Royston Town 0 Biggleswade United 2 Haringey Borough 5 Royston Town 1 By Dave Ryan ANOTHER dismal week for the Crows saw them stutter to two defeats against clubs at the wrong end of the Spartan South Midlands League Premier Division. The losses, against

Royston Town 0 Biggleswade United 2

Haringey Borough 5 Royston Town 1

By Dave Ryan

ANOTHER dismal week for the Crows saw them stutter to two defeats against clubs at the wrong end of the Spartan South Midlands League Premier Division.

The losses, against Biggleswade United and Haringey Borough have seen Phil Snowden's team drop back into the bottom four of the table, and there was more red card woe for Royston.

Goalkeeper Chris Chambers and Danny Miles were both dismissed in Saturday's 2-0 home defeat against Biggleswade, bringing the total number of red cards for the Crows to eight this season, as they finished a game with nine men for the second time this campaign.

Chambers had earlier been the hero for the Crows with a number of fine saves, including a ninth minute penalty from Marc Holmes after Keith Thomas had been tripped in the box.

Three minutes later Chambers thwarted yet another United attack after an excellent four-man move spilt the Royston defence wide apart, leaving Thomas free to strike but again Chambers parried the ball to safety.

The visitors opened the scoring in the 66th minute. A Holmes cross in to the box found Sam Brown who picked out the unmarked Goldsmith and although Chambers saved once more the ball again fell to Holmes who made no mistake at the second attempt, slamming the ball into the top of the net

Six minutes later it was effectively all over both for the Crows and Chambers. Jack Weeden appeared to go down as though felled by a sniper as Chambers touched both the ball and the man as the striker ran in one goal.

And despite two Crows' defenders being in the box, the referee showed the Royston keeper a straight red card.

Seventeen-year-old substitute Greg Jackson, who had only been on the pitch for 10 minutes, donned the keeper's gloves, but after producing a fine save from Weeden's spot kick, he was unable to prevent the striker firing home rebound.

To complete a miserable day for Snowden's team, Miles, who had earlier been harshly booked for retaliation, picked up a deserved yellow card for a late tackle.

Tuesday's trip to North London saw an unfamiliar Crows' line-up with Robert Rowlingson, Michael Bloss and Kenny Blair all make their first team debuts, and a failure to convert their first half chances proved crucial.

After the Crows had started well, the home side took a 35th minute lead when a long ball forward bounced awkwardly in front of Chambers, allowing S Grant to finish from close range.

Borough doubled their lead shortly before the break when A Kamara fired home after appearing to knock the ball down with his hand.

With brothers Dave and Jez McMurrough both missing through injury and Jason Nash also out of action, there was no way back for the visitors, and Borough made it 3-0 early in the second half when D Tulloch chipped the ball around a defender before volleying home for a well-taken effort.

James Lavelle reduced the arrears on the hour mark when he got around the back of the Haringey defence before slotting home, but late goals from Tulloch and Grant consigned Royston to their ninth league defeat of the season.

"The scoreline didn't reflect the game" said a clearly disappointed Crows' chairman Graham Phillips. "Every time we made a mistake we got punished.

"Haringey are a very quick team up front, and we seem to struggle against sides like that."

The Crows will be looking to bounce back when they make the short trip to a St Margaretsbury side three places above them in the table on Saturday, before hosting Broxbourne Borough in another league clash on Tuesday.