| Date | Tuesday 3 March 2015 |
| Match | Royston Town v Bedford Town |
| Competition | Evo-Stik League Southern: Division One Central |
| Result | Won 3-0 |
| Attendance |
142 |
| Royston Scorers | Dobson, Fehmi, Ingrey |
| Crows MoM |
Stuart Bridges |
In a game of two differing halves Royston took all three points from a sometimes feisty match against a spirited, but overall ineffective, Bedford Town side.
With Victor Adeboyajo and Montel Agyemang stuck in traffic, Steve Castle’s starting line-up was possibly different to what he had planned and it saw George Boot given a start in midfield and Gary Hart leading the line.
The first 45 minutes was more of the same from Saturday with fragmented periods of brief football mainly interspersed with move breakdowns, clumsy fouls and over-hopeful long balls. Royston captain Kaan Fehmi was seen to be dealt with leniently by the referee in a penalty box spat that could have seen the Crows’ striker receiving sterner punishment and in a separate incident Bedford’s Ross Oulton was also lucky to only see yellow following a vicious midfield tackle on Jack Bradshaw.
With the first half limited in any real goal threat at both ends end it looked like that we would watch either a goalless draw or possibly a single strike would decide the outcome.
Royston’s first real chance came on 43 minutes when man of the match Stuart Bridge’s long lofted ball forward was met by the out of sorts Fehmi for a speculative left foot volley that Garry Malone in the Bedford goal dealt with well.
With a half time change of the returning Reece Dobson for George Boot, Royston re-entered this game looking to take maximum points and their dominating all round team performance in this half was a million miles from the first 45 minutes and it was a pleasure to watch.
Bedford had no answers for Royston’s reinvigorated passing and movement and 8 minutes in the lively Dobson provided the spark to get the scoring going. On 53 minutes a well delivered corner from Bridges was met with a rare Dobson header than cannoned against the post and he was alert enough to convert this static one-two himself.
Seven minutes later and a deep free-kick in an innocuous half way line proximate position was sent over diagonally by Bradshaw and Fehmi timed his run well and sent a firm, looping header goal-ward and in the resulting six yard box melee it looked like Bridges had stabbed it home but Fehmi assures me that the ball was already over the line for 2-0.
On 66 minutes the game was over as from another set piece the Crows got their third with Chris Watters sending over a corner kick that eluded the jumping crowd and Dobson smashed a first time volley against the bar – the rebound fell to Ryan Ingrey who shifted the ball sideways to avoid the throng and struck a firm shot passed the multitude of bodies just inside the left hand post.
Royston substitutions saw Adeboyejo replace Hart and Agyemang replace Fehmi.
It was all Royston in the final ten minutes and Bridges had a good chance to make it four, capitalising on Adeboyajo’s direct endeavour, but his toe-poked shot skimmed the bar.
This was one of the better second halves that I have seen all season from the Crows and they fully deserved the prize of a rare mid-week victory. Egham Town visit Garden Walk on Saturday as Royston look to extend their unbeaten league run to six games to remain in the play-off dogfight.
Team: Yates, Wharton, Watters, Bradshaw, Powell, McDevitt, Boot (Dobson), Bridges Stuart, Fehmi (Agyemang), Hart (Adeboyejo), Ingrey.
Subs not used – Lockett, Scott-Morriss.
