Manager set to bring in new recruit

FRUSTRATED Crows boss Paul Attfield says his team are in desperate need of a 25-goal striker after Tuesday night’s cup defeat at Kingsbury London Tigers.

Royston currently find themselves in an early-season rut after losing their last four matches and Attfield feels this could have been averted had his team taken at least some of the many chances they have wasted in that time.

“We could have had six or seven goals (against Kingsbury),” said Attfield. “We played probably as well as we could have done in the first half and could have killed the game off but the goals we conceded sums us up defensively at the moment. We’re not playing overly bad but we just need a lucky break at the moment.”

New striker Tom Haynes scored on his debut on Tuesday and hopes are high at Garden Walk that he will prove to be a good addition to the front line. However, he has not played for a year owing to injury and will need time to get into his stride – time Royston may not have with league-leaders Chalfont St Peter continuing to pull away at the top.

“We’ve got another forward coming to training on Thursday but ultimately I need to find someone who can score me 25 goals a season and I don’t think we’ve got that at the moment,” added Attfield.

“We’ve got a lot of good wide players with pace and quality but we’ve not got that goalscorer which is what’s lacking.

“The sooner we get a win the better. Spirits are down a little bit at the moment and we go into Saturday’s league game with another loss under our belt. The effort is generally there and on another night we could have scored enough goals to win the game comfortably.

“The players that were out there were good enough to win a game in this division. We’re playing the right sort of football but we’re not converting the amount of chances we should be which is ultimately putting us under pressure and when we’re under pressure we can’t maintain possession of the ball.”

Royston travel to Leverstock Green on Saturday – the team who knocked them out of the Challenge trophy two weeks ago – and Attfield will hope to call upon the likes of Luke Robins, Tom Malins and Liam McDevitt who have all been out injured.