Second Round Qualifying

POTTERS BAR TOWN F.C.

1

ROMFORD F.C.

2

17th Sep 22

Parkfield

Round Trip: 68 miles

Ticket: £12.00

Food Rating: 7.5

Att: 204

Guess the crowd: N/A

And so the journey continues, a lovely bright sunny day and a trip down to Potters Bar, a relatively short journey, only 34 miles each way, almost on our doorstep.

Potters Bar (The Bar as they are affectionately known by their fans, The Scholars are their proper nickname) have a compact ground, The Lantern Stadium, surrounded on two sides by housing. They play in the Isthmian Premier League, two league structures above Romford, so we feared the writing was on the wall.

There was certainly a buzz when we arrived at the ground, with plenty of fans milling around outside the main bar area. There was also the smell of fried onions to accompany our pre-match pints (£14.20 for 3) coming from the burger counter nearby.

We found our initial viewing point, pints in hand, as the match kicked off and certainly Potters Bar had the best of things in the opening exchanges with a close header after the first corner in the 15th minute and even closer after a free kick on the edge of the box a minute later brought a scrambling save from Romford’s keeper Jake Anderson.

Romford were under pressure, and the Bar Army were in full song after Jacques Kpohomouh bundled in a whipped corner in the 20th min for 1-0.

This was accompanied by one of the best put downs we’d ever heard from a fan to a complaining Romford official “Watch your language, you prick, just cos you’re playing s*&t!”

After that, Romford seemed to begin to find their feet and were level after 36 minutes when Charlie Morris scored from a well-worked corner routine and they stayed just on top for the rest of the half.

The half-time burgers, freshly cooked, earned an 8/10 from Phil and Ron and the coffee got a 7 from me.

We were eagerly awaiting the second half, thinking there were more goals to come for sure, hoping not to have to travel all the way to Barking (where Romford play) for a replay on Tuesday.

The action resumed and after a very lively start, Bars No 8 Tyler Christian Laws was given a straight red after a skirmish with Calvin Dickson in the 48th minute, Dickson received a yellow – this certainly helped to level things up.

The arrival of Quentin Monville (a name you couldn’t forget) for the Scholars in the 55th minute brought some reminiscence for Ron and I as he had played previously for Bowers & Pitsea back in 2019 when we had tried the FA Cup run previously (aborted by Covid 19) and had followed them after they had put out our beloved Canvey Island.

Another incident of note was to follow when the Potters Bar assistant manager was also sent off in the 62nd minute for “strongly verbally remonstrating with the ref”, shall we say.

Romford certainly now had the wind in their sails and Emmanuel Robe was causing all sorts of problems for Potters Bar with his pace on the left wing. Eventually, he scored a cracking solo winner in the 77th minute and the home fans were silenced at last.

So the writing was indeed on the wall “THERE’S ONLY ONE F IN ROMFORD”. Onward and upward.

The Next Match

SUN 19TH MAR 23

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