could not continue. Serge was shifted from central midfield to the left flank as a result. Boro goalkeeper Moses Millen was seriously tested for the first time on 32 minutes, when he caught a Ben Williamson shot that was heading straight towards him. It looked unlikely that either team would break the stranglehold before half-time, but with just 90 seconds to go, a moment of brilliance changed the game. Daniel Morrison hit a wicked cross to Gnabry just inside the Woking area, and Serge fired a stunning volley in off Archdeacon's right-hand post! A wondrous goal from the German had given us the breakthrough just before the break!

Woking's confidence was shattered by that late first-half goal. A little over four minutes into the second period, we had a chance to hit them on the counter-attack. Duncan Greenwood's through-ball sent Stamp one-on-one with Archdeacon. Gareth used his pace to great effect... but not so much his right foot, with which he scuffed a clear-cut opportunity into the sponsor hoardings. The rest of the half was almost as poor as that miss. When Woking left-back Ryan Blake tore his calf muscle in a hefty challenge from Dean O'Halloran on 72 minutes, the Cards struggled even more. Three minutes after that, Greenwood wasted another chance to kill them off. That could've been very costly for us, as Anthony Eames had no fewer than three opportunities to level for Woking in the final ten minutes. Two of them missed the target, and the other was blocked by our defensive rock Kieron Gray. In the end, Serge's stunner had made all the difference, and we went home with three big points.

Woking - 0

Romford - 1 (Gnabry 44)

Conference South, Attendance 648 - POSITIONS: Woking 21st, Romford 4th

ROMFORD LINE-UP: Millen, Healey, Gray, Connolly, Bradley, O'Halloran, Morrison, Gnabry, Scott (Martin), Greenwood (Koutinis), Stamp.

I was pleased to see us return to winning ways so quickly, and I hoped that we could keep the momentum going at home to 12th-placed Dorchester Town. We had not lost to Dorchester in any of our previous six meetings in the Conference South.

18 September 2019: Romford vs Dorchester Town

There were some early nerves in the Romford defence, as Keston James headed Ben Gill's long ball behind for a Dorchester corner after just two minutes. Greg Tempest's corner resulted in a goalmouth scramble before Scottish veteran Calum Elliot eventually fired the ball into the net. Ship Lane went quiet very quickly, as Dorchester had stolen a very early lead. Duncan Greenwood tried to gee the Boro fans up again in the 4th minute, but his header was too comfortable for Magpies keeper Leigh Bedwell. Our disappointing start continued, and in the 16th minute, Moses Millen had to turn Tempest's shot behind to prevent a second Dorchester goal. Shortly after that, Moses caught a header from Thomas Benton - a 17-year-old centre-back on loan from AFC Bournemouth. Things got better after 32 minutes, when a mistimed jump from Dorchester's other centre-half Billy Simpson helped us back into the game. Jimmy Scott's wicked bender flew above Simpson and towards Russell Bradley, who volleyed in an equaliser! Ship Lane was rocking again, and the Boro fans could've become even noisier in the 35th minute! Russell's excellent cross from the touchline found Duncan, but the skipper's header was acrobatically tipped behind by Bedwell. After ending the first half strongly, we believed that we could take a firm grip on the game...

...and we did just that nine minutes into the second half. Greenwood broke free from Simpson to receive Connor Martin's lobbed through-ball, and his shot deflected into the net off Bedwell's gloves! Big Dunc was delighted to have at last scored a league goal! He was even happier two minutes later, when we went two goals up! Gill's last-ditch tackle on Bradley knocked the ball forward to our strike duo of Greenwood and substitute Gareth Stamp. The ball struck Duncan's heel and fell very nicely for Gareth to stroke it into the corner! After we took a 3-1 lead, the game stooped down to a scrap, with the poor old referee having to dish out four yellow cards within the next ten minutes. When the football returned in the 67th minute, we were pegged back to 3-2. We thought we'd seen off another Magpies corner until Tony Garrod drilled the ball through a crowded penalty area and beyond Millen's reach. Dorchester were soon looking good for another goal. In the 71st minute, Thomas Walker sent the ball across our goalmouth, and James booted it behind for yet another Dorchester corner, which considering their earlier prowess was very risky. We emerged unscathed that time, but as full-time loomed, our defence became ever more suspect. With just six minutes remaining, Miles John headed to Garrod just outside our six-yard box, and the Magpies captain thrashed in what he thought was the leveller. Then he saw the offside flag. Once again, we'd survived. We remained on track for another victory... but then the heartbreaker came after 89 minutes. The match finished as it began, with Dorchester scoring from a corner once more. Tempest's delivery was thrashed home by defender Eric Costello, who saved a point for the visitors from Dorset. Our two-goal-lead demons had resurfaced.

Romford - 3 (Bradley 32, Greenwood 54, Stamp 56)

Dorchester Town - 3 (Elliot 2, Garrod 67, Costello 89)

Conference South, Attendance 449 - POSITIONS: Romford 4th, Dorchester 12th

ROMFORD LINE-UP: Millen, Gray, Connolly (Reid), James, Morrison, Scott, Martin, Gnabry (O'Reilly), Bradley, Greenwood, Koutinis (Stamp). BOOKED: Morrison, Scott.

Another chance to get back up to 2nd place had been and gone. Our defence had been solid early in the campaign, but now we were getting sloppy again. That wasn't a good sign...

[CFuller]

We didn't play during the weekend, and a victory for Hayes & Yeading United saw them leapfrog us in the Conference South table. We were now down in 5th place - our lowest position so far.

Most of our divisional rivals were in league action again on Tuesday, when we had something else on our mind. We were at Roots Hall, taking on Southend United's reserves in Round 2 of the Essex Senior Cup. A number of youth players were included in the Boro squad, including Danny Rafferty and Daniel Formaston, who both made their first competitive starts.

24 September 2019: Southend United Reserves vs Romford

Daniel Formaston wanted to make an impact on his full debut, but after 14 minutes, he failed to impress me with a terrible shot from a ludicrously long range. Gareth Stamp also failed to hit the target with a 16th-minute effort that swerved across the goal. Two minutes later, Gareth almost got his head to Trevor Dunn's deep cross before Liam Mitchell punched it clear for Southend. After failing to take an early lead, we got frustrated and began to concede needless free-kicks. In the 24th minute, Southend midfielder Remzi Ercan went close to scoring from one of those free-kicks. The Shrimpers made another chance from a set-piece seven minutes later. Darren Swann couldn't quite take full advantage of Ercan's corner, heading it against the side netting. The first half ended encouragingly for us, with Dean O'Halloran's fierce injury-time strike skimming the bar, but still the score remained 0-0.

Southend's 3-5-2 was giving them the edge in midfield, so we adopted a similar formation in the second half. Stamp had our best chance yet five minutes into the second half, when his header from O'Halloran's delivery struck the far post and bounced clear. Southend were also edging closer to scoring. In the 59th minute, Will Evans' left-footed volley was tipped over the Boro bar by Moses Millen. Whoever did make the eventual breakthrough would surely fancy themselves to reach the next round. Six minutes later, we struck gold. Southend defender Afolabi Coker hadn't missed a header all game until he mistimed an interception from Fabio Saraiva's free-kick. That misjudgment allowed the ball to fly into the six-yard box, where Tom O'Reilly applied the finish! I'd told the Romford players at the break that one goal was all they needed, and they seemed to lose focus after taking the lead. On 76 minutes, Anglo-Portuguese striker Fabio Abreu raced away from Brett Reid to head Callum Davies' long ball into the net. The offside flag came to our rescue then, but the Shrimpers had given us a warning. As we tired out towards the end, Southend created more chances to level. One such opportunity came after 81 minutes, when Ercan saw his effort pushed away by Millen. Saraiva could have finished Southend off three minutes from time, but Coker and Davies both got in his way with brilliant tackles from just inside the area. Barely a minute later, the Shrimpers made one last push. Swann drilled a cross into the Boro box, where Dean swung a foot at it to try and clear it. It didn't work, as the ball bounced down perfectly for Ercan to volley in the equalising goal! That was the last thing I wanted to see. Our players were almost knackered, and now they had to play on for an extra half-hour!

Extra-time began with Stamp summoning what was left of his energy to hammer a shot at goal inside the first 30 seconds. Mitchell had no problems dealing with it. What followed was a devastating counter-attack from Southend, whose players were generally fitter than ours. Ercan chipped the ball to the side of the penalty area, where Swann flicked a header towards Abreu at the centre. Abreu skipped past Brett Reid, Ashley Clark, and the diving Millen, and then slid the ball over the goal line. We trailed 2-1, having been on the brink of a 1-0 win! That was a cruel blow. In the 98th minute, Vasilis Koutinis went miles wide with an equalising attempt that summed up our attacking performance. That transpired to be the last of our 12 shots at goal, only two of which were on target. After we went through the motions for the rest of extra-time, the final whistle was blown on our latest Essex Senior Cup charge. Southend progressed to Round 3, and we went back home exhausted, frustrated and deflated.

Southend United Reserves - 2 (Ercan 88, Abreu 92)

Romford - 1 (O'Reilly 65)

[after extra time]

Essex Senior Cup Round 2, Attendance 55

ROMFORD LINE-UP: Millen, Dunn (Clark), Reid, James, Rafferty (Stocco), O'Halloran, Morrison, Saraiva, O'Reilly, Formaston (Koutinis), Stamp. BOOKED: O'Reilly, Formaston, Koutinis.

The Essex Senior Cup will have to wait for another season, then. Oh well...

The midweek league results didn't go too badly for us, so we remained in the play-off zone, and we now had a game in hand on most teams.

Rounding off September was another home match, with Havant & Waterlooville providing the opposition. The Hampshire team had started poorly, with just six goals, eight points, and a solitary home win to their credit.

28 September 2019: Romford vs Havant & Waterlooville

Zak Fitzpatrick was surprised to be given a senior debut, and the 16-year-old right-winger wanted to make an early impression. His 9th-minute cross was poorly dealt with by Havant's Ricky Wellard, and Serge Gnabry had a crack at the loose ball, only to see Ross Etheridge push it aside. Another promising delivery from Zak three minutes later found Duncan Greenwood, who volleyed it into the top corner! Sadly, Duncan's goal and Zak's assist were scrubbed out when the linesman raised his flag. Fitzpatrick had a shot of his own in the 15th minute, but he could only swerve it wide. Our other winger Tom O'Reilly also wanted to get stuck in, particularly after playing in our cup defeat four days earlier. After 32 minutes, he got stuck into Malcolm Melvin in the Romford penalty area, giving away a spot-kick that the Scot would convert. Havant & Waterlooville had scored with their first real scoring chance, and we had to come back from behind again. On 37 minutes, Boro full-back Robbie Healey's throw into the Havant area deflected off his Welsh compatriot Declan John's thigh and fell towards Gnabry. Serge's strike was helped into the net by Etheridge's left glove, and parity was restored at 1-1!

The Hawks made the quicker start to the second half. Fortunately for us, left-back Russell Bradley rose to the defensive challenge, making a couple of crucial clearances to frustrate Havant's explosive forward Stewart Lavery. Russell and Kieron Gray made so many interceptions that the Royal Air Force might have poached them from us if they had been watching! Our attacking forays were not as impressive, even when speedy Serge switched to left-wing after the disappointing O'Reilly was substituted. Tom's replacement Daniel Morrison hit an ambitious long-ranger in the 60th minute, and Etheridge made a comfortable catch. Havant's skipper also held onto Greenwood's attempt in the 75th. One more chance for us to claim victory came on 85 minutes, but after Aaron Connolly nodded the ball inches over, we had to make do with a draw. The single point we received was not enough to keep us in the play-off zone, which we dropped out of for the first time.

Romford - 1 (Gnabry 37)

Havant & Waterlooville - 1 (Melvin pen33)

Conference South, Attendance 512 - POSITIONS: Romford 6th, Havant 17th

ROMFORD LINE-UP: Thomas, Healey, Gray, Connolly, Bradley, Fitzpatrick (Scott), Martin, Gnabry, O'Reilly (Morrison), Greenwood, Formaston (Stamp).

After ten matches, we are in 6th place, having won five times and lost just once. It's not a bad record by any means, but we are capable of doing better - especially at Ship Lane. Our home form is something we'll definitely look to improve on in October, when our FA Cup campaign gets underway.

[CFuller]

                                   P     W     D     L     F     A     GD    PTS
1.          Ebbsfleet              11    8     2     1     15    6     +9    26
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2.          Weston-super-Mare      11    8     1     2     24    7     +17   25
3.          Hayes & Yeading        11    8     1     2     19    8     +11   25
4.          Canvey Island          11    6     4     1     22    10    +12   22
5.          Eastbourne Boro        11    5     4     2     18    10    +8    19
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[color="#0000FF"]6.          Romford                10    5     4     1     18    11    +7    19[/color]
7.          Bromley                10    5     3     2     17    12    +5    18
8.          Kingstonian            11    4     4     3     20    15    +5    16
9.          Enfield Town           11    5     1     5     15    10    +5    16
10.         Hampton & Richmond     11    4     3     4     13    15    -2    15
11.         Hythe                  11    4     1     6     15    19    -4    13
12.         Dorchester             11    3     4     4     14    20    -6    13
13.         Grays                  10    2     6     2     18    16    +2    12
14.         AFC Wimbledon          11    3     3     5     15    15    0     12
15.         Welling                11    2     6     3     12    15    -3    12
16.         Wealdstone             11    3     3     5     10    15    -5    12
17.         Havant                 11    1     6     4     7     14    -7    9
18.         Slough                 10    1     5     4     11    16    -5    8
19.         Woking                 11    1     5     5     13    21    -8    8
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
20.         Aveley                 11    2     2     7     10    23    -13   8
21.         Tiverton               11    2     1     8     11    27    -16   7
22.         Barnet                 11    1     3     7     9     21    -12   -4 *

* Barnet deducted 10 points for entering administration

[CFuller]

Our first match of October marked a significant personal landmark for me. Like the great West Indies cricketer Brian Lara against England in 2004, I was 400 not out.

The significance of my 400th match stretched to more than just the milestone. It was our opening fixture in this season's FA Cup, and we would need to beat a very strong Weston-super-Mare team at Ship Lane if we were to get past Qualifying Round 2.

The Seagulls had made a stonking start to the Conference South season. They won their first seven games before their form tailed off a little, though they were still in 2nd place with the division's best scoring record. Even though we'd won our last four meetings with Weston, a fifth straight victory was certainly not cut and dried.

Coincidentally, we were scheduled to visit Weston-super-Mare in the league just six days after our FA Cup game! And if the cup tie went to a replay, we would be in the unusual position of playing the same team for three matches in a row!

6 October 2019: Romford vs Weston-super-Mare

I set out to dominate the midfield with a 4-2-3-1 formation, though I was taking a risk in having Duncan Greenwood as our lone striker. After only 78 seconds, that gamble paid off. From the edge of Weston's semi-circle, Fabio Saraiva passed back to Connor Martin, who delivered the killer pass that Big Dunc tapped into the net! What a fantastic start we had made! Duncan then won a corner off defender Ben Gerring in the 4th minute. Weston-super-Mare captain Aaron Callaghan's headed clearance from Saraiva's corner only made it as far as Aaron Connolly, whose audacious volley went high and wide. Following that quickfire start, the action died down a little until the Seagulls started to threaten our advantage in the 21st minute. George Colson put a couple of dangerous balls into the box, but Fabio showed his defensive worth by clearing each of them. Saraiva was in the action again after 36 minutes, when he had a cracking effort parried away by Jordon Wood. Our Portuguese playmaker eventually tired himself out, leading to his substitution at half-time. We were somewhat fortunate to still be ahead at the break, as Kyle Thomas needed to make an excellent catch to keep Roy Cox's diving header out in the 42nd minute.

Three minutes after the restart, Serge Gnabry seemed to think that he was Maradona. He made an incredible 50-yard dribble all the way to the byline, where he was denied a fabulous solo goal by Wood's save and Mitch Harding's clearance. There would be little excitement in the following quarter of an hour - certainly not from a Romford perspective. Weston full-back Nathan Battersby recovered from a first-half knock to hit a volley at goal in the 54th minute. In truth, Les Battersby might have got closer to the target. Harding came within inches of a Seagulls equaliser seven minutes later, when his low 25-yarder hit the outside of the post. With Weston-super-Mare looking like they were about to get back in the game, we needed someone to rouse us from our siesta. That man was the most popular German in Essex. On 73 minutes, Gnabry charged at the Weston defence after being played in by Koutinis. Serge's fancy footwork kept the Seagulls guessing before he cut into the penalty area and slipped the ball into the corner of the net! It was a glimpse of the world-class potential Serge was once said to have, and it put us on track for the next qualifying round of the FA Cup! Indeed, that goal would secure a 2-0 win after Ryan Richefond and Danny Crow both failed with late efforts for Weston-super-Mare.

Romford - 2 (Greenwood 2, Gnabry 73)

Weston-super-Mare - 0

FA Cup Qualifying Round 2, Attendance 927

ROMFORD LINE-UP: Thomas, Healey, Gray, James (Stocco), Bradley (Dunn), Connolly, Martin, O'Halloran, Saraiva (Koutinis), Gnabry, Greenwood. BOOKED: Bradley.

We were through to a Qualifying Round 3 tie at either Histon or Ware, who replayed each other in midweek. That replay was won by Ware, so Hertfordshire would be our next destination in the FA Cup.

Weston-super-Mare were the opposition again the following weekend, with league points at stake in Somerset. Could we get back into the top five with the help of yet another victory over the Seagulls?

12 October 2019: Weston-super-Mare vs Romford

It was apparent straight away that Weston-super-Mare would give us more of a battle than they did at Ship Lane. Experienced striker Elliot Benyon came into the Weston XI, and he narrowly missed the target in just the second minute. About six minutes later, he played an excellent centre from the left touchline to Joey Butlin, whose strike was blocked by Kyle Thomas. Kyle had just rejected an approach from yet another club, namely Braintree Town. In-form Serge Gnabry almost scored yet another goal for Romford after 18 minutes, but his powerful strike went just over the bar. That would be our only shot at goal in the first half. Until half-time, we had to withstand a barrage of Seagull droppings. Centre-back Ben Gerring - who played so admirably for Weston in the FA Cup - could have headed the hosts in front on 31 minutes but for Robbie Healey's goal-line clearance. In the 41st minute, Ryan Richefond played a one-two with Butlin, and then crossed into the Romford box. His cross took a wicked deflection off Keston James, and goalkeeper Thomas was in no man's land as Benyon tried to flick it past him. The header went wide, but on the stroke of half-time, Kyle was powerless to stop Richefond from volleying Roy Cox's cross into the net. Weston had taken the lead that their play deserved, and a half-time rethink was in order for me.

Weston-super-Mare had figured out how to deal with our controlling game, hence they controlled the first half. For the second period, we went for the 'route one' approach - in other words, give the ball to Duncan Greenwood any which way we could. We got our first chance to put that plan into action after 63 minutes. An uncharacteristically poor tackle from Gerring on Fabio Saraiva diverted the ball to Connor Martin. Connor's through-ball found Duncan, who broke the offside trap and slipped the ball beyond the rushing Billy Baker! Big Dunc had equalised, but his goal could've been rendered meaningless in the 70th minute. A bad clearance from Thomas was intercepted by Weston sub Will De Havilland, whose shot thankfully flew into the stands. We had our first chance to take the lead with a quarter of an hour to play, when Baker tipped Saraiva's vicious strike behind. We reverted to our 'cross it to Dunc' strategy a couple of minutes later. Gnabry's delivery couldn't quite find Greenwood, but a few seconds after that, Dean O'Halloran hit a perfect byline cross for the big man. With the deftest of flicks, Duncan diverted the ball past Baker, and it was 2-1 to Romford! The Weston-super-Mare fans were stunned, and the Woodspring Stadium fell even quieter when De Havilland missed a sitter in the 86th minute. Speaking of sitters, Gnabry spurned a chance in injury time to make it 3-1, but he could be excused for that miss. This was a day for our captain to shine. Big Dunc had turned a 1-0 half-time deficit into a 2-1 win that put us back in the play-off zone!

Weston-super-Mare - 1 (Richefond 45)

Romford - 2 (Greenwood 63,77)

Conference South, Attendance 362 - POSITIONS: Weston-super-Mare 2nd, Romford 5th

ROMFORD LINE-UP: Thomas, Healey, Gray (Reid), James, Bradley, Connolly, Martin, O'Halloran (Scott), Gnabry, O'Reilly (Saraiva), Greenwood. BOOKED: Gray, Healey, James.

We had defeated Weston-super-Mare for the second time within seven days - and for the SIXTH game in a row! Michael Hart must be getting sick of seeing us beat his Seagulls time and time again!

Another team we had a good recent record against was Eastbourne Borough, so we were confident ahead of our trip to Priory Lane. That said, Eastbourne were in pretty decent form, and victory for the Sports would see them overtake us in the table.

15 October 2019: Eastbourne Borough vs Romford

Eastbourne captain Chris Shephard had a shot from the edge of the area after just 25 seconds, but he pulled it wide of the far post. Shephard had another go from a similar range a minute later, with the same result. The rest of the opening 20 minutes would see little attacking action, with both sides labouring and neither looking like they could take the initiative. The first time anyone got particularly close to finding the net was in the 26th minute, when Eastbourne defender Daniel Murphy headed wide from Shephard's free-kick. A minute later, Duncan Greenwood fired a Romford free-kick into the hosts' wall. With the game still goalless after half an hour, I queried why we were focusing our play down the middle when we had two quick wingers and Eastbourne had just a couple of wide players. Once we started to give more of the ball to our wingmen, we really took off. After 37 minutes, Vasilis Koutinis drilled a cross to right-winger Dean O'Halloran, who turned away from a couple of home defenders and cut the ball into the far end of the net! Dean's first goal of the season gave us a narrow 1-0 lead, which remained intact after Johnny Cosgrove's last-minute effort for Eastbourne went miles off target.

O'Halloran used his blistering pace to great effect four minutes into the second half. He sauntered past Eastbourne midfielder Robert Maloney on his way to the byline, where he aimed a cross for his opposite winger Serge Gnabry at the far post. Serge's desperate diving header went in off goalkeeper Nick Jupp's back, boosting our lead to 2-0! Eastbourne should've halved it in the 52nd minute, but Kevin Weaver's awful header wasted an excellent cross from Freddie Warren. While the Sports were bemoaning another missed opportunity, we looked to make it 3-0 through Gnabry, whose 54th-minute strike was parried by Jupp. Serge was later hurt in a challenge from Eastbourne's Welsh defender Dafydd Jones, and he came off with a quarter of an hour remaining. Without Serge's speed, we didn't pose quite as much of a threat going forward. We didn't need another goal, though, because Eastbourne were so poor up front that Kyle Thomas didn't have to make a single save. They did find the net in injury time, but Louis Dennis was most definitely offside when he tapped Warren's cheeky cross home. The offside flag confirmed a clean sheet for Kyle, and our fifth away win in six league games!

Eastbourne Borough - 0

Romford - 2 (O'Halloran 37, Gnabry 49)

Conference South, Attendance 441 - POSITIONS: Eastbourne Boro 9th, Romford 3rd

ROMFORD LINE-UP: Thomas, Healey, Gray, Connolly, Bradley, Saraiva, Martin, O'Halloran, Gnabry (Scott), Koutinis (Morrison), Greenwood (Stamp).

We were now just four points adrift of Conference South leaders Ebbsfleet United, with a game in hand. In our bid for automatic promotion, we were building up a head of steam.

[CFuller]

It was back to the FA Cup on 19 October, when we arrived at Wodson Park to face Ware for the first time in nearly seven years. There was a two-division gap between us and Ware, who were struggling at the wrong end of the Isthmian League Division 1 North.

19 October 2019: Ware vs Romford

Although it'd been such a long time since we last played Ware, their starting XI did contain some familiar faces. Left-flankers Jason Collins and Sean Hunt were both former Boro players, and defender Zak Stephens was an ex-trialist. Once the match kicked off, home midfielder Joe Foley got himself a very early booking for a couple of fouls on Aaron Connolly. The hosts were taking a physical approach to the game, and another midfielder - Chris Dillon - hurt Duncan Greenwood with a firm tackle in the 11th minute. Ware were roughing us up, but we were also willing to throw our weight around. In the 29th minute, left-back Russell Bradley threw himself into a challenge on Elliott Jordan, who had been an attacking threat earlier on. Two minutes later, a shot from Dillon was caught by Moses Millen in the Boro goal. We were giving Ware too much possession for my liking with far too many hopeless punts upfield. Our passing was poor, and so was our chance-making - Ware blocked the only three shots we had at goal in the first half. I was far from happy with my team when the half-time whistle blew.

If I could have, I would have told the players to take off their shirts, and put on some plain white ones with the words 'PASS TO ME' written on the front and back. I couldn't, of course, so I instead ordered them to play more patiently. That new approach almost yielded a goal in the 47th minute, when Daniel Morrison's effort sailed just wide. A couple of minutes later, Greenwood forced keeper Callum Sutton into his first save of the afternoon. Our passing then became wayward again following that positive start. A Romford team that was so close-knit days earlier now seemed to resemble a group of players cobbled together at very short notice. Ware played much more like a team, and though striker Louis Hughes hobbled through much of the second half with a twisted ankle, his partner Levi Durrant posed much more of a threat to us. In the 69th minute, a terrible header from Daniel Morrison in the Boro box gave Durrant a fantastic opportunity, which he volleyed into the net. Ware were 1-0 up! Sutton then caught a stunning low strike from Connor Martin in the 73rd minute to deny us a quick equaliser. Four minutes after that, Jordan - who was still playing despite Russell's earlier challenge on him - set up a second goal for Durrant, and the home fans jubilantly celebrated a 2-0 lead! We had been humbled. The orange-clad minnows from the Isthmian League had made us look like lemons, by knocking us out of the FA Cup!

Ware - 2 (Durrant 69,77)

Romford - 0

FA Cup Qualifying Round 3, Attendance 677

ROMFORD LINE-UP: Millen, Dunn, Reid, Gray, Bradley, O'Halloran (Scott), Morrison, Connolly (Martin), Gnabry, Greenwood, Stamp (Koutinis). BOOKED: Bradley, Reid.

"WORST PERFORMANCE OF THE SEASON!" I barked at my players after slamming the dressing-room door behind me shut. "Your passing was diabolical! You gave Ware every opportunity to beat us! I'm not just furious - I'm almost embarrassed!"

It was one of the biggest dressing-downs I had ever given my team. Getting knocked out of the FA Cup by a team from two tiers below us was not what I had in mind for this season.

A week later, we turned our focus to what was likely to be a close league game at Ship Lane against Steve Tilson's Canvey Island. We were still undefeated at home, whilst Canvey had only just suffered their first away defeat.

26 October 2019: Romford vs Canvey Island

We were quickly on the attack, with Duncan Greenwood blazing a loose ball over in the first minute after Canvey Island defender Kris Sutton had nicked it off Vasilis Koutinis. Playing an attacking game was risky against a Canvey team who'd already scored 22 league goals - the same total as us - this season. After seven minutes, the Gulls went ahead - both on that count, and in the match itself. Canvey's newly-signed midfielder Glenn Wakeford threaded a fantastic ball through our defence to Tony Greaney, who clinically finished into the corner. The attack that resulted in that goal had started after Duncan lost the ball to defender Luke Foster. Dunc sought revenge in the 9th minute, when he outjumped Foster to Serge Gnabry's cross, but he couldn't keep the header on target. Aside from a few corners, we didn't trouble the visitors again in the first half-hour. Canvey were bossing the midfield, and that continued, even after we switched from 4-4-2 to 4-2-3-1. The closest we came to an equaliser was when Dean O'Halloran's shot was turned behind by Aaron Butcher in the 33rd minute. Canvey Island then got a second goal on 42 minutes, as Jacob Hazel hammered home from Curtis Weston's cross. We were 2-0 down, and our unbeaten home record was under major threat.

We tried to decrease the tempo against Ware in the second half, with no success. On this occasion, we looked to ramp it up with more long balls to Big Dunc. That did little to change this game, and indeed, Canvey could have built up a 3-0 lead in the 47th minute. Fortunately, Kyle Thomas spared us further humiliation with an easy catch from Sam Beale's free-kick. That was one of several opportunities the Gulls had to claim their third goal. Another came on 74 minutes, when Louie Swain ran through the Romford defence with embarrassing ease before hitting the post. Boro chances were fewer and further between. Connor Martin missed the target in the 56th minute, and we had to wait until the 83rd for our next attempt, which Gnabry missed. Romford fans quickly flooded out of Ship Lane, and our first home defeat of this season was soon confirmed.

Romford - 0

Canvey Island - 2 (Greaney 7, Hazel 42)

Conference South, Attendance 571 - POSITIONS: Romford 5th, Canvey Island 4th

ROMFORD LINE-UP: Thomas, Healey (Reid), Connolly, Gray, Bradley, O'Halloran, Saraiva, Martin, Gnabry, Greenwood (Morrison), Koutinis (O'Reilly).

That made it back-to-back defeats. A month that had started so, so well for us looked like it was going to finish up as... well, a so-so month.

Our last match in October was against struggling Slough Town in Buckinghamshire. Kevin Phillips' Rebels were second-from-bottom, and they had not yet won a league match at Holloways Park this term.

It was vital that we got a good result from this game. It was our game in hand on the top three, and victory would move us back to within four points of leaders Ebbsfleet United.

30 October 2019: Slough Town vs Romford

I'd been very demanding of my players in the last couple of games, and they needed some more reassuring words before this one got underway. That's what I gave them, and a calmer team talk lent itself to a more relaxed early performance. A fine team move from Romford in the 6th minute ended with Duncan Greenwood hitting a 30-yard shot that Slough keeper Nick Pope did well to hold onto. Then our nerves suddenly returned. Kieron Gray was booked in the 11th minute for a foul on Rebels striker Derice Richards. Shortly after that, winger Doug Mazzone - a player that I tried to sign in the summer - showed me what I could've had with a fantastic cross that Andy Clarke volleyed into the net. Slough were 1-0 ahead after just 12 minutes. We were now chasing what had started off as a pretty close contest, but by the 25th minute, we had settled back down. In the space of less than half a minute, Connor Martin forced another catch out of Pope, and Greenwood pulled a shot past the far post. Two minutes later, Connor was at the start and the end of a breakaway equaliser for the Boro. Moments after kicking off a counter-attack with an excellent tackle on Jerry Davey, Martin got into Slough's penalty area and tapped Dean O'Halloran's cross into the net! O'Halloran and Gray later missed a couple of half-chances that could've given us the lead. Slough looked likely to hit us on the break four minutes from time... until Clarke's shot hit Martin and deflected to Serge Gnabry. Serge then played in winger Tom O'Reilly, who charged at the Rebels goal and ignored a possible slide-rule pass to Greenwood. I was about to vent my fury at Tom when he rounded off his run with a perfectly-placed shot into the corner of the net! My anger turned into delight, and a 1-0 deficit after 12 minutes turned into a 2-1 lead at half-time!

Keston James replaced Kieron at the break, but after 57 minutes, he made a potentially costly foul on Clarke just a few yards from our area. The young centre-back was relieved to see Clarke's free-kick sail narrowly wide. Another Boro youngster whose mistakes went unpunished was goalkeeper Moses Millen. A couple of poor goal kicks soon after the hour mark led to chances for Slough. Moses' blushes were spared after he saved from Richards in the 61st minute, and Clarke missed the target in the 68th. At that point, Kevin Phillips was perhaps wishing he could bring his 46-year-old self on to replace either of his misfiring strikers. Richards later made way for former Boro boy Kieron Carroll, but in the 77th minute, a Romford star of the future almost made his name. Daniel Formaston - who replaced the underperforming Greenwood - intercepted Pope's terrible goal kick and beat defender Zac Andrews to give himself a great chance to make it 3-1. Sadly, the 16-year-old was denied by an excellent redeeming save from Pope. Six minutes later, young Dan played an excellent through-ball to the more experienced Martin. Connor had his first shot parried back to him by Pope, and he slotted in the follow-up to finish the Rebels off with his second goal. Crisis averted.

Slough Town - 1 (Clarke 12)

Romford - 3 (Martin 27,83, O'Reilly 41)

Conference South, Attendance 289 - POSITIONS: Slough 21st, Romford 3rd

ROMFORD LINE-UP: Millen, Dunn, Gray (James), Connolly, Bradley, Morrison, Martin, O'Halloran (Fitzpatrick), Gnabry, O'Reilly, Greenwood (Formaston). BOOKED: Gray.

Our embryonic slump has been aborted, and we are back in 3rd place. We can now look forward to another challenging month in November, when the prolific Garry Morath-Gibbs will make his return from injury.

[CFuller]

The top two teams in the Conference South met on the second day of November. Leaders Ebbsfleet United won 1-0 at home to Weston-super-Mare. That result meant it was possible that we could go level on points with 2nd-placed Weston with a victory in our next match.

That game was at Ship Lane on Guy Fawkes Night, when we were hoping to set fire to Hythe Town. The Isthmian League champions were 14th, having performed inconsistently in their first ever season in the Conference South.

Duncan Greenwood had not scored in four games, so I dropped my misfiring captain from the squad in favour of Gareth Stamp. Taking a spot on the bench was our teen scoring sensation Garry Morath-Gibbs, who had fully recovered from the rib injury that sidelined him for nearly two months.

5 November 2019: Romford vs Hythe Town

Barely four minutes had been played when Kieron Gray was brought down by Hythe defender Marvin Ekpiteta in the Forters' penalty area. Fabio Saraiva - wearing the captain's armband in lieu of Duncan Greenwood - was chosen to take the spot-kick for us. Fabio stepped up to face Hythe's skipper Joel Wilkinson, and his penalty comfortably beat the former Romford goalkeeper. That gave us the opening goal, but there was still loads of time for Hythe to fight back. Striker Junior Yusuf's pace gave us a fright in the 13th minute before he pulled a shot wide. Four minutes later, Daniel Morrison blazed a thunderous shot towards goal, but didn't come close to doubling our lead. Saraiva missed another chance in the 33rd minute before Hythe began to seriously threaten our position. We dropped deep to nullify the threat posed by short and speedy Yusuf, so the Forters instead looked to get service to their other striker - the slightly bigger Pat Whitrick. Having drawn Moses Millen into a save on 41 minutes, Whitrick outwitted our defence three minutes later to pull Hythe level. Whitrick got away from his marker Aaron Connolly and turned Omar Rowe's first-time cross into the net, much to my annoyance.

With Hythe back in the game, I made a couple of changes at half-time. I brought off Saraiva and Gareth Stamp, and taking their places were Serge Gnabry and Garry Morath-Gibbs. This was Garry's first game since mid-September, and he took just 29 seconds to get back to his early-season form. Dean O'Halloran was quick to pick off Wilkinson's poor goal kick and play the ball through to GMG, who tapped in the goal that restored our advantage! The starlet's return would get even better in the 52nd minute. Another excellent display of silky passing from the Boro resulted in Morath-Gibbs scoring from Gnabry's assist, and it was 3-1 Romford! Our excellent start to the half was not just down to Garry - as a team, we had really pushed forward and taken the game to our opponents. But in the 69th minute, Hythe broke through our much higher defensive line. When both of our centre-backs pushed forward at the same time, Whitrick played a through-ball for Nicky Hackney, who just needed to score from a tight angle to pull Hythe back to within a single goal. Hackney didn't get his angles right, and the game slipped away from the visitors. Soon, the question wasn't whether we would win - it was whether Morath-Gibbs would finish with a hat-trick. He twice went close in the 76th minute, with his second effort being blocked by Wilkinson. Four minutes later, Garry did complete his triple. He once again broke free from the hapless Ekpiteta, and when he tapped Morrison's pass into the net, Ship Lane erupted! On his return from injury, Garry Morath-Gibbs had scored THREE times in the second half to give us a fantastic 4-1 win! It was almost the greatest comeback since Lazarus, and it surely would've been had Garry not missed a chance to score a FOURTH goal on 85 minutes!

Romford - 4 (Saraiva pen4, Morath-Gibbs 48,50,82)

Hythe Town - 1 (Whitrick 44)

Conference South, Attendance 425 - POSITIONS: Romford 3rd, Hythe 14th

ROMFORD LINE-UP: Millen, Healey, Gray, Connolly, Bradley, Morrison, Martin (James), O'Halloran, Saraiva (Gnabry), O'Reilly, Stamp (Morath-Gibbs). BOOKED: Martin.

While comeback kid Garry was giving Hythe a hiding, Weston-super-Mare were being held to a goalless draw by AFC Wimbledon. We now trailed the 2nd-placed team by just a single point, and we'd played a game less!

Our chance to go ahead of the Seagulls would have to wait, though. Four days later, we were at Ship Lane again for our first - and possibly last - match in this season's FA Trophy.

If we defeated Isthmian Premier mid-tablers Potters Bar Town in Qualifying Round 3, we would advance to Round 1 for only the second time under my management.

9 November 2019: Romford vs Potters Bar Town

Only 57 people attended this game, and those Romford fans who stayed behind would go on to regret it big time. We were off the mark after just four minutes! Joe Greenhalgh's poor interception from a Dean O'Halloran cross gifted Vasilis Koutinis the chance to put us ahead. Vas' volley hit the post and came back to him, so he centred the ball for Connor Martin, who did strike the first blow. The second came a couple of minutes later, when Koutinis created another assist for Serge Gnabry, who poked the ball home from just outside the six-yard box! Gnabry came close to scoring a third goal in the 9th minute, but he played his part when that did come in the 11th. Towards the end of an excellent passing move, Serge passed to Garry Morath-Gibbs, and it was Garry's incisive final ball that Connor lobbed effortlessly into the net! Martin's second goal left Potters Bar with a Himalayan mountain to climb. They almost fluked their way into the game after 19 minutes, but Jack Munns' cross was tipped over the bar by our restored keeper Kyle Thomas. His opposite number Karlton Tovey had already been beaten three times, and his excellent 25th-minute save from Gnabry merely delayed number four. Russell Bradley's 27th-minute free-kick hit the bar, and Serge nabbed his second goal by volleying in the rebound! We hadn't yet reached the half-hour mark, and already it was 4-0 to Romford! The lesson wouldn't get any easier for the Scholars, who in the 34th minute were punished by another set-piece. When Dean's swerving free-kick was finished by Vasilis, we held a FIVE-GOAL LEAD! No stroke of good fortune could save Potters Bar now, but Joshua Fortune could've pulled a goal back for them on 36 minutes, only to see his shot parried by Thomas. We led 5-0 at half-time, and we were surely through to Round 1 of the FA Trophy, barring a ridiculous collapse!

There was to be no second-half cave-in from Romford. A fine fingertip save from Tovey denied Brett Reid a sixth Boro goal in the 56th minute. Two minutes later, the helpless Potters Bar keeper was beaten yet again. Ship Lane witnessed another stunning right-wing goal from O'Halloran, whose swerving cross Tovey could only tip into the net off the crossbar! It was Romford 6 Potters Bar 0! We could have caused further embarrassment to the Scholars, but when Dean gashed his leg in the 70th minute, we decided to take things easy for the latter stages. Potters Bar's attempts to save at least some pride ended in failure, as Colin Cooper went wide twice and Munns was again denied by Thomas in the 84th minute. Even when Koutinis came off injured two minutes from time, reducing us to ten men, it was far too late for the visitors. The Scholars went home to Hertfordshire with goodness knows how much detention time from their manager Andy Dawson, and we progressed serenely into Round 1!

Romford - 6 (Martin 4,11, Gnabry 6,26, Koutinis 34, O'Halloran 58)

Potters Bar Town - 0

FA Trophy Qualifying Round 3, Attendance 57

ROMFORD LINE-UP: Thomas, Healey, Gray, Connolly, Bradley (Reid), Morrison, Martin, O'Halloran, Gnabry (Saraiva), Koutinis, Morath-Gibbs (Greenwood).

This was my joint-biggest win as a manager, matching the 6-0 pasting we gave Salisbury City - also in the FA Trophy - two years ago. That particular match was in Round 2, and if we wanted to reach that stage again, we would have to win at Slough Town on 23 November.

The Slough match would form part of a lengthy sequence of away games, which began at Welling United. The Wings were in a flap after losing their previous four games, but our chances of inflicting another defeat on Kevin Davies' men were hit by the absence of Dean O'Halloran. Thanks to the gashed leg he suffered against Potters Bar, Dean wouldn't be playing again for another fortnight.

[CFuller]

13 November 2019: Welling United vs Romford

I opted for a more cautious approach against a fast-paced Welling team, whose speedy strikers took the game to us early on. After setting up a 4th-minute attempt that Chike Kandi drilled nail-bitingly close to the target, Keith Moore went for goal himself in the 8th minute - and missed by some distance. A promising start from Welling was helped by some rather poor passing on our part. We could consider ourselves fortunate that the Wings did not take full advantage. One golden opportunity missed by Welling came in the 22nd minute, when Keith Moore fired straight at Kyle Thomas after receiving a fantastic cross from namesake Montell Moore. Boro keeper Thomas made another save a minute later, when he got his fingers to Cameron Burgess' header. Keith Moore picked up an injury in the 36th minute, thus limiting the hosts' attacking threat for the remainder of the half.

We only managed one blocked shot in the first half, but the break gave us a chance to make changes, and perhaps stem the tide of Welling attacks. Our first effort of the second period came on 55 minutes, and Garry Morath-Gibbs' shot was from too far out to be particularly threatening. We then failed to make the most of a couple of corners shortly after the 60-minute mark. The Wings would soon punish our wastefulness. After 63 minutes, Reece Jones played a stunning long ball to Bally Smart, and the South African winger then swung it from the byline to the middle of the penalty area. Standing there was Keith Moore, who fired a left-footed volley into the net! The former Wolverhampton Wanderers trainee's goal was particularly impressive because he had a twisted ankle! Moore was able to score, despite barely being able to walk! When Fabio Saraiva clashed with Jones in the 67th minute, our injury-prone playmaker had to come off. Ironically, we created more scoring chances without Fabio in the team! Daniel Morrison put a shot wide in the 70th minute, before Tom O'Reilly and substitute Duncan Greenwood both narrowly missed in the 80th and 81st respectively. Those were our best and last opportunities to save a point. Welling came close a few times to doubling their winning margin before settling for a 1-0 victory.

Welling United - 1 (K Moore 63)

Romford - 0

Conference South, Attendance 304 - POSITIONS: Welling 13th, Romford 3rd

ROMFORD LINE-UP: Thomas, Dunn, Gray, Connolly (Reid), Bradley, Morrison, Martin, Gnabry, Saraiva (Scott), O'Reilly, Morath-Gibbs (Greenwood). BOOKED: Dunn, Connolly, Gnabry, Scott.

We could have gone up to 2nd place with a win at Park View Road, but we were so poor that we couldn't even get a shot on target. That was very disappointing, particularly after a run of three straight victories.

We stayed in Kent for our next game, which was against the team that everybody was chasing - Ebbsfleet United. If we conquered the Fleet, which was something we hadn't done in six previous attempts, we would be just a single point behind the Conference South leaders.

16 November 2019: Ebbsfleet United vs Romford

Our bid to finally beat Ebbsfleet at the seventh attempt did not get off to a great start. Former Chelsea midfielder and St Trinian's star George Cole clipped the crossbar with a free-kick after just seven minutes. Christian Jolley also went jolly close a minute later, his effort missing the bar by millimetres. At the other end, Garry Morath-Gibbs tried to show what he was capable of after being starved against Welling United. He made a storming run at goal in the 14th minute before his thunderous shot was caught by Fleet keeper Preston Edwards. Five minutes later, a poor back-pass from Morath-Gibbs almost resulted in Ebbsfleet scoring! Eddy Gnahoré intercepted it and passed to Ryan Colclough, who rode Kieron Gray's challenge before sliding the ball up to Jolley, who scooped it over. Ebbsfleet would not be so wasteful with their next opportunity. Gray conceded a free-kick inside the Boro 'D' on 26 minutes, and then watched the player he had fouled - Colclough - curl the set-piece perfectly into Moses Millen's top-left corner. At that point, I hauled Kieron off and replaced him with Keston James. I was perhaps caught up in emotions there, but it wouldn't be a costly decision. We equalised after 34 minutes through 16-year-old winger Zak Fitzpatrick, who cut inside and drilled in a mature low finish for his first senior goal! But nine minutes after making it 1-1, we went behind again. Keston and the rest of our defenders failed to clear Gnahoré's pass before Jolley fired it in to give United a 2-1 advantage after the first half.

With the help of some more inaccurate Romford passing, Ebbsfleet took full control early in the second half. Gnahoré narrowly missed a long-range effort in the 47th minute, and half-time sub Reuben Reid curled his first attempt into Millen's grateful arms a minute later. Our slow start was eventually punished after 51 minutes. Jolley caught Boro right-back Robbie Healey napping, and his finish from Colclough's incisive pass built up a 3-1 lead for the Fleet. After Reid and Mauro Vilhete missed chances to increase the margin to three goals, we went for broke. Serge Gnabry, whose passing was causing some concern, played a superb delivery to substitute Vasilis Koutinis in the 59th minute. Vas had just replaced Garry, and he took little time to make an impact by pulling us back to 3-2! A Boro resurgence was now a real possibility. We later survived two more near-misses from Reid, which could've ended the comeback before it had really got going. Then, in the 68th minute, a flick-on from Duncan Greenwood sent Koutinis through on goal! Vasilis' shot was parried by Edwards, but Duncan reacted quickly to place the rebound into the net! We'd come from two goals behind to level the match at 3-3! What would happen next?

The game was still tied with six minutes to go. Greenwood, who had been playing out of his skin since the break, found a goalward run from Koutinis, who raced through... and missed the target. That was surely it in terms of us winning the game, but we stayed on track for a respectable point against the table-toppers. Then one more woeful pass from Gnabry deprived us of even that. Within ten seconds of Jack Haverson's interception deep in Ebbsfleet territory, Vilhete played the ball to Colclough just outside our penalty area. Colclough pulled the ball right into the corner of the net, giving Ebbsfleet a 4-3 lead with almost exactly five minutes remaining! The Staffordshire terrier had sunk his teeth into us for the second time - and this time, it was fatal. While Fleet boss Garry Flitcroft punched the air in joy, I sank back into my seat, with despair etched all over my face. A brave effort from the Boro boys - particularly our brilliant captain Greenwood - had not been enough against an excellent Ebbsfleet team.

Ebbsfleet United - 4 (Colclough 26,85, Jolley 43,51)

Romford - 3 (Fitzpatrick 34, Koutinis 59, Greenwood 68)

Conference South, Attendance 705 - POSITIONS: Ebbsfleet 1st, Romford 4th

ROMFORD LINE-UP: Millen, Healey, Gray (James), Reid (Morrison), Bradley, Fitzpatrick, Gnabry, Connolly, Scott, Greenwood, Morath-Gibbs (Koutinis). BOOKED: Gray.

We had lost two consecutive games - one meekly, the other in a more valiant manner. As a result, we were now fearing for our play-off place rather than thinking about a serious challenge for the top spot. But before we could try to make amends in the league, our focus switched to the FA Trophy again.

[CFuller]

Kenny Pollard returned from a three-month loan at Faversham Town before our next game. To be honest, he didn't do his Boro first-team chances much good while at Faversham, scoring just once in eight Isthmian League Premier Division games. Kenny's contract expires this summer, and he has a lot of work to do if he is to earn a renewal.

November continued with our second trip to Slough Town in the space of a month. We hoped to repeat our league victory at Holloways Park in Round 1 of the FA Trophy.

23 November 2019: Slough Town vs Romford

Slough scored the opening goal in last month's league game, and it looked like they would do the same here. Inside the first minute, Derice Richards raced past Kieron Gray to reach Andy Clarke's lobbed through-ball. Richards then cut into the area, where he unleashed a ferocious strike, but Kyle Thomas denied Slough the perfect start by pushing the ball behind the byline. The Rebels' early pressure continued, as Nigel Engwell hit the bar in the 4th minute before Clarke missed the target two minutes later. Serge Gnabry spurned our first scoring chance in between those Slough misses, but he would later help to create our opening goal, which came very much against the run of play! Gnabry played a short pass right to Connor Martin, who did the same for Gareth Stamp. Our quick striker slipped the ball past defender Curtis Forrester, and then tapped home to put us 1-0 up after 12 minutes! Three minutes later, we won a corner, which Slough midfielder Victor Flenley frantically booted into the Romford half. Russell Bradley hoofed it back into the danger zone, and while Slough were still organising their defence, Zak Fitzpatrick headed Russell's long ball into the net! I expected the offside flag to come up, but the 16-year-old's strike stood, and we led by two goals! The Rebels were in a real mess, and their confidence plummeted further after Clarke put a header wide on 20 minutes. Before long, our fluid quick-passing game breached the Slough backline for a third time. Rising star Fitzpatrick set up a goal for captain Duncan Greenwood in the 36th minute, and we were 3-0 to the good.

I was aware that we could still be undone in the second half, either by our own arrogance or a fired-up Slough team. In the very first minute, a wicked cross from dangerous winger Doug Mazzone hit the bar and went out at the other touchline. Russell then sloppily threw the ball to Flenley, whose cross to Kieron Carroll could've led to a goal had the ex-Boro man not been offside. The rest of the match would be rather mundane. Slough showed few signs of fighting back, and our 'tiki-taka' became more 'tippy-tappy' with no end product. In the 70th minute, though, Greenwood headed another Bradley long ball in off the bar. Duncan thought he'd scored for a second time, but the referee ruled his goal out for a barge on goalkeeper Nick Pope. Another chance for number 4 was thrown away six minutes later, when the otherwise excellent Fitzpatrick curled a shot across goal. Garry Morath-Gibbs also failed to end his mini-drought in the 87th minute. Slough's day of woe ended with a string of fouls, and midfielder Jerry Davey was sent off in the last minute after picking up two yellow cards. The Rebels had been quashed, and we booked our spot in Round 2 of the FA Trophy.

Slough Town - 0

Romford - 3 (Stamp 12, Fitzpatrick 15, Greenwood 36)

FA Trophy Round 1, Attendance 321

ROMFORD LINE-UP: Thomas, Dunn, Gray (Reid), Connolly, Bradley, Fitzpatrick (O'Reilly), Morrison, Martin, Gnabry, Greenwood, Stamp (Morath-Gibbs). BOOKED: Stamp.

We got another £5,000 for that win, and we were then given another away tie in Round 2. The middle of December will see us travel to Shropshire, where Conference North side Market Drayton Town stand between us and Round 3.

After beating Slough, we faced the last two of what would be FIVE consecutive away matches. Both of them were crucial meetings against fellow play-off challengers.

The spicier of those two games was at the Rush Green Stadium against our bitter rivals Grays Athletic. The two teams were dead level on 31 points after 17 matches, but Grays were miles ahead on goal difference! They'd scored an impressive 43 league goals so far, with 30 of them coming from the deadly duo of Jake Woolley and Andrew Jenkins!

26 November 2019: Grays Athletic vs Romford

Despite Grays' impressive attacking record, we weren't afraid to take the game to them early on. Daniel Morrison went very close to scoring for us in the first minute, as did Garry Morath-Gibbs two minutes later. From a defensive point of view, playing deeper and narrower seemed to frustrate Grays as they looked for the opening goal. However, conceding free-kicks in dangerous positions was still a problem for us. We almost paid the price again in the 8th minute, when James Jennings' set-piece hit the bar. Five minutes later, after playing a one-two with Jennings, 17-goal man Jake Woolley fired his first shot high and wide. Andrew Jenkins fared better when his first chance came after 24 minutes. Romford defender Aaron Connolly's interception from Mitch Rose's pass deflected off his Boro team-mate Kieron Gray and went towards Jenkins, who drilled home his 14th league goal of the campaign. It was an unfortunate way to go 1-0 down, and in all honesty, we didn't deserve to be behind. Serge Gnabry looked to rectify that in the 26th minute, but Gravelmen keeper Neil Rushton parried his shot aside. Five minutes later, Gnabry nearly found the net - our own net! Serge tried to head Jennings' free-kick behind, but it almost went very wrong as Kyle Thomas had to quickly tip the ball away from the target! Gnabry's blushes were spared, and our German winger sent Morath-Gibbs through on the Grays goal in the 35th minute. After being crowded by home defenders, Garry cut the ball to Jimmy Scott, who found the net at the second attempt after Rushton parried his first back to him! Jimmy's goal sent us into the break level at 1-1, but not before we survived a couple of late efforts from Grays.

We looked to get more of the ball to Duncan Greenwood in the second half. Jimmy's 50th-minute cross to Duncan was spot on, but the captain's shot was not, as Rushton brilliantly tipped it away. We withstood another dangerous free-kick from Jennings two minutes later before launching our next attack on 56 minutes. Gnabry curled a cross into the six-yard box, where Duncan got past Grays' Brazilian captain Gílson and headed it into the net! We'd recovered from conceding the first goal to lead 2-1! Grays were annoyed, and their frustration showed as both Jennings and Rose missed shots within the next ten minutes. Later on, Rushton had to make saves from substitute Vasilis Koutinis in the 67th minute, and Big Dunc in the 71st, to stop us from going further ahead. The situation got to a couple of Gravelmen, with winger Glen Lane and full-back Neil King both being booked in the final 15 minutes. In between those two bookings was a costly one for Romford centre-back Gray, whose fifth league yellow card resulted in a one-match ban. Kieron quickly put his disappointment aside to help us grind out an excellent 2-1 win. That result ended Grays' nine-match unbeaten run in the Conference South, and it also moved us above our rivals into 3rd place!

Grays Athletic - 1 (Jenkins 24)

Romford - 2 (Scott 35, Greenwood 56)

Conference South, Attendance 441 - POSITIONS: Grays 4th, Romford 3rd

ROMFORD LINE-UP: Thomas, Healey, Gray, Connolly, Bradley, Scott, Morrison (Martin), Saraiva, Gnabry, Gnabry, Morath-Gibbs (Koutinis). BOOKED: Gray.

Incredibly, our regular central defenders Aaron Connolly and Kieron Gray (along with Russell Bradley) had started every one of our first 18 league games this season! However, Connolly and Gray's partnership would have to be temporarily broken up, as Kieron was forced to miss the next match through suspension.

We were thus without our star defender when we arrived at The Warren to take on Hayes & Yeading United. The hosts had just dropped out of the play-off zone after losing their most recent home game to Weston-super-Mare.

30 November 2019: Hayes & Yeading United vs Romford

Neither team looked particularly impressive in the first ten minutes, but after Boro midfielder Daniel Morrison picked up a knock, Hayes & Yeading started to take control. Their biggest threat came from American striker Chris Hunter, who missed from the edge of the six-yard box on 16 minutes. Hunter fared slightly better in the 24th minute, with Kyle Thomas having to fist his shot away. Hayes & Yeading's other striker, Joe Pigott, almost benefitted from a stroke of fortune in the 32nd minute, when his header rebounded off Romford defender Aaron Connolly's back and towards Ali Dowling. The United midfielder passed back to Pigott, whose 20-yard strike hit the crossbar. The woodwork denied Hayes & Yeading again on 36 minutes, when Kyle turned Hunter's free-kick against the bar. Six minutes later, Pigott flicked Darren Ogley's corner towards Hunter, who was ready to pounce at the far post... but Thomas somehow blocked his volley on the line before Connor Martin cleared! It hadn't all been one-way traffic in the first half - Romford defender Brett Reid forced United keeper Arron Bentley into a catch after half an hour - but there was no doubt about who looked most likely to score.

Thomas was on course for a clean sheet after a brilliant first period, but just 19 seconds after the restart, his sheet was dirtied. Hunter found space in the middle of our defence before slotting the ball past Kyle. Hayes & Yeading's goal had been coming, and we now needed to cancel it out. With Gareth Stamp up front, that didn't look likely. He pulled a dreadful effort wide in the 53rd minute, and substitute Fabio Saraiva didn't fare much better with a 60th-minute free-kick. I later took off Stampy and threw on Big Duncan Greenwood. In the 70th minute, not long after Duncan's introduction, Vasilis Koutinis played a long ball down the left flank for our skipper to chase. Bentley charged out of his goal to reach it first, but his clearance fell to Martin, who hit a first-time long-ranger towards an unguarded target... and rattled the bar! Our best chance seemed to have gone. Hayes & Yeading sub Liam Hurst spurned a couple of opportunities to hurt us further before Reid was injured in an 82nd-minute clash with Ogley. Brett couldn't carry on, and with all of our substitutes used, we were down to ten men. Despite that, we kept plugging away right until the end. Duncan had one last scoring chance in injury time, only for Bentley to deny him with another save that condemned us to a narrow defeat. I wondered how much better we might have fared if Duncan had played from the start, but to quote Beverley Knight, "shoulda woulda coulda".

Hayes & Yeading United - 1 (Hunter 46)

Romford - 0

Conference South, Attendance 182 - POSITIONS: Hayes & Yeading 6th, Romford 4th

ROMFORD LINE-UP: Thomas, Dunn, Reid, Connolly, Bradley (James), O'Halloran, Morrison (Saraiva), Martin, Gnabry, Koutinis, Stamp (Greenwood).

November has been by some distance our worst month in the league so far. Three defeats from five games have left us vulnerable to being knocked out of the play-off spots.

[CFuller]

                                   P     W     D     L     F     A     GD    PTS
1.          Ebbsfleet              19    13    2     4     26    17    +9    41
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2.          Weston-super-Mare      19    11    2     6     35    20    +15   35
3.          Grays                  19    9     7     3     47    22    +25   34
[color="#0000FF"]4.          Romford                19    10    4     5     34    23    +11   34[/color]
5.          AFC Wimbledon          19    9     5     5     37    20    +17   32
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6.          Hayes & Yeading        18    10    2     6     25    17    +8    32
7.          Eastbourne Boro        17    8     4     5     26    18    +8    28
8.          Bromley                18    8     4     6     24    23    +1    28
9.          Kingstonian            18    7     6     5     30    20    +10   27
10.         Canvey Island          16    7     5     4     26    20    +6    26
11.         Dorchester             18    6     8     4     25    27    -2    26
12.         Hythe                  18    8     1     9     27    35    -8    25
13.         Hampton & Richmond     17    7     3     7     20    24    -4    24
14.         Welling                20    6     6     8     23    29    -6    24
15.         Enfield Town           17    6     3     8     25    23    +2    21
16.         Wealdstone             17    6     3     8     19    23    -4    21
17.         Woking                 18    4     6     8     22    32    -10   18
18.         Havant                 19    3     6     10    19    34    -15   15
19.         Slough                 18    3     6     9     20    36    -16   15
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
20.         Tiverton               19    4     3     12    21    40    -19   15
21.         Aveley                 18    4     2     12    16    33    -17   14
22.         Barnet                 19    4     6     9     19    30    -11   8 *

* Barnet deducted 10 points for entering administration

[CFuller]

December began with the possibility of Gareth Stamp ending his stay at Romford. Gareth received an offer from VCD Athletic, but he turned down the Isthmian Premier side to continue fighting for his place at Ship Lane.

Following his poor display at Hayes & Yeading United, Stampy was dropped from the side that played host to arguably the Conference South's most reputable team - 5th-placed AFC Wimbledon.

After their relegation from the Conference Premier, Wimbledon started this season poorly until new manager Simon Weaver steadied the ship. The Dons hadn't lost a league game since Weaver's arrival in mid-October, and victory at Ship Lane would see them climb above us in the table for the first time.

4 December 2019: Romford vs AFC Wimbledon

AFC Wimbledon were the division's big name, but we weren't going to shirk any challenges against them. Kieron Gray made a risky foul on Colin Smith just outside our area in the 10th minute and was relieved to see the Welsh teenager's resulting free-kick curl just wide. Duncan Greenwood had missed our first chance to score four minutes earlier, but he fared better after 17 minutes. We patiently probed around Wimbledon's half before Garry Morath-Gibbs found space to pass to Duncan, who thrashed his through-ball into the net! Having scored the opener, Dunc looked to return the favour to Garry four minutes later, only to see his team-mate miss a gaping target from his pass. Wimbledon didn't create any opportunities to cancel out our lead until the 38th minute. Boro defender Aaron Connolly's interception stopped Georg Iliev's cross from reaching Smith, but not Liam Henderson, who slipped the ball inches past the far post. The Scottish midfielder's miss would be a crucial moment. On 44 minutes, Dons keeper Elvijs Putnins rushed forward to block Morath-Gibbs' shot, and then tracked back to try and stop Russell Bradley's cross from reaching Connor Martin in the six-yard box. Putnins couldn't get back in time, and Connor made it 2-0! However, we would not be in such a comfortable position by half-time. Having been booked in the 29th minute, Gray made a clumsy injury-time foul on Smith to earn himself another yellow card, which in turn led to his dismissal. We went a man down, and after Mark Timlin's free-kick was volleyed in by Ronnie Potter, our lead was cut to 2-1.

In light of Kieron's sending-off, I demanded calmer heads for the second half. We did cool down, and indeed, it was Wimbledon who lost their way after the interval. Two Dons were booked before the hour mark, and with midfielder Bevis Mugabi already struggling with a shin problem, Wimbledon suffered another injury blow after 64 minutes. Winger Phil Shepherd gashed his leg in a challenge from Fabio Saraiva and had to be substituted. With Wimbledon's more creative players now either stifled or out of the game, we sat deep for what time remained and held on for the win. We also came close to adding a third goal in the 69th minute, when substitute defender Brett Reid's header was tipped wide by Putnins. Another goal would've been nice, but victory against AFC Wimbledon with only ten men for the entire second half was already sweet enough - especially because it took us up to 2nd place!

Romford - 2 (Greenwood 17, Martin 44)

AFC Wimbledon - 1 (Potter 45)

Conference South, Attendance 499 - POSITIONS: Romford 2nd, AFC Wimbledon 6th

ROMFORD LINE-UP: Thomas, James, Connolly, Gray, Morrison (Reid), O'Halloran (Gnabry), Martin, Saraiva, Bradley, Greenwood (Pollard), Morath-Gibbs. BOOKED: Gray, Greenwood. SENT OFF: Gray.

Kieron Gray had only just returned from suspension, and thanks to his red card, he had to sit out another game. Also missing for the visit of mid-tablers Enfield Town were the midfield trio of Connor Martin, Dean O'Halloran and Fabio Saraiva, all of whom were tired following their efforts against the Dons.

7 December 2019: Romford vs Enfield Town

Romford captain Duncan Greenwood could've given us the lead after only four minutes, but he half-volleyed wide from Jimmy Scott's cross. The rest of the opening stages would be frustrating for both teams, with neither us nor Enfield Town taking full control of proceedings. Despite playmaker Daniel Morrison picking up a knock in the 20th minute, we created better openings than our visitors. On 26 minutes, Serge Gnabry almost hit a stunning first-timer into the corner of the net before Town keeper Sam Baxter tipped it out of play. Baxter denied us again a minute later by punching Jimmy's deep cross away from a lurking Duncan. Gnabry then fired high and wide from the edge of the area in the 38th minute. Five minutes later, Greenwood missed our best opportunity yet, hitting the woodwork from just inside the box. With the game still goalless, would we regret those misses?

Enfield Town were restricted to speculative shots from distance in the first half, but they managed to get closer to our goal in the second period. Captain Sullay Cumberbatch found Jason Smith in a dangerous position in the 50th minute, and Kyle Thomas stood firm to parry the former Coventry City man's shot. Garry Morath-Gibbs went one better than Smith a minute later and found the net for Romford... but he was marginally offside, so the goal did not stand. Defender Brett Reid picked up an injury shortly afterwards, forcing us into our third and final substitution. Striker Gareth Stamp came on as a makeshift midfielder, and he seemed to settle into his new role quite well - at first. Stampy thought he'd found Greenwood with an excellent through-ball in the 69th minute before Enfield Town defender Harry Worley made a last-ditch interception. Enfield were doing everything they could to stop us. With the score still at 0-0 heading into the last ten minutes, we went for broke. It was all or nothing... and we got nothing, except a late sucker punch. With three minutes left, Mike Jones headed Greenwood's cross out of the Town area, and Enfield countered. Moments later, Cumberbatch jinked past Russell Bradley and floated a cross for Romone McCrae. The former Romford midfielder's header was blocked by Aaron Connolly, but Jordace Holder-Spooner volleyed home the rebound to silence Ship Lane. I still held out hope that we could score an equaliser, but alas, Smith and Jones combined to kill us off in injury time. After Thomas parried his shot back to him, Jones centred the ball to Smith, whose simple finish made it 2-0 and consigned us to just our second home league defeat.

Romford - 0

Enfield Town - 2 (Holder-Spooner 87, Smith 90)

Conference South, Attendance 538 - POSITIONS: Romford 4th, Enfield Town 13th

ROMFORD LINE-UP: Thomas, Healey, Reid (Stamp), Connolly, Bradley, Scott, Morrison (James), Gnabry, O'Reilly, Greenwood, Koutinis (Morath-Gibbs). BOOKED: Greenwood, Morrison, James.

Despite conceding two late goals, I still believed in Kyle Thomas - so much so that, after Braintree Town made another approach for him, I offered Kyle a part-time contract. After lengthy negotiations, the goalkeeper agreed to a deal worth £250 per week. He was now tied down to us until the end of next season.

Next up for us was a trip to Shropshire. This was virgin territory for most of my players, but not myself. My sister lives in Telford nowadays, and I always take time to visit her up there during the football off-season.

About 20 miles north of Telford lies the market town of Market Drayton, and that was where our FA Trophy fate post-Christmas would be decided. If we knocked out Market Drayton Town, who were 6th in the Conference North, we could look forward to a Round 3 tie in January.

14 December 2019: Market Drayton Town vs Romford

We won a corner in the opening minute, and our positive start continued into the seventh. Serge Gnabry dribbled up the left flank before cutting inside and finding Connor Martin, whose shot was held by Market Drayton keeper Sam Briggs. The Gingerbread Men hit a couple of shots from distance at around the quarter-hour mark, but neither Devon Kirkwood nor William Garrett seriously threatened the target. Market Drayton's fans had more reason to be annoyed after 20 minutes. Duncan Greenwood lofted a fabulous free-kick into the box, and Garry Morath-Gibbs was there to score for the first time since his hat-trick against Hythe Town! Garry went close to getting another goal in the 22nd minute, when he found the side netting. A minute later, Market Drayton opened our defence for the first time, but Ryan Crowther couldn't capitalise on Bill Spacey's through-ball. Town captain Kirkwood fired another opportunity wide in the 35th minute. Seven minutes after that, Garry punished the hosts' mistakes for a second time, as he blasted us into a 2-0 half-time lead!

After 53 minutes, Greenwood fired a close-range free-kick into the Market Drayton wall. The deflection came to Daniel Morrison, who gave Duncan another go, but Briggs caught his second attempt. Morrison's game would come to an early end in the 65th minute, when he was tripped by Town's Romford-born defender Brian Saah. Daniel came off with a bruised shin, and his replacement Fabio Saraiva would have a very wasteful cameo. Fabio's poor passing didn't hinder us too much, as Market Drayton - and Kirkwood in particular - continued to miss the target on a regular basis. Out of 11 shots in total, the only one that found the target was Stephen Adkins' 68th-minute attempt, which Kyle Thomas blocked. Morath-Gibbs missed out on another hat-trick in the 83rd minute, but our 'fox in the box' had already gobbled up the Gingerbread Men. Our FA Trophy fairytale was still ongoing.

Market Drayton Town - 0

Romford - 2 (Morath-Gibbs 20,42)

FA Trophy Round 2, Attendance 380

ROMFORD LINE-UP: Thomas, Healey, Gray, Connolly, Rafferty, O'Halloran, Martin, Morrison (Saraiva (Reid)), Gnabry, Greenwood (Pollard), Morath-Gibbs. BOOKED: Saraiva.

We'd safely reached the last 16 of the FA Trophy, having won three matches by an aggregate score of 11-0. We were rewarded with £6,000 prize money, and a home game in Round 3 against...

Farnborough. To be honest, that wasn't the worst draw we could've had. It was Farnborough who we eliminated at the start of our FA Trophy run two years ago - and they don't have Kaine Sheppard anymore, so we stand a good chance of beating them again on 11 January!

[CFuller]

The second half of our Conference South campaign began at The Hive against Barnet, who were looking back up again. The Bees were still bottom with just four wins and eight points, but they were no longer in administration, and Gary Warren had high hopes before his first home game as manager.

21 December 2019: Barnet vs Romford

In the sixth minute, Dean O'Halloran played a cross to Serge Gnabry in a Barnet penalty area filled with players from both sides. For some reason only Serge knows, the German tried to hit the ball back to Aaron Connolly in the centre-circle - but his pass was so poor that it was intercepted by Barnet winger Hakan Demirci! The on-loan Charlton Athletic youngster raced past Connolly to go clean through on goal... before firing a dreadful shot wide! Everyone at The Hive was stunned! The Bees fans were particularly gobsmacked, and they were shocked again in the 13th minute. Garry Morath-Gibbs tried to thread a byline cross to Dean O'Halloran at the far post, but Barnet defender Stuart Warren (not related to Gary Warren) diverted the ball into his own net! We'd been gifted the opening goal, and things got even better for us barely a minute after play resumed! Tom O'Reilly played a sublime pass, from which Connor Martin slotted in our second goal. Our two-goal lead only remained as such until the 17th minute, when Sam Gallagher quickly put Barnet back in with a shout. Gnabry made another mistake in the build-up to that goal, as he failed to intercept Warren's cross to midfielder Dean Florence. He had been punished this time, and I now feared one more mistake from Serge would cost us the lead altogether. After just 28 minutes, Gnabry was substituted, with Fabio Saraiva replacing him. Fabio's long-range shooting caused Barnet a few problems late in the first half. Saraiva fired narrowly over on 35 minutes, and he later had a stoppage-time free-kick saved by Bees keeper Alex Wattley, who turned it against his crossbar.

Romford captain Duncan Greenwood helped put us two goals ahead again in the 48th minute. Morath-Gibbs broke Barnet's offside trap to reach Greenwood's pass and slot it past Wattley for 3-1! We were certainly not home and dry yet, though, and we had to ready ourselves for another swift response from Barnet. Half-time substitute Daniel Griffiths hit a powerful 20-yarder in the 50th minute, and Kyle Thomas pushed it towards his left-hand touchline. Gallagher kept the ball in play before crossing to veteran Mark Kerr, who was set to create another opportunity until Saraiva made an excellent tackle. Thomas made further saves to deny Griffiths in the 52nd and 54th minutes, but the Bees striker's torment was only just beginning. Griffiths narrowly missed the target twice midway through the half. He had another go in the 73rd minute, and Kyle caught it with ease that time. We had a very safe pair of hands in goal, as Thomas proved again by catching Aaron Holloway's header four minutes later. Shortly after that, Garry came within inches of replicating the 4-1 scoreline that we beat Barnet by in our last meeting. On this occasion, three goals would be enough to see off the Bees. The hosts did have one last scoring chance four minutes from the end, but Griffiths was denied by his nemesis Thomas for a fifth time.

Barnet - 1 (Gallagher 17)

Romford - 3 (Warren og13, Martin 14, Morath-Gibbs 48)

Conference South, Attendance 926 - POSITIONS: Barnet 24th, Romford 3rd

ROMFORD LINE-UP: Thomas, Dunn, Gray (James), Connolly, Bradley, O'Halloran, Martin, Gnabry (Saraiva), O'Reilly, Greenwood (Koutinis), Morath-Gibbs.

I was delighted that we'd beaten Barnet for a second time - but I hadn't forgotten about Serge Gnabry's mistakes. Before we left The Hive, I pulled Serge to one side and told him in very harsh terms how angry I was with his sloppiness.

The German playmaker at first tried to protest his innocence, but as I grew even more furious, he relented... and apologised. His apology had come too late, though, to save him from being dropped for our next game.

That next game was supposed to be at home to another relegation-threatened team - Tiverton Town - on Boxing Day. Unfortunately, some terrible weather on Christmas Day rendered the Ship Lane pitch unplayable.

On the bright side, the postponement did give us another couple of days' rest before we travelled to Hampton & Richmond Borough. The inconsistent Beavers recorded an impressive 2-0 win at Canvey Island on Boxing Day. It remained to be seen, though, whether their forward momentum or our freshness would decide this game.

28 December 2019: Hampton & Richmond Borough vs Romford

Romford midfielder Connor Martin curled a hopeful 30-yarder towards goal in the second minute, and Rikki Banks saved it without too many problems. Hampton & Richmond had their first half-chance a minute later, as Barbadian teenager Ron Readings' attempt was blocked by Aaron Connolly. We then looked to exploit the Beavers' lack of height in defence with some long, direct passing. Duncan Greenwood headed Dean O'Halloran's cross narrowly over in the 10th minute, but five minutes later, another aerial threat made the most of his chance. Aaron rose highest when Fabio Saraiva swung a free-kick into the box, and his header gave us the first goal! It would not be the last, as H&R equalised through a free-kick of their own in the 26th minute. Connor Wilkins' effort thundered off our wall and deflected towards 36-year-old defender Darren Jones, who volleyed past Moses Millen! Trevor Dunn - who was only playing because Robbie Healey had damaged his heel - took the blame for failing to close Jones down. Our right-back wasn't playing well, but our right-winger O'Halloran fared much better. Three minutes after we lost the lead, Dean got it back with a sublime cross to Garry Morath-Gibbs, whose header looped over Banks! We went 2-1 up, and that started an extended spell of Boro dominance. Duncan had a couple of chances to make it 3-1, most notably in the 38th minute, when his header hit the bar. H&R right-back Nigel Sainsbury made a superb block to stop Dunc from converting the follow-up, but he hurt himself whilst doing so and had to be subbed. The Beavers struggled even more, with Banks having to catch another Morath-Gibbs header in the 44th minute. Shortly after that, Garry created our third goal by drilling the ball to the far post, where Dean popped up to thrash it in!

Any Romford fans with long memories will tell you that a 3-1 lead is never a safe one against Hampton & Richmond. Recollections of a previous collapse against the Beavers returned two minutes into the second period. A headed back-pass from Kieron Gray went horribly wrong as Millen and Dunn both failed to gather the loose ball, allowing Readings to halve our advantage by nodding home. Moses and Trev had got their wires crossed - and I was very cross with Dunn, who I later substituted after his second goal-costing error. On 56 minutes, I grew concerned about another defender. Our centre-back pairing of Connolly and substitute Keston James collided with each other, and Aaron came off worse, gashing his arm. I didn't want to make another change to an increasingly shaky defence, so I told Aaron to stay on. As the backline struggled to hold firm, our strikers sought a fourth goal that would ease any worries. When Matt Somner's first-touch let him down in the 66th minute, Garry pounced on the Beavers defender and passed to Duncan, who beat Jake Martin to leave himself one-on-one with Banks! Incredibly, though, Big Dunc pulled the ball wide when it was arguably easier to score! After 71 minutes, Banks tipped over another header from Connolly, who looked unbeatable in the air at both ends. Aaron then made a last-gasp clearance five minutes later to deny Somner a tap-in that would've pulled H&R level again! Could we hold out for much longer?

Hampton & Richmond grew wearier in the latter part of the game, with Readings failing to trouble Thomas from distance in the 87th minute. But deep into injury time, they summoned enough energy for one last desperate attack. Just as the clock was ticking into a fourth extra minute, Readings struck from the edge of the area, and Moses tipped the ball to the left. At the other end was Hampton & Richmond wing-back Alexander McQueen, who drilled it into the six-yard box. My heart skipped a beat as Readings rushed towards McQueen's cross... but Millen dived onto the ball, at which point the whistle finally blew! We had scraped to a 3-2 win by the skin of our teeth!

Hampton & Richmond Borough - 2 (Jones 26, Readings 47)

Romford - 3 (Connolly 15, Morath-Gibbs 29, O'Halloran 45)

Conference South, Attendance 740 - POSITIONS: Hampton & Richmond 13th, Romford 3rd

ROMFORD LINE-UP: Millen, Dunn (James), Gray, Connolly, Rafferty, O'Halloran (Fitzpatrick), Martin, Saraiva (Morrison), O'Reilly, Greenwood, Morath-Gibbs.

After the win, I told Duncan Greenwood and Garry Morath-Gibbs that they would both be offered new 18-month contracts. Both men signed their new deals on New Year's Eve - just hours before our next game. Duncan's salary remained at £250 per week, while Garry received a massive weekly pay rise from £40 to £180.

Duncan and Garry would both feature at Hayes Lane against Bromley - the team directly below us in the table. Sadly, Aaron Connolly would not. After bravely playing through the pain at Hampton & Richmond, he was forced to miss the next couple of games with a gashed arm.

31 December 2019: Bromley vs Romford

Victory at Hayes Lane would put us in 2nd place heading into the New Year, and we couldn't have wished for a better start. Garry Morath-Gibbs made a perfectly-timed slide to knock Duncan Greenwood's cross into the net after six minutes. That was Garry's 16th goal of the season, equalling his tallies from each of the previous two campaigns! For the next few minutes, the ball hardly strayed out of Bromley's half as we looked to take full control. Between the 8th and 10th minutes, Connor Martin narrowly missed from the edge of the area, Duncan had a header caught by Daniel Stapleton, and Dean O'Halloran curled a shot wide. There was a lull in play after that until the 25th minute, when the second goal came... but it was Bromley who scored it against the run of play! The Boro defenders failed to keep their eyes on Lilywhites centre-half Karlton Watson, who picked up Jonathan Wafula's pass into the box and drilled it beyond Kyle Thomas. The whole game shifted after that. The next critical moment came on 35 minutes, when Bromley won a penalty after Serge Gnabry was deemed to have barged into Ed Seabrook. The teenage striker - on loan from Aldershot Town - took the penalty himself, and he blasted it home to give Bromley a 2-1 lead! Daniel Morrison missed a chance to pull us level moments after the restart, and then the Lilywhites began to move clear. With three minutes to go until half-time, Seabrook played a one-two with Jake Reed before hitting another powerful finish. We'd had more scoring chances than our hosts, but we were trailing by 3 goals to 1!

These were desperate times, so I made wholesale changes before the second half. I switched to 3-5-2 and used all my substitutes - one of whom would get us back in the game after 48 minutes. After Bromley defender Alex Donald failed to clear O'Halloran's cross, Kenny Pollard pounced on the loose ball and pulled us back to 3-2! That was Kenny's first Boro goal of the season, and he now wanted a second to level the scores. In the 52nd minute, GMG knocked the ball through to KP, who was denied an equaliser by a fine stop from Lilywhites keeper Stapleton. A minute after that disappointment, Kenny set up a chance for fellow sub Fabio Saraiva, who fired it much too high and much too wide. When Pollard was thwarted by another Stapleton save in the 61st minute, he started to get really frustrated. Kenny was booked in the 70th minute - just seconds after team-mate Martin had seen yellow. Bromley had few attacking opportunities in the second half, and one of those could've finished us off seven minutes from time, but Watson's header hit the woodwork. Four minutes after almost going two goals down again, we launched one final bid to draw level. Kenny found an opening for Morath-Gibbs, who skipped past Watson and tried to chip the ball over Stapleton. He failed spectacularly, and that was the end of our three-game winning streak.

Bromley - 3 (Watson 25, Seabrook pen35,42)

Romford - 2 (Morath-Gibbs 6, Pollard 48)

Conference South, Attendance 572 - POSITIONS: Bromley 4th, Romford 3rd

ROMFORD LINE-UP: Thomas, Clark (James), Gray, Reid, Bradley (Saraiva), O'Halloran, Martin, Morrison, Gnabry, Greenwood (Pollard), Morath-Gibbs. BOOKED: Martin, Pollard.

I did not want to end 2019 like that. Nevertheless, I'm still looking forward to the dawning of a new decade, where we face four home games in January that will surely either make or break our promotion charge.

[CFuller]

                                   P     W     D     L     F     A     GD    PTS
1.          Ebbsfleet              23    15    3     5     31    21    +10   48
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.          Weston-super-Mare      24    14    2     8     46    29    +17   44
[color="#0000FF"]3.          Romford                24    13    4     7     44    32    +12   43[/color]
4.          Bromley                24    13    4     7     42    32    +10   43
5.          Hayes & Yeading        24    13    3     8     34    25    +9    42
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6.          AFC Wimbledon          25    12    5     8     53    31    +22   41
7.          Grays                  24    10    8     6     54    34    +20   38
8.          Canvey Island          22    10    7     5     39    25    +14   37
9.          Kingstonian            23    10    7     6     41    28    +13   37
10.         Eastbourne Boro        23    10    7     6     31    23    +8    37
11.         Dorchester             24    9     10    5     36    34    +2    37
12.         Enfield Town           24    10    4     10    38    32    +6    34
13.         Hampton & Richmond     22    9     4     9     31    35    -4    31
14.         Hythe                  24    9     3     12    35    48    -13   30
15.         Wealdstone             24    7     6     11    28    35    -7    27
16.         Slough                 25    7     6     12    34    50    -16   27
17.         Havant                 25    6     8     11    31    41    -10   26
18.         Welling                24    6     7     11    28    40    -12   25
19.         Woking                 24    4     8     12    27    46    -19   20
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
20.         Tiverton               23    4     6     13    24    44    -20   18
21.         Aveley                 24    4     4     16    20    46    -26   16
22.         Barnet                 25    6     6     13    27    43    -16   14 *

* Barnet deducted 10 points for entering administration

[CFuller]

I'm not the type of man who usually makes New Year's Resolutions, but this year was an exception. At the very top of my list was this: "Keep hold of Connor Martin".

Connor's six-month loan spell with us was due to expire in late January, and I really wanted to keep the midfield marvel on a permanent basis. Boreham Wood were keen to get rid of him, and our chairman Leo Jones was willing to pay whatever wages he wanted, so a deal looked likely.

There was one massive snag, though. Martin's agent was unwilling to open negotiations, and thus the player himself wouldn't discuss a contract. What's more, no amount of persuading on my part could convince Connor to tell the interfering so-and-so to take his 15% and shove it up his Pippa Middleton. The move was off.

Connor would return to Boreham Wood on 24 January, so we had to make the most of his talent while we could.

I also needed to find another central midfielder to take his place, but before I could bring someone in, we faced our first home game of the 2020s. Tiverton Town came to Ship Lane in 20th place, and with just a single away win to their credit this season. Defeat against the Devon minnows would be disastrous for our play-off bid.

4 January 2020: Romford vs Tiverton Town

It was lightly snowing at Ship Lane, and both teams initially struggled under the conditions. Tom O'Reilly pulled a couple of early shots wide for us, while Kieron Gray had a 5th-minute header saved by Tiverton keeper Steve Boore. A better chance came Tivvy's way shortly afterwards, with Neil McMahon's header floating just over the crossbar. In the 10th minute, Jonathan Muleba played a short Tiverton free-kick to Chris Whelan, who laid it off for Matthew Jones. The striker hit a perfect shot, and we were 1-0 down, much to the home fans' dismay! We could have been further embarrassed five minutes later, but Courtney Baker-Richardson couldn't keep his effort on target. At the Tivvy end, we found defender Samuel Pressman to be a hard nut to crack. He blocked a Duncan Greenwood shot in the 23rd minute, and moments later intercepted Garry Morath-Gibbs' attempted pass to Dunc. We would need to be patient if we were to break Tiverton's backline down. After Morath-Gibbs and Greenwood each missed further chances to level, they combined for another attack in the 43rd minute. From just inside the area, Garry played the ball short to Duncan, who had five Town defenders in front of him. Undeterred, he slotted the ball through the pack and past the goalkeeper to find the corner of the net! We'd drawn level late in the first half!

Having lost the lead, Tiverton pressed forward after the break. Baker-Richardson had a shot saved by Kyle Thomas in the 48th minute. Wale Clarke tried to find Baker-Richardson with a through-ball five minutes later, but 16-year-old Boro left-back Danny Rafferty made a crucial interception. Danny was playing admirably well, despite picking up a knock during the first half. Tiverton winger Cody Bentley almost had an enormous stroke of fortune after 60 minutes, when his cross hit the bar. Tivvy were thanking their lucky stars two minutes later. Duncan's excellent free-kick was headed into the net by Garry, but our strikers' joy was cut short by the offside flag. There would be few opportunities for either side until the 84th minute, when Whelan fizzed a free-kick just wide for Tiverton. A 1-1 draw looked almost certain... but one fantastic long ball from Kieron Gray in the 87th minute changed the course of this game. Morath-Gibbs latched onto the ball, and then slotted it beyond Boore! We'd snatched what I thought would be a 2-1 win, but two minutes later, the ref awarded a penalty... to us! Greenwood made no mistake from the spot to make it 3-1 after Jake Browne had lunged in on Romford winger Jimmy Scott! It was Big Dunc's second goal of the afternoon, and he was not yet finished! He scored once again in injury time to secure his hat-trick! In the space of about four minutes, we'd turned a drawing position into a victory by the ultimately emphatic score of 4-1.

Romford - 4 (Greenwood 43,89,90, Morath-Gibbs 87)

Tiverton Town - 1 (Jones 10)

Conference South, Attendance 517 - POSITIONS: Romford 3rd, Tiverton 20th

ROMFORD LINE-UP: Thomas, Dunn, Gray, Reid (James), Rafferty, O'Halloran (Scott), Saraiva (Martin), Morrison, O'Reilly, Greenwood, Morath-Gibbs. BOOKED: O'Halloran.

Those hard-earned three points strengthened our hold on a play-off spot, and we received another boost 24 hours later. I knew nothing about any financial problems at Hayes & Yeading United until I visited the BBC Sport website on Sunday afternoon - and read that they'd gone into administration! As a result, United were deducted 10 points, and they dropped all the way from 5th to 13th.

The following evening, we welcomed back Josh Telling following his five-month loan spell with Maidenhead United. The winger scored five goals and made eight assists during a productive stay in Berkshire, and he was now ready to challenge Dean O'Halloran for his spot in the Boro team.

Josh's competitive debut for Romford would have to wait, as he was cup-tied, so Dean kept his place when we hosted Farnborough in Round 3 of the FA Trophy. Farnborough were 16th in the Conference Premier and were without doubt the most challenging opponents in our cup run to date.

11 January 2020: Romford vs Farnborough

If you didn't know which team was in a higher division, then judging by the way we started, you would probably assume it was us! A second-minute counter-attack could've given us a very early lead, but after Duncan Greenwood found Garry Morath-Gibbs in space, our teenage starlet shot narrowly wide. Garry's next effort in the 6th minute also went close, as he headed Serge Gnabry's cross against the side netting. We were controlling the ball very well and creating chances by the bucketload, but our shooting was letting us down. The only shot on target we had in the opening 20 minutes was Connor Martin's 14th-minute attempt was parried by Connor Brennan. Eight minutes later, our determination finally produced a reward. After having his cross cleared back to him by Farnborough defender Ryan McSherrey, O'Halloran volleyed the follow-up to Big Dunc, who flicked it into the far end of the net! Ship Lane rejoiced as we went ahead, but Farnborough had their first chance to level in the 26th minute. Courtney Harris' header from a Stewart Routledge free-kick did not trouble Kyle Thomas in the Romford goal. George Waring's 38th-minute volley did, though, with Kyle shoving it to his full-back Robbie Healey. Two minutes later, our passing game started to flow again. A pinpoint pass from Morath-Gibbs was expertly finished by Martin, and we were leading by two goals! That would not be the case after the 44th minute... because Gnabry cut inside to drill in our THIRD goal of a dream opening half! It really could not have gone any better for us!

We had now scored 14 FA Trophy goals without reply, but only one of them came in a second half, so I expected a post-interval dip in our performance. We started the second period well enough, with Greenwood's header drawing a catch from Brennan in the 53rd minute. Farnborough then had injury concerns over their captain Roby Swan, but although the midfielder was struggling, another key man gave the Hampshire team a lifeline on 62 minutes. Chris Clark showed why he was among the Conference Premier's leading scorers with an unstoppable finish from Harris' cross. It was the first goal we'd conceded in this season's FA Trophy, and it reduced our lead to 3-1. We could have been pegged back further when Waring jinked his way past Aaron Connolly two minutes later, but the Farnborough forward's finishing touch deserted him. Another half-chance from Clark came and went in the 69th minute. The visitors' confidence - and their chances of fighting back - ebbed away after that. A fantastic display from captain Greenwood almost ended with his second goal after 80 minutes, but Duncan's volley was brilliantly kept out by Brennan. A little over ten minutes later, a historic result for Romford FC was confirmed. For the first time ever, we were FA Trophy Quarter Finalists!!

Romford - 3 (Greenwood 22, Martin 40, Gnabry 44)

Farnborough - 1 (Clark 62)

FA Trophy Round 3, Attendance 402

ROMFORD LINE-UP: Thomas, Healey, Gray, Connolly, Rafferty, O'Halloran (Scott), Martin, Saraiva (Morrison), Gnabry, Greenwood, Morath-Gibbs (Koutinis). BOOKED: Saraiva.

Another healthy cheque for £7,500 was banked, along with our spot in Round 4. We were now the last team from the Conference South left in the FA Trophy... and when the draw was made on Monday afternoon, we were pitted against the Conference North's lone survivors.

On 25 January, we would be heading all the way up to Lincolnshire for a showdown with Gainsborough Trinity. Keeping our FA Trophy run going against them would be a big ask, but we'd already knocked out a Conference Premier team, so Gainsborough held no fear for us.

Shortly after learning of the FA Trophy draw, I got ready to finalise a new loan signing. I was about to fax the paperwork (yes, we still use a fax machine) for the signing of Southend United midfielder Alan Davidson to the Football Conference - until my assistant Wayne Daniel interrupted me.

"Chris, you do realise that he's already played for two clubs this season?" I honestly didn't know, but eagle-eyed Wayne had spotted that Davidson had turned out for Annan Athletic five times this summer before moving to Southend, where he played 18 matches. Under FIFA guidelines, no player is allowed to represent more than two different clubs in the same season. Essentially, if we went ahead with this deal, Davidson would have been useless to me.

The paperwork went in the shredder, and I went back to the drawing board to find another midfielder.

[mark wilson27]

Its pretty tight at the top mate. A few wins could see you moving up closer to that automatic spot. As other have said before the match writing is brilliant mate. Always look forward to the next installment

[CFuller]

Its pretty tight at the top mate. A few wins could see you moving up closer to that automatic spot. As other have said before the match writing is brilliant mate. Always look forward to the next installment

The Conference South is really tight this year. There's no Boreham Wood running away with it this time - any one of seven teams, including us, can realistically take top spot at the end.

[CFuller]

Three days after that memorable win over Farnborough, Ship Lane hosted another intriguing game against local rivals Aveley. The Millers were finding the Conference South a very difficult league to survive in, and they were on a twelve-match winless run.

14 January 2020: Romford vs Aveley

Aveley were without three regular midfielders for this match, and another - Michael Thomas - was barely able to play with a hamstring injury. That didn't stop them from making the brighter start, though. Winger Nico Harris shot from a tight angle in the third minute, and Kyle Thomas pushed it behind for a corner. Five minutes later, Chris Sutcliffe flicked a header to Patrick Drmola, and the Millers' leading scorer cracked the woodwork with a stunning volley! After surviving those early scares, we began to push forward and put Aveley under pressure. Serge Gnabry was controversially denied a penalty after clashing with Sutcliffe in the 15th minute. Two minutes later, Duncan Greenwood blasted an effort high over the crossbar. Another couple of minutes went by... and then a moment of magic put us in the ascendancy. Aaron Connolly hit the ball long to Garry Morath-Gibbs, who nodded it towards Gnabry at the side of the penalty area. Serge struck a stunning volley with the inside of his left foot, and Millers keeper Peter Parker could only palm it into the net! The Romford fans went wild, and even the Aveley supporters applauded what was an incredible goal! Both sets of spectators were clapping again on 24 minutes, when Kyle made an excellent save from Harris' free-kick. Opposite number Palmer also pulled off a great save in the 29th minute, turning Greenwood's header against the bar. A couple of minutes later, Parker caught a close-ranger from Morath-Gibbs, who went close again in the 34th minute. Parker made one more fine stop from Gnabry on 37 minutes, but Serge's earlier stunner gave us the edge at half-time.

The woodwork thwarted Duncan again in the opening minute of the second half - this time, he hit the post. That was the first of only a few chances we would have to increase our advantage. Winger Josh Telling had a difficult competitive debut for us, with only one of his nine crosses being successful, and he was subbed after 63 minutes. Moments later, Karimm Gilligan dragged wide an effort for Aveley. The Millers would not threaten us again until the 80th minute. Captain Ian Barnett tried to find Lloyd Fogg with his corner, but Kyle Thomas punched the ball away before it could reach the 16-year-old sub. Six minutes later, Carl Piergianni curled a free-kick inches over the bar. Aveley had given their all, but we took the spoils and moved back above Weston-super-Mare into 2nd.

Romford - 1 (Gnabry 19)

Aveley - 0

Conference South, Attendance 451 - POSITIONS: Romford 2nd, Aveley 21st

ROMFORD LINE-UP: Thomas, Dunn, Gray, Connolly, Rafferty, Telling (O'Halloran), Morrison, Saraiva (Martin), Gnabry, Greenwood (Pollard), Morath-Gibbs.

There would be two more home league games to come before we switched our focus back to the FA Trophy. Our fourth straight match at Ship Lane was against relegation-threatened Woking. The Cards sacked manager Jon Stead in October and replaced him with Kevin Nolan, who ironically was also Stead's successor at Barnet!

18 January 2020: Romford vs Woking

Kenny Pollard started up front for us in place of Duncan Greenwood, who dropped to the bench. Kenny's aerial ability would prove useful in defence, as he headed a couple of Kyel Reid set-pieces behind within the first quarter of an hour. Woking looked the better team early on, but a couple of injuries threatened to derail them. Fabio Saraiva's 15th-minute tackle on Lee Lynch left the Cards midfielder with a twisted knee, and right-back Alari Naylor was injured by Serge Gnabry seven minutes later. The wounded pair played on, but they both struggled - particularly Lynch, who missed the target completely with a woeful shot after 25 minutes. Five minutes later, Woking forward Ben Williamson hit the post and rushed towards the loose ball... but Kieron Gray crucially blocked his path, allowing his Boro team-mates to pass it out of danger. While our defenders excelled, our attackers toiled. Garry Morath-Gibbs' 31st-minute strike was comfortable for Scott Davies, and Pollard's effort two minutes later did not trouble the Cards goalkeeper. The match remained goalless at half-time, but we hardly deserved to be on level terms.

"Are you lot scared of Woking?" I asked the players during the break. "You shouldn't be. You are much stronger than them - I know that, but more importantly, you know that." I then decided to make two of my substitutions, with Greenwood replacing Pollard and Josh Telling coming on for Dean O'Halloran. Towards the end of my team talk, I reminded my players of the 5-1 towelling Woking gave us at Ship Lane in last season's play-offs, and told them, "Now it's time to get our own back. We're not afraid of them anymore, ARE WE?!"

Woking had the first attack of the second half, but Lynch blazed the ball over in the 52nd minute. After 58 minutes, the Cards showed another sign of frailty. Telling drilled a cross into the Woking six-yard box, where Morath-Gibbs was obstructed by defender Philippe Chevalier. The referee awarded a penalty against the Woking captain, and our skipper Greenwood fired the spot-kick past a static Davies! We'd gone 1-0 up, but the visitors felt hard done by, and they looked to equalise quickly. After Lynch fired another dreadful attempt miles wide in the 59th minute, Danny Gardner got much closer in the 63rd, with Kyle Thomas having to push his shot away from his near post. Then, on 70 minutes, the house of Cards came crashing down. Full-back Micky Demetriou folded completely with a horrible back-pass, which Duncan intercepted and slotted beyond Davies for 2-0! A furious Davies had to spare his defence's blushes again in the 79th minute by blocking Morath-Gibbs' shot from Greenwood's free-kick. Six minutes later, though, Duncan completed his hat-trick with a sublime header from Gnabry's cross! Big Dunc had torn Woking asunder, and a fantastic day for him could've become better still in the 87th minute. Curtis Da Costa's interception from Russell Bradley's delivery prevented a fourth goal for Greenwood... but not a fourth for Romford. Once again, Connor Martin popped up at the right place at the right time, and his 10th Boro goal completed a resounding 4-0 win! Revenge does not come any sweeter than that!

Romford - 4 (Greenwood pen58,70,85, Martin 87)

Woking - 0

Conference South, Attendance 575 - POSITIONS: Romford 2nd, Woking 19th

ROMFORD LINE-UP: Thomas, Healey, Gray, Connolly, Bradley, O'Halloran (Telling), Morrison, Saraiva (Martin), Gnabry, Pollard (Greenwood), Morath-Gibbs. BOOKED: O'Halloran.

There was even more Boro joy when we learned about the weekend's other results. Weston-super-Mare succumbed to a 4-2 home defeat against Slough Town, thus further strengthening our grip on 2nd place. Better still, league leaders Ebbsfleet United lost 2-1 at home to Bromley! Thanks to the heroics of Bromley's goalkeeper, who saved a penalty in the 90th minute, we were just two points off top spot!

Our last of five consecutive home games was against 17th-placed Wealdstone. If we avenged our early-season defeat to the Stones, and Ebbsfleet failed to win against Hampton & Richmond Borough, then we would go top of the Conference South.

This would be a Ship Lane farewell for Connor Martin, who played the final game of his five-month loan spell. Our other key men were given the day off before our big FA Trophy game, with several second-string players getting their chances to shine. Sadly, Tom O'Reilly would not feature, as he suffered a double hernia in training and was ruled out for at least two months.

22 January 2020: Romford vs Wealdstone

Although we were effectively fielding a reserve team, it was Wealdstone who struggled in the opening minutes. Winger James Dayton suffered a knee injury in fouling Jimmy Scott after four minutes. While Dayton was being treated on the touchline, Scott had a free-kick saved by Stones keeper Tim Deasy. A minute later, some shoddy defending from the away team gifted us the first goal! Jimmy slid Russell Bradley's pass towards Gareth Stamp, who knocked the ball past Wealdstone centre-back James Yeboah but couldn't get past him. That was until Yeboah slipped on the muddy pitch, allowing Gareth to race away and fire the loose ball into the net from an acute angle! That was a rare highlight in an otherwise turgid half-hour. Fraser McConville missed a golden chance to draw Wealdstone level on the 30-minute mark, firing his shot wide of the far post. His experienced team-mates Matt Harrold and Brian Woodall also failed to hit the target with efforts in the next five minutes. The Stones' first and only shot on target came in the 37th minute. Mxolosi Shitembi - an 18-year-old Namibian midfielder that I was interested in signing - curled a free-kick towards Moses Millen's bottom-left corner, but Moses caught it well.

After failing to remove our 1-0 lead in the first half, Wealdstone tried again after the break. A poor long ball from our debutant defender Larry Elliot almost cost us dear in the 49th minute. Fortunately for the 16-year-old, Harrold's subsequent through-ball was sliced wide by the misfiring McConville. I could hardly believe that we were still in front! I was even more surprised seven minutes later, as Wealdstone made another calamitous mistake and we snatched a second goal! Woodall hit a terrible header from Deasy's long kick, and Bradley surged past the 35-year-old to pinch the ball and dribble up the left flank. He then aimed a cross at the far post, where Josh Telling volleyed in his first ever Romford goal! It was 2-0 to the Boro, and by the 67th minute, we could have been 3-0 ahead! Left-winger Jimmy Scott floated a right-footed cross over Deasy's head and into the Wealdstone net... but not before Stamp inadvertently got the goal disallowed for an infringement on the keeper. It wasn't as if we needed a third goal, though. Wealdstone looked increasingly out of sorts, as they picked up three bookings between the 71st and 75th minutes. Then, with ten minutes left, Dayton's twisted knee became too much for him, and the Stones went down to ten men. Six minutes later, Connor Martin was denied one final Boro goal by a fine save from Deasy. We finished the evening with a two-goal win - and a two-man advantage, because the Stones had midfielder Fredrick Opiyo sent off for his second bookable offence in injury time!

We did our bit - but what happened at Stonebridge Road, where Ebbsfleet were playing Hampton & Richmond? Well, that game finished... in a 3-3 draw! As a result, we jumped above the Fleet to top the Conference South on goal difference!

Romford - 2 (Stamp 5, Telling 56)

Wealdstone - 0

Conference South, Attendance 495 - POSITIONS: Romford 1st, Wealdstone 17th

ROMFORD LINE-UP: Millen, Dunn, James (Elliot), Reid, Bradley, Telling, Morrison (Embleton), Martin, Scott (Spong), Pollard, Stamp. BOOKED: Scott.

Taking the lead in the promotion race continued what was a dream start to the New Year. We had played five home matches on the trot and won them all! Now it was time to pack our bags for our first away trip of 2020 - and boy, was it a big one!

[Burton Boy]

One of, if not the best most detailed story I've read on an FM forum.

Brilliant work mate.

Romford fan for life now!

[CFuller]

One of, if not the best most detailed story I've read on an FM forum.

Brilliant work mate.

Romford fan for life now!

Thanks. I really like to immerse myself in detail when writing this story.

[CFuller]

After five fantastic months in Romford, Connor Martin's loan spell came to an end, and he returned to Boreham Wood. In 33 games, Connor scored 10 goals and laid on six assists, so he would be a very difficult player to replace.

As Martin said his goodbyes, a new midfielder arrived at the Boro. Cillian Thompson joined us from Bromley, for whom he had played 12 league games this season. The 27-year-old Irishman is a ball-winning midfielder in a similar mould to Connor, but whether he can adequately replace him is something we'll learn over the next few months.

Thompson was cup-tied, so he stayed behind while his new team journeyed to Lincolnshire for the biggest game of our season so far. We, the leaders of the Conference South, were about to take on the Conference North's top team - Gainsborough Trinity - for a place in the Semi Finals of the FA Trophy.

Gainsborough are a club with plenty of history. Trinity graced the Football League between 1896 and 1912, and they were briefly coached by Neil Warnock during the early 1980s. Their manager for the past six years has been former England forward Emile Heskey, who has twice led them into the Conference North play-offs. The man responsible for bring Heskey to the Northolme was the club's famous chairman - a certain Graham Taylor.

25 January 2020: Gainsborough Trinity vs Romford

There was little to separate the teams early on at the Northolme. Gainsborough winger John Paul Kissock crashed a shot just over our bar in the 3rd minute. That was followed by a promising spell for us in the 5th minute, when Trinity had to clear a couple of crosses before Daniel Morrison missed the target from distance. Moments later, the hosts' quick winger Callum Morris was injured by Boro counterpart Serge Gnabry. Morris had to come off, and former Manchester City man Emyr Huws went on in his place. There would be little else to comment on until the 20th minute, when Darren O'Gorman missed for Gainsborough before Garry Morath-Gibbs went close to giving us the lead. A corner from Huws in the 28th minute found his Trinity team-mate Glodi Bange. The striker hit Kyle Thomas a couple of times from point-blank range before Gnabry heroically cleared the ball into touch! Serge had certainly saved our skins there! We gave the home team a scare in the 37th minute, when Fabio Saraiva's 25-yarder was pushed away by goalkeeper Declan Leahy. Four minutes later, another tackle from Gnabry left Gainsborough's centre-back and captain Lloyd Donaldson injured. We sensed a chance to exploit a wounded Trinity backline... but in the last minute of normal time, Dean O'Halloran shot us in the foot. O'Halloran was already on a booking when he lunged in on Kissock, prompting the ref to pull out his red card! We had gone a man down against the Holy Blues, and at half-time, I turned the dressing-room air a very unholy blue! I was furious that Dean's stupidity could have possibly cost us a chance to reach the FA Trophy Semi Finals.

With their extra man, Gainsborough were all set to take the game to us. Simon Platt's 55th-minute strike from distance did not threaten us, but Bange's effort two minutes later did, with Thomas needing to catch it. Kyle pulled off another fine save on the hour-mark, using his fingers to tip over O'Gorman's best effort of an otherwise wasteful performance. Gainsborough then stopped shooting on sight, opting for a more patient approach to try and break us down. That strategy would prove sadly effective in the 65th minute. Full-back Liam Darville spotted that Kissock was about to make a run, and he played the ball through to the Liverpudlian, who slipped it past Thomas. Our offside claims fell on deaf ears, so we had to do something we hadn't done in our last three FA Trophy matches - score a second-half goal. 16-year-old Danny Rafferty couldn't have chosen a better time to score his first senior goal than in the 68th minute... but the left-back could have kept his shot down rather than blast it over. We would not have many more chances to get back in the competition. O'Gorman and Kissock both spurned late opportunities to rubber-stamp victory for Trinity in the last five minutes. Kenny Pollard put one more shot wide for Boro in the 89th minute, after which I resigned myself to defeat. Our best ever FA Trophy run had come to an end at Round 4, and our four-match winning start to 2020 was also over.

Gainsborough Trinity - 1 (Kissock 65)

Romford - 0

FA Trophy Round 4, Attendance 489

ROMFORD LINE-UP: Thomas, Healey (James), Gray, Connolly, Rafferty, O'Halloran (Scott), Saraiva (Pollard), Morrison, Gnabry, Greenwood, Morath-Gibbs (Scott). BOOKED: O'Halloran, Scott. SENT OFF: O'Halloran.

It would be easy to blame Dean O'Halloran for our FA Trophy exit, and I'll admit that I felt like taking my anger out on him before we returned home. After careful consideration, I felt that a verbal warning - and a one-match ban from the authorities - would be punishment enough for Dean.

There was more disappointing news to come as we made the long, quiet journey from Lincolnshire back to Essex. Ebbsfleet United drew 2-2 at Aveley, and that result saw them knock us off the top of the Conference South. Ebbsfleet now led by one point, but if it wasn't for an injury-time leveller from Aveley, they would've gone three clear!

Our chance to regain the lead came four days later at Kingsmeadow, where we faced an in-form Kingstonian team who were looking to move closer to play-off contention.

29 January 2020: Kingstonian vs Romford

In our last meeting, we beat Kingstonian easily by stretching the game and playing through their backline. We adopted the same strategy here... but this time, Kingstonian blew us away before we could set our plans in motion. Wes Fletcher half-volleyed wide in the sixth minute, and his strike partner Caolan Lavery drew first blood for the hosts two minutes later. Derek Abel did the damage by surging down the right flank before his byline cross was turned in by the Canadian. Our immediate response to going behind was promising, with Fabio Saraiva's 10th-minute free-kick forcing Paul Parkinson into his first save. But four minutes later, Fletcher headed Mike Cestor's corner into the net, giving the K's a 2-0 lead. Our gameplan went right out of the window - we now had to attack by whatever means. In the 18th minute, shortly after Solomon Taiwo came close to sending us three goals down, Josh Telling reduced our deficit to one with a thunderous 20-yard shot. However, any thoughts of us equalising would have to be put aside in the 25th minute, when Kingstonian scored another headed goal via a corner. That time, Elliott Hodge's delivery was nodded in by the outstanding Abel. A terrible half-hour from our standpoint culminated in Kingstonian's fourth goal - and Abel once again played a part in it. Boro centre-half Kieron Gray could only head Cestor's free-kick towards the winger, who hit a cracking shot from about 25 yards. Kyle Thomas parried it, but Zac Costello was on hand to finish the job! Kingstonian led 4-1, and they could've added even more insult before half-time! Thomas saved from Lavery in the 33rd minute and Fletcher in the 45th to spare us further embarrassment.

Abel had given us a first-half caning, but he wouldn't be quite so destructive in the second period. On 48 minutes, he brilliantly cut inside and dribbled across the penalty area before missing the target with his weaker left foot. Five minutes later, he picked up a knock. With the Kingstonian onslaught subsiding, we set about repairing the damage in the final half-hour. A couple of corners failed to produce anything of note, but we did create something in the 68th minute. Telling, who scored our first goal, set up our second with a cross that fortuitously deflected in off Vasilis Koutinis' heel. Anyone hoping for a Boro resurgence would be disappointed, because that was to be our last shot on target, and Kingstonian finished the match as they started it - on the front foot. Lavery had two more opportunities to put their fifth goal on the board. He missed the target on 71 minutes, but a better effort eight minutes later was well held by Thomas. It had been a very difficult game for Kyle, who finished with as many saves as goals conceded. Another Romford player who had a tough time was midfielder Cillian Thompson, who was substituted early in the second half of his debut.

Kingstonian - 4 (Lavery 8, Fletcher 14, Abel 25, Costello 30)

Romford - 2 (Telling 18, Koutinis 68)

Conference South, Attendance 499 - POSITIONS: Kingstonian 7th, Romford 2nd

ROMFORD LINE-UP: Thomas, Dunn, Gray, Connolly, Bradley (Reid), Telling, Saraiva, Thompson (Morrison), Gnabry, Greenwood (Morath-Gibbs), Koutinis.

We were obviously still hurting from what happened at Gainsborough.

Those last two results put a downer on an otherwise excellent month, which ended on a high for me personally. That earlier run of four straight wins was enough to earn me the Conference South's Manager of the Month award - the third time I had won that particular accolade. I hope it won't be the only piece of silverware we have to show for this season.

[CFuller]

                                   P     W     D     L     F     A     GD    PTS
1.          Ebbsfleet              30    17    5     8     47    30    +17   56
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[color="#0000FF"]2.          Romford                29    17    4     8     57    37    +20   55[/color]
3.          AFC Wimbledon          28    15    5     8     60    33    +27   50
4.          Canvey Island          29    14    8     7     51    35    +16   50
5.          Weston-super-Mare      29    15    4     10    55    43    +12   49
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6.          Bromley                29    15    4     10    51    42    +9    49
7.          Kingstonian            29    13    9     7     55    37    +18   48
8.          Grays                  29    12    9     8     64    45    +19   45
9.          Eastbourne Boro        29    12    9     8     36    31    +5    45
10.         Enfield Town           30    12    7     11    45    37    +8    43
11.         Dorchester             29    10    12    7     42    45    -3    42
12.         Hampton & Richmond     28    11    7     10    44    45    -1    40
13.         Havant                 29    10    8     11    43    44    -1    38
14.         Hayes & Yeading        29    14    3     12    38    32    +6    35 *
15.         Wealdstone             30    9     7     14    33    40    -7    34
16.         Hythe                  29    10    4     15    38    56    -18   34
17.         Slough                 29    8     8     13    42    58    -16   32
18.         Welling                29    7     10    12    33    45    -12   31
19.         Woking                 28    6     9     13    35    52    -17   27
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
20.         Tiverton               29    6     6     17    32    60    -28   24
21.         Aveley                 29    4     7     18    23    52    -29   19
22.         Barnet                 29    6     7     16    28    53    -25   15 *

* Barnet and Hayes & Yeading deducted 10 points for entering administration

[CFuller]

As well as my Manager of the Month award, January ended on another bright note for Romford. Leaders Ebbsfleet United lost 1-0 at Wealdstone on the last day of the month, and that gave us another opportunity to regain top spot at the start of February.

To get back on top, we only needed to avoid defeat at Dorchester Town, who in seven previous attempts had never beaten us in the Conference South. That said, the Magpies have always been a tough team to beat. They proved that at Ship Lane in September, when they came from 3-1 behind to draw 3-3.

1 February 2020: Dorchester Town vs Romford

Dorchester breached our defence after just three minutes, when Calum Elliot's through-ball presented Tony Garrod with the opportunity to put them in front. Garrod fired a shot from a tight angle, and Kyle Thomas blocked it with his feet. After that early scare, we threatened to silence the home crowd with a couple of free-kicks from just outside Dorchester's area. Garry Morath-Gibbs came within inches of scoring after 13 minutes, and three minutes later, Dean O'Halloran's set-piece found its way in off the crossbar! We were off the mark, and a second Boro goal looked likely when we won another free-kick in the 23rd minute. O'Halloran's delivery into the box was headed wide by Morath-Gibbs, who showed little sign of ending his latest barren run. That was followed by a purple patch from the Magpies, who equalised five minutes later. A poor pass from Serge Gnabry was diverted by Town full-back Zac Smith to his fellow defender Ricky Fletcher. The former Romford loanee hit a perfect ball forward to Elliot, whose deft finish caught Kyle off guard. The next 15 minutes were rather cagey, and the 1-1 scoreline remained so at the break.

Serge was eager to make up for his earlier mistake, and he almost did that in the 53rd minute. Gnabry's outswinging cross from the byline forced Dorchester keeper Leigh Bedwell into a desperate parry. Five minutes later, Boro right-back Robbie Healey's floating cross found Duncan Greenwood, whose header went just over. The rest of the match was largely about the Magpies' attempts to edge in front. On 65 minutes, Garrod played a great ball to Miles John, whose shot was pushed back to him by Thomas. John then tried to find Garrod in the middle of the area, but Kieron Gray made a superb interception, also forcing a foul from the striker. Two minutes later, John swung a corner to Elliot, who headed against the crossbar. Garrod, Elliot and defender Gavin Watson all missed further chances for Dorchester, who couldn't quite claim all three points. Then, right at the end of injury time, Ben Wyatt's clumsy foul on Boro winger Josh Telling offered us one final shot at glory - 25 yards from goal. Duncan swung the free-kick at goal... but he put it clean over the bar, and the referee blew for full-time seconds later. A 1-1 draw put us back in first place, but it couldn't disguise what I felt was a disappointing performance.

Dorchester Town - 1 (Elliot 28)

Romford - 1 (O'Halloran 16)

Conference South, Attendance 484 - POSITIONS: Dorchester 11th, Romford 1st

ROMFORD LINE-UP: Thomas, Healey, Gray, Connolly, Rafferty, Morrison, Thompson (Reid), Telling, Gnabry, O'Halloran (Saraiva), Morath-Gibbs (Greenwood).

After failing to win in three successive away games, we looked to hit top form again upon our return to Ship Lane the following week. If we defeated 15th-placed Slough Town, it would be our sixth consecutive victory at home.

8 February 2020: Romford vs Slough Town

Right-back Trevor Dunn looked very lively for us early on. In just the second minute, he went forward to hit a shot from inside the penalty area, and he only missed by a narrow margin. Trevor's strike certainly went closer to finding the net than Duncan Greenwood's disappointing header in the 7th minute. Slough had their first chance in the 11th minute, but midfielder Victor Flenley couldn't keep it on target. Visiting defender Curtis Forrester picked up a knock three minutes later, and over the next ten minutes, we had no fewer than five shots against the wounded Rebels backline. Three of them missed the target completely, while Nick Pope saved the other two from Serge Gnabry in the 19th minute and Vasilis Koutinis in the 22nd. Our shooting didn't get any better in the first half, as Duncan kept wasting chances that he would've converted on another day. Fabio Saraiva had the best of our late efforts, with Pope having to tip our playmaker's strike over the bar after 41 minutes. The half ended with a major blow for Slough, whose midfielder Jerry Davey suffered a season-ending calf injury. Incredibly, the match was still goalless at the break, even though we had pummelled the visitors with shots galore!

The first half's theme continued into the second. Fabio narrowly missed with a free-kick in the opening minute, and Koutinis went closer still in the 50th minute, hitting the crossbar! We'd done almost everything we could to try and break the deadlock. When we finally managed it after 55 minutes, it was thanks to yet another stunner from Dean O'Halloran! Duncan cushioned a header to Dean at the right-hand touchline, where the Irishman curled the ball perfectly into the far corner! The floodgates threatened to open after that breakthrough, and Pope had to stand firm in the 67th minute to stop Daniel Morrison's piledriver from making it 2-0. Two minutes later, a Slough team who had spent almost the entire match withstanding Romford attacks launched one of their own. Doug Mazzone evaded O'Halloran's tackle and floated a left-wing cross into the area. Disaster then struck, as Romford goalkeeper Moses Millen spilled the cross, and Kieron Gray's rushed clearance diverted the ball to striker Andy Clarke, who equalised for Slough! Despair took hold of us, and we went 2-1 behind after 79 minutes. The Rebels' second goal came from none other than Kieron Carroll, whose calm finish gave him his first goal against his former club. Our old friend could've had another in the 86th minute, but Millen regained enough composure to tip his diving header behind. Three minutes later, Gareth Stamp presented Greenwood with an open goal as we looked to our captain to salvage a late point. As was the case with his previous seven shots in this game, Duncan let us down and failed to score. I hurled my clipboard to the floor in disgust as a shock defeat became unavoidable. We were so dominant in this game that Greenwood on his own had more shots than the entire Slough team - but it was Kevin Phillips and his men who came away with the victory! Unbelievable, Jeff.

Romford - 1 (O'Halloran 55)

Slough Town - 2 (Clarke 69, Carroll 79)

Conference South, Attendance 533 - POSITIONS: Romford 2nd, Slough 15th

ROMFORD LINE-UP: Millen, Dunn, Gray, James (Connolly), Bradley, O'Halloran, Saraiva, Morrison (Thompson), Gnabry, Greenwood, Koutinis (Stamp). BOOKED: James, Connolly, Bradley.

To compound our misery, Ebbsfleet United claimed a 2-1 win at Kingstonian. They therefore replaced us at the summit once again, and moved three points clear. It's frustrating when that happens to you, isn't it?

[JaydenBeales]

Just started reading this, its a great story would love to do something similar with my local team Brentwood town who have just recently been promoted,

keep up the good work!

[CFuller]

Just started reading this, its a great story would love to do something similar with my local team Brentwood town who have just recently been promoted,

keep up the good work!

Hello, Jayden, and welcome to the forum.

Nice to hear that you enjoy the story and hope to do something similar with your local side (if you need any advice, just ask). I did notice that Brentwood had been promoted to the Isthmian Premier, so I'll be looking forward to seeing how they fare next season.

[tenthreeleader]

Very frustrating when that happens to you. My sympathies.

[CFuller]

Very frustrating when that happens to you. My sympathies.

If you're referring to the Slough game, that was one of my most frustrating experiences with this save. I can, though, count myself fortunate that, when it comes to matches where one team dominates and loses, I've been on the winning end more often than the receiving end.