Tavenham Ladies 2 Royston Town Ladies 4

ROYSTON Town Ladies enjoyed a fruitful trip to Norfolk at the weekend when they overcame Tavenham in the first round of the League Plate.

The visitors dominated the opening stages with Jenny Probert and Emma Chaffey working well together to create a number of goal scoring opportunities but the incisive goal for Royston came in the 15th minute when skipper Gemma Barlow played a superb 30-yard pass to Chaffey who beat the offside trap and smashed the ball home.

A piece of individual brilliance from Eve Brundle put Town 2-0 up when she produced a neat turn and volley from the edge of the area which found the top corner of the net.

Chaffey made it three on the half-hour mark when, after spotting the goalkeeper off her line, chipped home from 25 yards. It all looked too easy for the visitors but Tavenham pegged one back just before half time and then went on to totally dominate the second period.

The hosts got a well deserved second with 20 minutes to go and only some excellent defensive work by Royston’s back four of Miller, Barlow, Webster and Hassen prevented Tavenham from grabbing the equaliser.

The last few minutes proved highly eventful when first, a great save from Royston’s ‘keeper Sanna Patterson as well as a goal line clearance from Barlow made for a nervy few moments on the sidelines.

However, the win was sealed when Probert delivered a telling cross for Chaffey to head home and complete her hat-trick and put Town into the next round.

After the game manager Steve Buchannan commented: “We don’t do things the easy way and in some ways we were lucky to win the game but credit to the players they held their nerves – even if mine were shattered!”