Royston built on their fine victory against Welwyn Garden City on Saturday with a thumping home victory over midtable Oxhey Jets. With both teams having played 4 games in the previous week it was Royston who looked sharper and fitter all over the pitch and the final scoreline was fully justified as Paul Attfield's team played with fluency throughout the game. The home side settled early and took the lead in just the 7th minute when David Cain rose high to head in Luke Robin's corner at the far post. Further half chances were created and a deserved second goal settled the team further in the 23rd minute when a fine move down the left was scrambled clear to Carl Edward who struck powerfully into the corner of the net from 16 yards. Oxhey also played good football but lacked any creativity in the final third of the pitch with centre halves Ashley Grinham and David Cain playing fine games to help minimise to half chances mainly outside the penalty area. Cain, Ricky Young and Luke Robins all had further chances before the break to extend the lead but the good double cushion meant that Royston could go into the second half with confidence which they did. Jorden Gibson made one good early save and another effort was scrambled clear by the defence but that for the visitors was as good as it got really as the game slowly drifted completely away from them. Royston had to wait until mid way through the half to extend the lead further when another corner caused defensive havoc and Ross Collins rammed home the loose ball high into the net from ten yards. Oxhey got their consolation goal moments later when a 25 yard shot took a freakish deflection to wrong foot Gibson and the ball trickled into the net but Royston replied hard with an excelled period of crisp, precise football that saw them grab three more goals before the end. Arin Fehmi and Russell Bull added goals four and six with composed finishes from one on one situations and Carl Edwards grabbed the fifth in between bundling the ball in from close range following another set play .
Team Gibson Endacott Fehmi Grinham Cain Collins Edwards De Lacy Young (Bull) Malins Robins (Apostolos) Unused Lockett
Welwyn Garden City 2-5 Royston Town
Royston put their recent run of indifferent results behind them with a determined tem performance seeing them gain a 5-2 victory against basement side Welweyn Garden City. The hosts have gone through a recent management change bringing new players and ideas to the basement club but Royston controlled the majority of this fixture with some exceptional finishing helping them towards an impressive tally of five. Paul Attfield shuffled his pack again as the side competed its fourth game in eight days. Jorden Gibson, Tom Malins, Carl Edwards and Ben Stocker were all ommited from the squad having played a big part of the previous three fixtures. The uneven pitch was never going to encourage good quality football but to their credit both teams tried to play a high paced attractive game throughout with six goals served up in the first half alone. Set plays were the order of the first three goals in the opening twelve minutes. The hosts took the lead on five minutes when the Royston defence were not strong enough dealing with a long throw into the six yard box and the ball was eventually rammed home from close range. The lead only lasted a meer minute as Royston won a corner straight from the kick off and Ryan Lockett's driven delivery was flicked on by a defender at the near post into his own net. This gave Royston good momentum with open play and set play crosses causing plenty of problems. Another free kick on the right from Luke Robins in the twelth minute was bundle in by Lewis Endacott at the near post. Moments later another corner from Lockett was by Ricky Young's glancing header which bounced off the top of the crossbar and off for a goal kick. Against the run of play Wlewyn got back level on the half hour mark when Royston didnt get tight enough to players in a left sided build up and a floated cross was chested down and volleyed under Richard Barlow's dive. The lead was short lived as Royston regained the initiative within a minute with an outstanding finish. A long ball was headed out to the edge of the area where full back Ashley Grinham cracked a left foot volley into the top right hand corner. The quality of the strike was matched equally by another five minues later when Arin Fehmi's long diagonal ball was volleyed agressively past the keeper from 16 yards by Lewis Endacott. Leading comfortably at the interval Royston continued to show good dominance in the opening stages of the second half with Conor De Lacy and Ross Collins in particular from central midfield positions looking solid. Shooting into a terrible ragged half of ground it wasn't easy to create clear chnaces but Ryan Lockett and Ricky Young both went close and Russell Bull brought a stunning goalkeeping tip over from ten yards. Lockett completed the scoring mid way through the half converting from ten yards after the hosts made of hash of clearing another free kick into the area. A flurry of substitutes by Attfield and the loss of centre half Nick Mulvaney to injury after the mandatory three allowed meant Royston had to play the final fifteen minutes with ten men but they never looked in any danger of relinquishing their advantage and a welcome three points was greeted at the full time whistle. Paul Attfield commented - " We have had a disappointing run of results but our general play and effort shown in most of the games we have dropped points has been very good. Our play for the most part today was just as precise and determined but we took the majority of the chances we created today and maybe in games lately that hasn't been the case. It is hard for the players to get collective understanding of each other's games when I have to keep rotating them around on the pitch each game due to our herendous fixture back log, but if we continue to maintain the levels we met today I am very confident results will get better and more consistent." Team Barlow Grinham Fehmi Mulvaney Cain Collins De Lacy Endacott (Wilkinson) Young Lockett (Dolan) Robins (Bull) Unused: Gibson Jones
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Royston Town Vets 3 Goldin Old Boy Vets 2
Town Vets did it the hard way again when coming from 2 goals down to beat Goldin Old Boys 3-2.
The visitors settled more quickly on a frozen pitch and deservedly scored twice in the first 15 minutes. Town gradually began to get their passing game going and started to threaten the visitors’ goal. Kevin Barthrop was put through by Peter Leete down the right and as he cut into the penalty area he was tripped from behind and Paul Lewis coolly slotted home the resultant penalty. On the stroke of half time a high ball into the Royston Penalty area caught out Bathrop who handled the ball, Dobson in the Royston goal kept his side in the game with a comfortable save from the penalty.
Town dominated the second half and created a hatful of chances. Nick Humphries found himself in good goal-scoring positions on a number of occasions and missed most until finally he scored from close range to give Town the equaliser. Town’s winner came from Geoff Pinner who pressed forward from left back and as the ball broke to him on the left of the six yard area he drove it firmly past the ‘keeper.
Royston Town Vets: S.Dobson, N.King, A. Smith, K Flack, G.Pinner, K.Barthrop, J.Moulding, N.Humphries, T.Cover, P.Leete, Subs (all used) C.Silenti, R.Perrett, I.Allen.
A Sportsmans Evening with Peter Shilton
