| Date | Tuesday 19 October 2010 |
| Match | Hullbridge Sports v Royston Town |
| Competition | East Anglian Cup (R1) |
| Result | Won 1-0 |
| Royston Scorers | Dance |
| Man of Match | David Cain |
| Attendance | 28 |
At the sixth attempt of asking The Crows won their first cup game of the season to progress in the East Anglian Cup competition.
With another cup game on Thursday evening manager Paul Attfield split up the winning team from Saturday's league game at Harefield United and it was a worthwhile exercise with recent new signings Bobby Dance, Glen Lamacraft, Xaniel Doku and Dave Hone all getting ninety minutes in a decent contest.
Royston's best period of control came in the opening 20 minutes as they took the game to Hullbridge, exerting some good pressure with some fast interchanges of passing around the pitch.
Ross Collins had an early 25 yard shot just clear the crossbar and a fine team move saw Tom Malins beat the offside trap but as he rounded the keeper the ball bobbled up and the opportunity was blazed high of goal.
Collins then had another chance from a superb Ricky Young cross but couldn't get enough on his header and the ball went just wide.
Deservedly Royston took the lead in the 13th minute when Malins' corner was met by Bobby Dance's header at the near post with the ball arrowing into the far top corner.
This woke the home side up and the game became a more physical battle with both teams committing hard challenges around the pitch. The game became more scrappy but the hosts did create one excellent chance when a run and cross from the winger was headed against the crossbar by the centre forward.
The second half was again quite scrappy with Royston looking more likely to score in open play and Hullbridge more of a threat from set plays. Two such set play corner routines were met by headers that really should have tested Royston's goal but both went over.
The Crows best chances all fell to Ricky Young on the counter attack but all of his fine strikes were met by equally fine saves by the agile goalkeeping of the home stopper.
The only rare defensive mistake Royston made resulted in a goalmouth scramble with the resulting shot hitting David Cain on the line and ricocheting off him for a corner.
Other than this Royston defended well in open play and rarely looked like being breached. In attack they had the chances to score the important second goal but overall it was second clean sheet in the week from Paul Attfield's side.
In the second round Royston will travel to either Ryman League side Brentwood Town or Beds County League side Southill Alexander who have yet to play their fixture
Team: Howard Endacott (Apostolos) Whitaker Hone Cain Collins (Welch) Young Dance Doku Malins
