| Date | Saturday 3 September 2016 |
| Match | Royston Town v Bedford Town |
| Competition | Evostik League Southern: Division One Central |
| Result | Won 1-0 |
| Attendance |
199 |
| Royston Scorers | Fehmi |
| Crows MoM |
Joe Welch |
Despite another unconvincing performance in front of goal, Royston Town FC continued their unbeaten league run and also their fourth consecutive league clean sheet with the completion of an early first “double” of the season with their second 1-0 final score against Bedford Town FC.
In the first game the Crows had been rescued by a last gasp winner from Scott Bridges and today Bridges would serve the last of his three game suspension. Today the solitary goal came earlier in the match and the pleasingly solid defence did the rest, coupled with an impressive man of the match debut from new goalkeeper Joe Welch, making at least three crucial saves.
With injuries and unavailable players stretching the squad, Steve Castle sent out a slightly displaced line up in a 4-2-1-3 formation with usual full back Danny May continuing in midfield alongside Spyros Mentis, with Martel Powell sitting just in front of them and asking Kaan Fehmi to play a wider role as one of the front three.
Again the Crows started the game engaged and busy and the play was mainly in the midfield with surges into Bedford’s defensive third. An early booking for the usually combative Eagle’s skipper Luke Knight for a bad foul on Josh Castiglione set the tone for the first 10 minutes and the game was hindered by stoppages.
The first chance of the game came in the 11th minute as Castiglione picked up a Powell pass and his foray into the box brought a blocked shot where a cut back pass to Fehmi on the penalty spot may have been the better option.
The two concentrated teams exchanged corners but the only goal of the game came from a good move from open play. The ball was shifted forward centrally and the effective Powell found Fehmi with a fine lofted pass leaving the defence stranded and Fehmi executed his own accurate lob over the advancing keeper to take a 22nd minute lead. 1-0.
An offside goal was chalked off as Simon Thomas drifted offside despite a nice volleyed finish from a piercing Fehmi cross and the Eagles stepped up their own goal challenge and Welch was called into action more than once but most notably a superb alert spread-eagled block from a close in headed effort that looked goal bound.
Half Time score was 1-0 to the Crows.
Again the early stages of the second half was mainly the home side pressing for more but with the rain setting in the game opened up a bit and with Gus Scott-Morriss picking up a pull back booking, Castle chose to replace him on 52 minutes with Ryan Ingrey coming on to do a job a right back.
Thomas had a great chance to extend the lead on 65 minutes as he was put through on his own but a lack of shot gave the Eagles time to recover and with the presence of Bedford’s keeper Ollie Sutton, he was forced away and no shot was taken. Castle replaced Thomas with Gary Cohen one minute later.
Another good block from Welch kept the visitors out again and good pressure from Cohen at the other end saw a Sutton clearance hit him and spin just wide of the exposed net.
Bedford pressed again to get something out of this game but good solid work from Joe DeLaSalle and Ryan Frater kept them out and Welch made another good save on 85 minutes stretching to tip up a good Eagles effort and slightly lucky as the ball fell straight into his own arms as he lay on the floor.
The Crows were pleased to hear the final whistle as one goal never seemed enough and they certainly had chances to put this result beyond their opponents throughout the game.
Team: Welch, Scott-Morriss (Ingrey), Watters, May, De La Salle, Frater, Mentis, Fehmi, Thomas (Cohen), Powell, Castiglione.
Subs not used – Murray, Linsell, Brathwaite.
| ROYSTON TOWN | BEDFORD TOWN | |
| 3 | EFFORTS ON TARGET | 6 |
| 3 | EFFORTS OFF TARGET | 5 |
| 9 | FREE KICKS | 19 |
| 5 | CORNERS | 5 |
| 3 | BOOKINGS | 2 |
| 0 | SENDINGS OFF | 0 |
