Goals shared round as confident Crows crush Haringey

Royston Town 5 Haringey Borough 2

ANOTHER efficient team performance saw Royston Town thrash Haringey Borough in front of a bumper crowd at Garden Walk on Saturday.

A week after putting five past Basildon United in the FA Vase, Royston again hit the back of the net five times and just like in the match against Basildon there were five separate scorers.

The Crows eased their way into the game and had an early chance when a well constructed move down the right ended with Josh Bronti's pass finding Luke Robins completely open only for his volley from 12 yards to be hit wide of the post.

Yet the Crows made up for this on 10 minutes when Bronti beat the full back and swung in an inch perfect cross for Carl Edwards to head home to put his side ahead.

Two minutes later Royston almost doubled their lead when Robins crossed for Bronti but his header stuck the face of the crossbar and bounced out to safety.

Haringey, who were always tidy in possession, hit back six minutes later with a superb strike from Tolu Topoola who swivelled with the ball some 25 yards from goal and smashed an unstoppable volley into the top corner.

The goal could have knocked Royston out their stride but the hosts were soon on the attack again and Robins put away a penalty after a defender was adjudged to have handled his earlier shot.

It was Robins' last participation in the match as the winger had to be replaced by Jamie Morriss after suffering a dead leg, but Royston's assault on the Haringey continued with Edwards, Ryan Lockett and Ross Collins dominating the midfield area.

It was Lockett who scored Royston's third just after the half hour when he converted another pass from the influential Bronti from eight yards and moments later he almost added another but his rasping 18-yard drive was blocked by the 'keeper' legs.

Haringey refused to sit back despite this onslaught and their attacking instinct paid off when they reduced the deficit out of nothing five minutes before half time.

A long ball seemed to catch Edward Dwusuansah in an offside position but with Royston momentarily stopping and the linesman refusing to flag Dwusuansah was able to smash the ball home from just inside the penalty areas.

The visitors' enthusiasm lasted for a mere 60 seconds though when Arin Fehmi's superb left wing cross was volleyed in by Collins to give the home side a 4-2 half time lead.

The onslaught continued in the opening period of the second half where Royston could have added another half a dozen goals in the opening 15 minutes.

Morriss blazed a close range volley over the bar and saw another rasping angled drive superbly saved again while Lockett had a good chance flash just wide and a free kick just clear the crossbar.

Ricky Young and Bronti also had good chances go wide before Lewis Endacott completed the scoring with a delicate running chip from 20 yards going into the goal via the post.

Royston dominated possession but took their foot off the pedal as an attacking unit as the half went on.

Haringey had a couple of late chances with Jorden Gibson making one smart diving save and a header was hacked off the line by Bronti but in the end another superb result saw Royston move up to fifth in the table.

Speaking about his team's performance, manager Paul Attfield: "Our record against teams in the lower half of the division so far has been excellent and that will need to be maintained to help our final league position.

"Overall I felt it was a continuation of last Saturday's excellent win. We moved the ball especially well in the first half and created lots of chances.

"A second game with five scorers is massive for us but the form we are showing just lately gives us good confidence going into two excessively hard away fixtures at Tring and Chalfont St Peter and these two games could gauge how far we have come so far this season."

Royston: Gibson, Endacott, Fehmi, Jones, Cook, Collins, Edwards, Bronti, Young (Crosk), Lockett (Malins), Robins (Morriss). Unused sub: Apostolos.