Two goals from Alfie May stretched Chatham Town’s unbeaten recent run and kept the momentum going that their historic Cup run has created.

But, Kevin Watson’s side certainly earned this point against Romford in what Watson himself described as a very poor performance. May put the Chats ahead after 11 minutes as he reacted quickest to Austin Gacheru’s flick to lift the ball over Romford keeper Atu Ngoy before the home side levelled through Tom Richardson’s shot before disaster struck for the men from Maidstone Road.

Defensive lynch pin Corey Holder collapsed in a heap after clearing a cross just before half time and spent the entire second half being treated in the Chats dressing room before being wheeled away to a waiting ambulance after the game with suspected broken ribs…

After the break, striker Andy Constable netted with a brilliant volley only for the “goal” to be ruled out for offside and that was followed with a header that was also disallowed supposedly for offside, which was a decision that left his manager speechless. “The officials were poor tonight!” was all Watson would say when asked about the decision after the game.

Watson’s mood didn’t improve as moments after the head, the Chats fell behind as Abs Seymour was allowed too much time in the visitors box before scoring. Fortunately the point was salvaged by Alfie May’s second of the evening when he raced onto a through ball before rounding the keeper to level the scores with a little over ten minutes left.

Watson’s side were forced to play the final seven minutes with ten men after young sub Taylor McDonagh was shown two yellow cards in a mad 90 seconds – the second of which can best be described as “soft”, but as the manager said afterwards, the Chats performance must improve in their next two games – against AFC Hayes in the Trophy and then the big FA Cup clash with St Albans City!

“We wont think about St Albans until after Saturday, but we’ll have to play a lot better than we did tonight if we want a Trophy run”

INJURY UPDATE
It was confirmed during Thursday that Corey Holder’s injury was sadly worse than first thought as Corey was diagnosed with a ruptured spleen, and surgeons have had to operate to remove it.  Our thoughts and best wishes are with Corey as we wish him a speedy recovery and return to Chatham Town colours…

ROMFORD – Ngoy, Ottley, Oates, Woodward, Ishmail, Clayton, Seymour, Dicks, Imbert (Norris 77), Richardson, Hart

Subs not used – Sammut, Long, Francis, Omand

CHATHAM – Bradshaw, Potter, Benbow, Solly, Crush, Holder (McDonagh 44), Alfie May, Luke May, Gasheru (McCann 66), Constable, Bennett (Hales 71)

Subs not used – Hickey and Morth-Gibbs

Referee – Mark Potkins
Assistants – Paul Quick and Andrea Timpani