Match Report: Royston Town v Hanwell Town

Date Saturday 21 March 2015
Match Royston Town v Hanwell Town
Competition Evo-Stik League Southern: Division One Central
Result Won 2-1
Attendance
226
Royston Scorers Scott Bridges, Fehmi
Crows MoM
George Powell

The Crows achieved their fifth consecutive win with a valuable victory over play-off rivals Hanwell Town. On the back of four clean sheets Steve Castle understandably retained the same defensive line-up and once again they showed their consistency with a solid performance that prevented their opponents from a single shot on target in open play.

With all six play-off contestants competing against each other over the weekend this was a game that neither side could afford to lose and that tension was evident from the start at both teams sized each other up. The Crows had a couple of speculative efforts when first Scott Bridges fired wide and then Victor Adeboyejo saw his header rebound back to Ingrey but his tame effort was easily saved by Tokarczyk in the Hanwell goal.

The visitors took the lead in the 25th minute when a harmless punt forward seemed to be going out of play but as the ball slowed the covering Spyros Mentis opted to usher the ball out instead of playing safe and was closed down and dispossessed causing panic in the Crows defence. The winger drove into the penalty area and cut back a perfect pass but as the striker set himself to shoot was tripped by Fehmi for a clear penalty.

Despite the setback the Crows rallied and continued to press but failed to create any meaningful chances for the remainder of the half and left the field looking fairly deflated.

With the words of encouragement from Steve Castle still ringing in their ears the Crows started the second half at a much faster tempo and started to penetrate the Hanwell defence however it was not until the introduction of the experienced Gary Hart did the Crows finally break the defiant wall.

In the 75th minute his flick onto Ingrey was fed into Scott Bridges to fire home a deserving equaliser much to the relief of the home support. Whilst most would have settled for a draw the Crows continued to press and ten minutes later a superb cross from Bradshaw was flicked on this time by Ingrey to Hart whose deft flick found Fehmi 20 yards out to fire home a sublime volley which was deserving to win any game.

Team: Yates, Wharton, Watters, Scott Bridges, Powell, McDevitt, Mentis (Bradshaw, Stuart Bridges, Fehmi (Scott-Morriss), Adeboyejo(Hart), Ingrey.  Unused Subs: Theobald, Baird