PAUL ATTFIELD has bemoaned Spartan South Midlands League’s fixture administrators for the club’s lack of football of late.

Royston’s home match against Holmer Green on Saturday will be the first of only two matches in a four-week spell having not played since January 15 and their next match after the weekend not coming until February 12.

The enforced breaks couldn’t have come at a worse time for Attfield’s side as they have enjoyed a good run of form since early January with four straight wins.

And Attfield is at a loss to see why the Spartan League cannot follow every other step five league’s example by sticking to a fixture schedule that is released at the start of the season rather than releasing them at month-to-month intervals.

“When you haven’t played two weeks it’s always difficult to get back into it,” said Attfield.

“We were on a good run of form and had built the match fitness levels up and the confidence up and through no fault of our own we’re having to spend weekends without a game.”

The Crows boss is hopeful his side’s good form can continue on Saturday, though, when The Greens visit Garden Walk. Royston ran out comfortable 3-1 winners in the reverse fixture back in October thanks to goals from Ryan Lockett, Tom Malins and Josh Bronti.

He added: “We won fairly comfortably last time out but I don’t think Holmer Green really gave a good account of themselves on the day. No two games are ever the same, though, so I don’t know how they’re going to perform on Saturday.

“It’s going to be difficult because we’ll be without Ross Collins and Martin Standen who will miss the next three games through suspension but we can’t complain about it, though, because it’s self-inflicted through poor decision making in games. However, the squad is good enough to cope with it so it’s more annoying than anything else that they’re both missing.”

Attfield has been impressed with how his team have coped with conditions over the winter period after admitting playing conditions in the colder months are not conducive to the way his team like to play football.

“The desire to win and the determination in games has been good,” he said.

“The playing conditions haven’t been great and we’ve never been a winter team as we like to get the ball down and play football. I think we’ve done that, though, and the results we’ve got against good teams like Tring have been very pleasing.”

After this weekend Royston face four away trips on the bounce. The Crows have staged their recent good run of form in the confines of Garden Walk but Attfield is confident his players can replicate these performances away from home as they have done on many occasions this season.