Date	Saturday16 July 2011
Match	Standon & Puckeridge v Royston Town
Competition	Pre-Season Friendly
Result	Won 2-1
Royston Scorers	Malins, Lawrence
Man of Match	–
Attendance	–

This turned out to be another decent work out against Herts County league opposition who gave The Crows a tough game in difficult conditions. Driving wind and rain made it tough for all especially in the first half and whilst Royston's quality did not always match the levels of Thursday evening's win at Takeley Paul Attfield largely fielded two different sides in each half with youth team players also getting second half experience.

Royston had much the better of the first half and scored their two goals in the opening nine minutes. Tom Malins headed in Ryan Lockett's cross in the 6th minute and Rhys Lawrence doubled the advantage on 9 minutes with a fine individual run and low 25 yard finish.

Malins, Jack Bradshaw and Ryan Lockett all had chances to increase the lead with Standon unlucky to hit the post just before half time. Many changes at half time did not affect the effort levels given but although Royston had much of the ball they just failed with a number of final decisions to create openings.

The best they came to adding to their lead was when Jason Beck's fine over head volley smashed the face of the crossbar and was cleared.

Standon scored a deserved last minute consolation with a close range header but their was no lack of commitment missing from either side in this local derby friendly and both teams will consider it to be a good workout.

Next up for Royston is a trip to Ridgeons Division one side Godmanchester Rovers next Saturday and with the showings so far and a number of players still missing from holidays and injuries things are looking encouraging after the first couple of weeks of pre season.