The Men's 1s got off to a winning start in this years 3SW East League. The heavy pre-season workload paid dividends as Royston looked the fitter team throughout the contest as the late summer sun appeared to take a bigger toll on the travelling stags than their Royston counterparts, despite their bigger squad.
It was Garratt who once again opened Royston's account early on with a driving low effort coming in from the left. Royston were much the dominant team throughout and enjoyed large spells of possession as they looked to control the tempo. The Stags put up a valiant defence which kept them within touching distance for most of the game but ultimately, they did not have the quality to cause Royston too many problems. Royston spurned over 10 short corners before James 'Moose' Biddlecombe finally notched a second for Royston with an effort from the centre-left of the D via a tomahawk.
This left the crows 2-0 up with 10 minutes to go and with the heat taking a toll, they opted to see out the game through use of the half court press. The game looked set to finish this way until Hall sprung onto a poor touch from West Herts' deepest centre back allowing him to drive into the D unchallenged before being brought down by the onrushing keeper. James 'Moose' Biddlecombe backed himself and buried the resulting penalty flick into the bottom left corner, unstoppable.
All in all, a resounding win for a crows side growing in confidence. They look forward to next weeks away trip to Stevenage.
MOTM: Moose
DOTD: Hall
Toby H.