The Mead rallied magnificently and after goals from Ben Glasgow – his first for the club with possibly his first touch of the game after coming on – and Paul Vines – both set up by great through balls from Lee Prescott – before (again from Prescott) Butler was on hand to seal a victory that for long periods seemed a long, long way away!
In a game dominated by a biting cold wind, the home side took one of their few first half chances when Coe rammed the ball home from the angle after Andy Walker had made a fine save to deny Reynolds’ low drive four minutes from the break. From the resulting corner, the Mead defence couldn’t clear and Coe was able to net on his Romford debut.
On the stroke of half time, the home side were reduced to ten men when home keeper Gooch sped from his goal line to deny Tyrus Gordon-Young only for his momentum to carry him beyond the edge of the box, leaving referee Finnagan with no choice but to show the keeper the red card. With no keeper on the bench, centre forward Reynolds took the gloves over.
And Reynolds would have surely been delighted himself with the way that Woodward drove home the home side’s second on the hour as he raced onto a great ball down the inside left channel before giving Walker no chance in the Mead goal.
The goal promoted an immediate change from the Mead both in personal – with Ben replacing Michael Aziaya – and a formation change which saw Glasgow take a wide right position in a midfield four.
And the changed worked within five minutes as the Mead got back into the game as Glasgow raced onto a defence splitting through ball from Lee to give the stand in keeper no chance from the edge of the box.
The Mead’s fightback then stalled as Tyrus was laid out by Reynolds when challenging for a Jay Porter cross. Indeed the clash left both players on the floor needing treatment – treatment that in Tyrus’ case was almost five minutes in length as the club’s top scorer was motionless the whole time in the six yard box.
In the end he was carried off on a stretcher and still wasn’t moving. Fortunately the Mead number nine came to in the dressing room a short while later.
Meanwhile on the pitch, Coe came agonisingly close to sealing the game for the home side as he shot across the face of goal as he exploited the room in behind the Mead’s back line as they pushed forward in search of an equaliser – an equaliser that finally arrived two minutes from time. Another great Lee run found its’ way through to Vinesy, and the striker duly beat Reynolds with some aplomb!