Frome visited another new ground, and suffered another disappointing defeat in the Southern League in West London.
On a cold but sunny day, Frome started quite brightly and for the first 10 minutes they looked comfortable and confident, without creating any real chances.
After this initial spell though the hosts began to assert themselves and a couple of quick breaks forced good saves from James Carey in the Frome goal and a crucial block by Connor Roberts.
Billy Fletcher went off after 25 minutes with an injury, replaced by Marcus Mapstone and the defence held firm until the 39th minute when a free kick was drifted into the Frome area, for Blackmore to score easily with a header from the 6 yard line. Ollie Knowles had Frome’s first and only shot of the half just before half time, but the home keeper made a good save, diving to his left.
Frome were much better in the second half and looked much more dangerous, although there was a bizarre incident early on when a Met Police forward was at least 5 yards offside and the linesman failed to flag. He delivered a perfect low cross to the far post that was missed on the goal line. Young keeper Carey made 2 more great saves and kept the score line down. New signing Tristan Plummer made his debut replacing Kris Miller and Frome started to create more.
Johnny Gorman hit a super curling shot that rebounded off the crossbar before Frome equalised in the 73rd minute when a long clearance from Carey was turned into his own net by a Met Police defender.
All the good work was undone just 2 minutes later when an under hit back pass from Roberts allowed Blackmore to steal the ball and convert to reinstate their lead. More good work set up Gorman again in the final minute, but his fierce strike was parried by the home ‘keeper and the rebound was hit over the bar.
The result leaves Frome sitting in 18th and in need of a run of results to get away from the danger zone.
The Robins’ man of the match was Connor Roberts.
