Royston II 3 Broxbourne 3 A DESERVED point for the home team ensured another season of East League Division Four hockey. A much changed Royston side began the game slowly, and defensive errors led to Broxbourne quickly leading by two goals. Many short co

Royston II 3 Broxbourne 3 A DESERVED point for the home team ensured another season of East League Division Four hockey. A much changed Royston side began the game slowly, and defensive errors led to Broxbourne quickly leading by two goals. Many short corners were conceded, and it was only down to poor finishing from Broxbourne that the defence was not breached further. The first half did end on a high, as Simon Mansfield robbed a Broxbourne defender before expertly finishing. The second half saw a marked improvement from Royston as the team seemed to wake up and begin to knock the ball around. Matt Allsopp scored from a well-worked short corner routine to level the scores and things were looking good for Royston. Andy Alberts managed to miss two chances where it looked easier to score than blast the ball out of the ground as he did on both occasions. Broxbourne sneaked a third goal, and it looked like time would run out for Royston. However, in the final minute of the game, in his last appearance for Royston Chris Leach scored a great goal to secure safety. Cheshunt 1 Royston 2 ROYSTON'S hunt for fourth in the league continued with a victory over Cheshunt at the weekend. The visitors began the game confidently, creating some early chances, but failed to take the lead. The breakthrough finally came with a scrappy goal from Nick Hurd. Cheshunt managed to lift their game but the Royston defence, which included the impressive Justin Mckay, held firm. The visitors remained the stronger of the two sides in the second half, but every Royston attack ended with another squandered chance. After a short spell of pressure Cheshunt found an equaliser 15 minuets into the second half from a short corner. Towards the end of the match Royston got the goal they deserved, when Andy Drage pushed forward from midfield and fire the ball past the ball Cheshunt keeper. Royston IV 2 Hertford IV 1 NEEDING just one more win to clinch the league title Royston allowed the pressure to get to them in the first half. With Sam Polge and Callum Weir linking well down the right the home side played well in patches, but were unable to translate this possession into goal scoring opportunities and found themselves a goal down at the interval. The second half was a very different story with the reshuffled home side looking much livelier. Despite long periods of pressure Royston failed to breach a determined Hertford defence. Time was beginning to run out when Keith Markham forced home the equaliser and set up an exciting last few minutes. Eventually the winner came with seconds to spare as Matt Brunt converted a worked short corner. With 14 wins from 17 league games the side mainly consisting of the youngsters has deservedly won the league with still one game to go.