Match Preview

If you're going to see The Bridge away at Romford don’t go to Romford because they are not there!

Instead, make your way to Rookery Hill, where we drew 1-1 with East Thurrock United last season, to support the lads as they try to turn their fortunes around.

It’s just a short hop but it’s better by car and is 28 minutes for 12 and a bit miles to get you to SS17 9LB which is either Stanford-le-Hope or Corringham but definitely not Romford.
Here’s a map and some directions to help you on your way.

Romford Football Club is an English football club based in Romford, London. The club are currently members of the Essex Senior League and play at Rookery Hill in Corringham.

History
The original Romford was established in 1876. They reached the quarter-finals of the FA Cup in 1880–81, but lost 15–0 at Darwen, hampered by playing a dribbling game on a slushy pitch; Darwen also had four goals disallowed.

There was no league football for them to play until they joined the South Essex League in 1896. An internal dispute saw several committee and players leave to form a new club in 1909, called Romford United, and competing directly against Romford in the South Essex League at a ground literally across the road. The original club continued under new management and joined the Southern League while still playing in the South Essex League, but played only a single season before leaving.

The new regime at the original club proved disastrous, being expelled from the South Essex League during the 1910–11 season and subsequently folding, leaving Romford United as the only club with the town's name. They changed to Romford Town and joined the Athenian League, but finished bottom in their first season and left at the end of their second, before closing down during World War I. Romford Town had remained members of the South Essex League and returned to action after the war, but lack of support saw them withdraw in December 1920 and fold. For the rest of the 1920s the only club under the Romford name was Romford Town Thursday, playing on Thursday afternoons at Brooklands, a ground previously used by Romford's reserve team.

In 1929 the club was re-established. Taking over the use of the Brooklands stadium, they joined the London League. In 1931 they moved to the Athenian League, which they won in 1935–36 and 1936–37. Following World War II the club transferred to the Isthmian League. In 1948–49 they reached the final of the FA Amateur Cup but lost 1–0 to Bromley in front of 100,000 spectators in the first final to be held at Wembley Stadium. In 1959 they switched to Division One of the Southern League. They were promoted to the Premier Division in their first season after finishing second and won the Premier Division in 1966–67. The club made several applications to join the Football League but were never successful in the elections. In 1974–75 they finished second bottom of the Premier Division and were relegated to Division One. By this time the club had developed Brooklands considerably in anticipation of eventually being elected to the Football League and had large debts to show for it, and had to sell Brooklands in 1975 but remained until 1977. After a season of borrowing grounds to play home matches, they resigned from the Southern League and folded in 1978, with the building work on a new ground barely started and hardly any money left.

In 1992 the club was resurrected for a second time and joined the Essex Senior League. They won the league in 1995–96, and in the summer merged with Collier Row (with whom they had been ground-sharing since April) to form Collier Row & Romford. The new club took Collier Row's place in Division Two of the Isthmian League, which they won in their first season. In the summer of 1997, they were renamed Romford.

In 2000–01 they finished second bottom of Division One and were relegated to Division Two. After finishing bottom the following season, they resigned to go back to the Essex Senior League. They returned to the Isthmian League after winning the Senior League in 2008–09 and remained in Division One North for over a decade. Despite a difficult year in 2017–18, they were able to survive despite being five points adrift with just two games remaining. The following season they found themselves in a possibly even worse situation as they were nine points short of safety with five games remaining, but staged a late recovery only to fall short on goal difference behind Witham Town. However, the knock-on effect of the mid-season demise of North Ferriby United meant Romford were reprieved from relegation to fill the vacancy.

In November 2019, the club appointed former Billericay Town owner Glenn Tamplin, as manager and investor who immediately signed multiple players on his first day. Under Tamplin Romford had a difficult time, largely because of the unavailability of the waterlogged Brentwood pitch which they were unable to use after Tamplin's first match, and a huge turnover of players but eventually recovered enough ground to move off the bottom of the table in March just as the season was brought to a premature end by the coronavirus pandemic. The following season Romford moved on again to Barking but with a resurgence of coronavirus cases the season was suspended in November with Boro in mid-table then eventually curtailed in February. Shortly after, Tamplin announced he was leaving the club, but his assistants Christos Mead and Derek Duncan would remain in charge of the team.

At the start of the 2021–22 season, the club announced joint managers Derek Duncan and Mark Holloway would take charge of team affairs, however, they left the club in December 2021 after a disastrous run of results. Former boss Paul Martin took temporary charge, but results did not improve, and he left the club in March 2022 with Jon Fowell taking over until the end of the season. This saw the club have 4 managers during this season, signing over 100 players, using more than 70 players in all competitions, and conceding a disastrous 154 goals in total in all competitive matches. Relegation to the Essex Senior League was confirmed on 26 March 2022, which was seen by many as inevitable.
Former Great Wakering Rovers boss Steve Butterworth was installed as manager in May 2022. Romford’s current manager is Dan Spinks.

Ground
The club has led a nomadic existence, playing at seventeen home grounds during its history although most of these have been emergency arrangements when their established home ground was unavailable for various reasons. When the club reformed in 1992 it began playing at the Hornchurch Stadium, before moving to Ford United's Rush Green ground in 1995. In April 1996 they moved to Collier Row's Sungate ground, and the clubs merged during the summer. The spell at Sungate was fraught with problems and there were frequent and protracted periods when Romford had to borrow other grounds to play home matches owing to problems with the facilities at Sungate. In December 2001 they left Sungate for good and played at several different stadiums in order to complete the season. They returned to Rush Green in 2002 (as Ford United had left to groundshare with Barkingside). They remained there until 2008 when they moved to Aveley's Mill Field ground.

In 2009 it was announced that the club had been given permission to build a new stadium on the Westlands Playing Fields on London Road, however building work has yet to commence as planning permission has had to be re-applied for as the original permission expired while awaiting government approval for the change of use.
Romford began sharing with Thurrock at Ship Lane in 2012 but were required to move to East Thurrock United's Rookery Hill in 2018 when Thurrock folded and the ground was closed. This arrangement was only in place for one year however, and it was arranged for Romford to move rather closer to home for the 2019–20 season and share with Brentwood Town. In 2020 Romford announced a ground share that would involve them playing their home games at Mayesbrook Park, home of Barking.

On 29 October 2023, Romford announced the club would be moving back to Rookery Hill the following month after East Thurrock folded at the beginning of October 2023.

Honours
Southern League
Premier Division champions 1966–67

Isthmian League
Division Two champions 1996–97

Athenian League
Champions 1935–36, 1936–37

Essex Senior League
Champions 1995–96, 2008–09
League Cup winners 1995–96
Gordon Brasted Memorial Trophy winners 2003–04

Eastern Floodlight League
Champions 1967–68

Essex Senior Cup
Winners 1911–12, 1931–32, 1933–34, 1937–38, 1946–47

Essex Professional Cup
Winners 1968–69

East Anglian Cup
Winners 1934–35, 1936–37, 1951–52, 1954–55, 1955–56, 1997–98

18/11/23 Essex Senior League Saffron Walden Town 0 Romford 1
15/11/23 Essex Senior League Romford 1 Athletic Newham 2
11/11/23 FA Vase Romford 2 Crawley Green 0
08/11/23 Essex Senior League Romford 2 Woodford Town 1
04/11/23 Essex Senior League Romford 2 Ilford 1
28/10/23 Essex Senior League Coggeshall Town 2 Romford 7

Romford are currently in 2nd place in the Essex Senior League Premier. They have 37 points from 20 games and are 2 points behind league leaders Tilbury who have two games in hand. Season record is: 11 wins, 4 draws, and 5 defeats. They have a +14 goal difference.

Home form is 6 wins, 2 draws, and 2 defeats, scoring 26 and conceding 16.
They are 5th in recent form, their last six matches are 4 wins and 2 defeats, scoring 16 and conceding 10.

The latest encounter was at Lower Road on the 12th of August 2023 and Romford left the T.J.Cottis Stadium with all three points after a 2-0 victory. Goals came from Jayden Silcott-Brown and Bruno Gomes and 104 were in attendance.

Jake Anderson
Wayne Baker
Tadiwa Chihonde
George Cox
Sam Deering
Jack Dixson
Scott Doe
Finlay Dorrell
Toheeb Elegushi
Lewis Gardener
Harrison Georgiou
Bruno Gomes
Flynn Hamilton
Henry Hart
Ryan Hervel
Jamie Hursit
Lee Hursit
Daniel Kone
Junior Luke
Seedorf Mendes
Charlie Morris
Daniel Nakipov-Getmansky
Hassan Nalbant
Kristopher Newby
Praise Ogbebor
Darren Phillips
Amaree Robinson-Jones
Jordan Sarfo
Sonny Shilling
Ashaan Siddik
Lewis Spence
Ted Tantoh
Stephen Toussaint
Michael Turner
Jacob Wiggins

The top goal scorers are Hassan Nalbent with 12 and Finlay Dorrell with 7. There are some ex-Bridge players in the squad including Amaree Robinson-Jones and Lee Hursit. Also, probably worth watching out for are Jayden Silcott-Brown and Bruno Gomes who scored against us in the last encounter.

This a tough task and The Bridge are in a bit of a poor run, so an away victory would be very welcome. Romford have only lost two games at home this season in the league, to Takeley in October and Athletic Newham in their last home match, so as previously mentioned, a tough task.

However, when you’re in a bad run you have to start somewhere if you want to get out of it, so how about Romford, or Stanford-le-Hope or Corringham, or more to the point Rookery Hill? It's all the same to me and a win is overdue, so everything crossed and we’ll see what happens
There remains just one thing left to say….