Players desperate to get back to winning ways

Royston Town boss Paul Attfield says his players are champing at the bit ahead of Saturday’s match against league-leaders Chalfont St Peter at Garden Walk.

It has been a tough nine days for Attfield and his players following last week’s dramatic defeat away to Hatfield and Tuesday night’s Challenge Trophy exit at Leverstock Green but hopes are high that the team can bounce back in the best way possible in order to get their promotion bid back on track.

And, despite being asked whether he would prefer to play one of the league’s lesser sides on Saturday, Attfield says he is glad to be coming up against the in-form Chalfont.

“It’s definitely been a difficult wait (for the next league match) but we need to get something out of the game because Chalfont have started well,” said Attfield.

“We’ve not been able to play that much football since, though, and we’ve only been able to train a couple of times.

“Most of the players know they did wrong on the night against Hatfield and all we wanted to do was get back on the football pitch as soon as possible and, although we had a cup match on Tuesday night, it’s certainly not the same as a league game.

“At the end of the day, we’ve only lost one from seven matches in the league and if someone had offered that to me at the start of the season I would’ve taken it. The Hatfield result is not a catastrophe – it was just the way in which we lost the game.

“We showed last season that we can bounce back from bad results so there’s no reason we can’t do that on Saturday.”

Attfield has been quick to bring former Hertford Town ‘keeper Lee Robinson to Garden Walk after being an admirer of him for some time, insisting that he is one of the best in the division.

He says he has not signed him just to make up the numbers and play second fiddle to current No.1 Jorden Gibson, and insists the new stopper will add excellent competition for the position which Gibson has made his own.

Attfield also said two further players may be moving to the club next week and, despite not wanting to name names, one of them is a striker while the other is a defensive utility player.

The Crows boss has a few concerns on the injury front ahead of Saturday with full-back Ashley Grinham and influential winger Luke Robins both rated as doubtful after suffering knocks against Hatfield.

Top scorer Tom Malins is also carrying a knock but could still be involved.