GOALS by Tom Malins and Danny Payne kept Royston Town's dreams of a Division One league and cup double alive at Garden Walk on Tuesday evening as they finished off a tenacious Kings Langley side. On a wet and blustery night, the best two teams in the Spar

GOALS by Tom Malins and Danny Payne kept Royston Town's dreams of a Division One league and cup double alive at Garden Walk on Tuesday evening as they finished off a tenacious Kings Langley side.

On a wet and blustery night, the best two teams in the Spartan South Midlands Division One fought each other and the tiring elements while still managing to put on some attractive football, although this was often let down on both sides by the final pass.

Still, Royston could have taken a two goal lead in the first five minutes with two free kicks, but the first by Lockett was comfortably handled by the Langley keeper and a David Cain header from a Luke Robins set piece went just wide.

Kings Langley could have also scored early on, but Richard Harvey shot straight at the impressive Barlow in the Royston goal.

There was not much else of interest for the next 40 minutes, but just before the break Malins stepped up and hit a superb 25 yard free kick into the top left hand corner to put the Crows ahead.

Langley almost equalised within a minute of the restart but Craig Preston's 20-yard volley was parried by Barlow to the left, and another good move 15 minutes later saw Langley's Ben Hammond break free of the defence but he fluffed his lines and put it wide.

Langley were made to pay for these misses when Payne tapped home after the Langley keeper fumbled Robins' free kick with just minutes remaining.

Royston: Barlow, Apostolos, Stephens, Babbage (Endacott), Cain, Payne, Edwards, Malins, Young, Lockett (Welch), Robins (Pring). Subs: Hammond.

Royston will face either Crawley Green or Ampthill Town in the final on a date yet to be confirmed.