Stansted 4 Royston Town 1 ROYSTON Town suffered their first defeat since November, crashing out of the South Midlands Floodlit Cup second round on Tuesday night. Three goals in the last nine minutes represented a harsh scoreline for an experimental Crow

Stansted 4 Royston Town 1

ROYSTON Town suffered their first defeat since November, crashing out of the South Midlands Floodlit Cup second round on Tuesday night.

Three goals in the last nine minutes represented a harsh scoreline for an experimental Crows side who had six players cup-tied.

Manager Paul Attfield also lost defender Peter Chappell in the pre- match warm-up, with new signing Matt Cook having to be replaced within two minutes through injury.

However, it did not stop Royston from taking an early lead over the Essex Senior League team with Danny Nicholls blasting home from close range.

Craig Hammond almost doubled his side's lead minutes later but saw his effort cannon off the Stansted woodwork.

The hosts equalised four minutes before half time.

And Royston were caught napping late in the game with three crosses leading to three well-taken goals.

Attfield said: "It was good to try out some different players and a few new tactics in a game that had absolutely no significance to our league campaign.