Royston see off Broxbourne Borough

Broxbourne Borough 1

Royston Town 3

SSMFL Premier Division

ROYSTON TOWN opened up an 11-point gap at the top of the table after beating Broxbourne Borough on Saturday.

Carl Edwards, Kaan Fehmi and Ricky Young got the goals for Paul Attfield’s side before Dean Williams grabbed a late consolation from the home side.

This was yet another fantastic display from the Crows, who are quickly building a significant lead ahead of their promotion rivals.

From the offset they put Broxbourne firmly on the back foot and they took the lead on 20 minutes when Edwards struck a low volley past the goalkeeper from 15 yards for his first goal of the season.

Jack Brashaw was unlucky not to extend the lead when his long-range effort was superbly saved by the ‘keeper but a second goal arrived ten minutes before half-time from the penalty spot.

A fine team move was worked from left to right with Kaan Fehmi getting himself into a great position to run at the last defender whose trip was punished by the referee and again by Fehmi who scored the resulting kick.

Royston came out after the restart all guns blazing and in the opening 15 minutes had more than enough chances to completely kill the game off. In the opening five minutes of the half Edwards had a long-range lob well saved while Matt Standen had a shot cleared off the line. Tom Malins was also unfortunate to see his curling effort from outside the box cannon back off the crossbar.

Royston were completely on top and it was only some exceptional goalkeeping that kept the hosts vaguely in the one-sided contest. They switched to having three players up front and, although they adopted a more attacking threat, Lewis Endacott, Jason Beck, John McGrandles and Arin Fehmi were all imperious at the back.

It was clear Royston needed a third goal and it arrived 15 minutes from time. Young raced onto a through-ball and despite seeing his initial effort blocked by the ‘keeper, the same player was on hand to scramble the ball over the line to put the result beyond doubt.

Having not conceded a goal for over 500 minutes of league football that stat came to an end with 10 minutes remaining when a low right-wing cross was turned home by Williams from close range.

The Crows nearly added another goal just after the restart when Ryan Lockett hit the post with a fiercely-struck effort from just inside the box.

Despite not adding to their impressive run of clean sheets, this was another quality performance from Royston and on this evidence they will certainly take some beating.

Royston Town: Norris, Endacott, A Fehmi, McGrandles, Beck (Plowright), Edwards, Bradshaw, Malins, K Fehmi (Lockett), Matt Standen, Young (Clemo).