Date	Saturday 22 January 2011
Match	Hemel Hempstead Town Reserves v Royston Town Reserves
Competition	Herts Intermediate Cup Quarter-Final
Result	Won 1-0
Royston Scorers	Klein

Town's Reserves progressed into the Semi Final on Saturday with a well deserved and hard fought win over the tournament favourites, Hemel Hempstead Town.

Both sides started brightly with both defences and keepers needing to be alert from the very start as the opening exchanges were often and swift.

As expected, Hemel began to dominate and only the intervention of Royston's DANNY APOSTOLOS who cleared the ball of his side's goal line not once but twice, kept Royston in the game.

Royston put the Hemel defence under pressure as the game wore on with both RHYS HOENESS and HARRY ALLCOCK forcing saves from the home keeper.

The opening goal when it came was a spectacular drive from the left foot of the talented PAUL KLEIN,who received a pin point pass from LANRE ADIBIYI before taking the ball past 3 defenders and rifling a ferocious drive into the roof of the Hemel net.

Royston's small but dedicated band of travelling fans were ecstatic as the team went in at the interval a goal to the good.

The home side changed their formation to try and salvage the game,for the 2nd half, and this change seemed to be working as Hemel dominated the crucial midfield area. As Hemel pushed to level the scores gaps began to appear in their defence and Royston were a coat of paint away from extending the lead when skipper JOHN BITTING's shot grazed the post before going behind for a goal kick.

In the latter stages of the game, Royston defended like men possessed with RYAN CANNON and STUART JACKSON leading by example and keeper JORDEN GIBSON bringing a calm to his side.

Indeed after the game Gibson praised his side's effort when he said "The fellas were magnificent today, the gaffer had asked us to raise our game and I think we all managed to do that rather well".

Royston now face London Lions in the semi final on Feb 26th at Garden Walk.