Royston Town boss Steve Castle believes his side let themselves down after a lacklustre showing saw them miss out on silverware in the Herts Charity Cup final on Tuesday night.

The Crows looked nervy at times in their clash with Conference South side Bishop’s Stortford played at Letchworth’s County Ground, and fell behind to Sheldon Sellears’ 36th minute close-range volley.

Royston improved in the second half but average finishing allowed Stortford to see out the win and claim the trophy for the third year running, much to Castle’s disappointment.

Castle told the Crow: “I think nerves were a part of it for sure.

“Stortford are two leagues higher but I don’t see why we would be overawed with all due respect.

“They [Stortford] are my local club so I wish them all the best in their fight against relegation but I didn’t think they were anything special.

“We have done really well to even get to this final, but I just don’t get why we didn’t compete from start to finish. Had we done so, we could have rolled them over convincingly.

“I didn’t see us scoring and that was difficult to watch because they were there for the taking.”

Castle’s men suffered a similarly poor defeat to AFC Hayes in Southern League Central Division One just seven days prior and the boss felt it was a case of deja vu.

He continued: “I said to the lads when they sat down in the dressing room that I think this loss was worse than the Hayes match and that is saying something.

“Not one player stood out for us and we now have to enjoy our runners-up medals.”

Town are back in league action this Saturday as they travel to mid-table Aylesbury United.

A decent 3-1 win over Daventry Town last Saturday consolidated seventh place for Royston and Castle hopes the team can at least take the experience of playing Stortford in the final into their play-off push.

He said: “For me, I think my players need to start believing they’re better than they think they are.

“If they don’t then they are always going to play at this level which would be a shame because we have some really talented boys in this squad.”