| Date | Tuesday 11 December 2012 |
| Match | Rugby Town v Royston Town |
| Competition | Evo-Stik League Southern: Central Division One |
| Result | Lost 2-1 |
| Royston Scorers | Lockett |
| Attendance | 130 |
| Crows MoM | Will Norris |
Royston travelled the 100 miles to Rugby for the second time this season, to play the rearranged match following the abandoned game back last month. Rugby Town are enjoying a good run of form and a cold and foggy away trip on a Tuesday night would prove to be a tough fixture for the Crows.
Royston Town started this match the livelier and put together some good passing and movement and Ryan Lockett was looking up for this game and had a sharp early shot blocked by keeper Dave Bevan. Luke Robins was also proving troublesome for the home side and most of the opening forward play involved him up the left-wing. A long distance Jack Bradshaw effort had Bevan scrambling but the shot went just by the post.
On 13 minutes the referee awarded a penalty to Rugby for a foul in the box and Will Norris spread himself to block Sam Belcher’s shot, only seeing the rebound fall to Belcher who headed it goal-ward but only into the grateful hands of Norris. This let off didn’t change the pattern of the game and Royston still tried to move the ball around and Rugby strove to break up the play and break quickly forward to involve their extremely active striker, David Kolodynski.
The Crows deservedly took the lead on 27 minutes with Lockett hitting a superb unstoppable swerving drive past Bevan, following some good set up play by Lewis Endacott and Robins. Undeterred, the home side were now in the ascendancy and Royston’s play became scrappier and they were being forced to defend deep and more often. Rugby drew level on 43 minutes when Fazel Koriya put the ball high in the net following a poorly defended Craig Kelly corner.
Despite a promising first five minutes in the second half Royston were not at the races this half. Matt Standen saw a good chance go wide and a long distance Bradshaw shot went straight to the keeper.
The Crows seem to lose their way and the tempo of the game disappeared and we were left watching an extremely fragmented game. Duncan Easley tried to mix it up by introducing all three substitutes but none of these changes provided any impetus.
The Rugby winner was only a matter of time and the home team’s man of the match Kolodynski didn’t let his noisy fans down, powering home a once again disappointingly defended set-piece, taking his side top of the league, leap-frogging Royston on their way.
Ironically this game was won in the 70th minute, which was about the same time the floodlights failed in the abandoned match with the score at 1-0 to Royston. Easley must have been looking for the power switch.
Team: Norris, Parr (McDevitt -75), Endacott, Bradshaw, DeLaSalle, Spencer (Ingrey -70), Collins (c), Edwards, Standen (Malins – 62), Lockett, Robins.
Sub not used – Howard.
