Romford 4-0 Waltham Forest

Forest’s poor start to the season continued with a 4-0 defeat to Romford.

The opening half was played at a frantic pace, and Romford should have had a penalty within the first five minutes of the match. Former Stag Ryan Imbert was chopped down in the box when through on goal, but the referee waved play on.

At the other end, Nathan Makuna – making his debut after being promoted from the Under 21s – blazed over when through on goal.

Forest looked to have put Saturday’s performance behind them with some good attacking play – Oletujni Oyewale was looking especially dangerous on the left wing.

But before long it was the home side who took the lead. Abs Seymour was given too much time outside the box, enabling him to fire a powerful effort into the roof of the net.

Not long later and it was 2-0. Luke Stanley proved a thorn in Forest’s side all match, and a perfect pass from the winger found Kurt Smith who doubled the advantage with a neat finish.

Ryan Imbert thought he had made it 3-0, but his header was ruled out for offside.

Just before half time it was 3-0 though. A deep free-kick was sent to the backpost where Paul Clayton was waiting to head home relatively unchallenged.

Early in the second half, Forest were again guilty of over-passing and losing the ball on the edge of the Romford area. The home side broke and Ryan Imbert scored a one-on-one effort against his former club.

Oyewale had the best chance of the match for Forest, but he fired wide with the goal at his mercy after a defensive mix-up.

While Forest did look a bit more promising going forward, they still have much work to do at the back if they to recover from this start to the season.