Cook's late strike seals Crows win

Friendly

Haverhill Rovers 0 Royston Town 1

The Crows' pre-season campaign gained further momentum on Thursday evening with a narrow victory at Ridgeons Premier Division side Haverhill Rovers.

Manager Paul Attfield once again showed that he will have a considerably larger squad than last season by leaving out no fewer than 12 of last season's championship winning squad to run an eye over more players vying for a starting place in his plans.

The game was very entertaining on the eye with a young opposition lively throughout and giving The Crows manager exactly the right sort of test.

Haverhill had the better of the first half as they were quicker to the ball and sharper on it. They won numerous corners but Royston defended well as a unit and the chances Haverhill did create never seriously tested goalkeeper Richard Barlow.

In fact Royston could claim to have the best chance of the half when Taz Chiwongo's deep cross eluded everyone and found Jez McMurrough at the far post but his angled shot went the wrong side of the post.

Royston's second half was far more effective as they had the best of 30 minutes of fast, good football. Greg Jackson was prominent in most good things from midfield and he had a trio of longer range efforts just miss the target.

Ross Collins, Jorden McGarvie and Scott Crosk also went close to opening the scoring before tired limbs allowed the hosts to have a dominating spell late on.

They had three presentable chances late on, two flying just over and one scrambled from the line.

Royston battled hard, which would have pleased Attfield and they nicked the only goal of the game in the 88th minute when centre half Matt Cook's free kick from the half way line eluded everyone's jump and ended up in the bottom corner.

Squad - Barlow, Endacott, Chaffey, Chappell, Debnam, Tyler, Collins, G Jackson, Chiwongo, McGarvie, McMurrough, Shaughnessy, Cook, S Jackson, Morriss, Crosk.