Victory sees Royston move up to second in the table

Evo-Stik Division One Central

Northwood 2

Royston Town 3

IN a classic game of two halves Royston Town came back from a first-half deficit to win an exciting match away to mid-table Northwood to go second in the league table.

The Crows struggled for any real quality in the first half, being closed down quickly by an energetic home team and being frustratingly careless with the ball, gifting loose passes regularly to a team that looked to play fast football at every opportunity and sweeping forward quickly when in possession.

Royston did create chances in the first period, the most notable being on eight minutes when a Joe DeLaSalle effort from a Lee Wilson corner was well met with a firm downward header from the centre-half that bounced agonisingly over the keeper and the bar. Royston at times were forced to resort to desperate, rather than controlled defending and in a disjointed half managed to hold out until the 37th minute when a sloppy diagonal ball was picked up in midfield and a long cross was met by Oliver Hawkins who saw his looping header beat Will Norris and give the Woods a one goal lead at the break.

The second half started in the same vein but following a change from Royston with Ryan Lockett being replaced by Luke Robins the Crows seemed to shift a gear and started to look as if they could salvage something from the scrappy hour of football that had gone before.

In a purple 11-minute patch Royston put three goals by their hosts to claim dominance and turn the game around. On 61 minutes full-back Taylor Parr executed a deft front-post flick from a low driven Wilson corner that found the net and five minutes later Kaan Fehmi, who had been uncharacteristically quiet in the game up to that point, latched onto an intelligent square pass from Robins and drove an accurate shot by James Reading to take the lead.

The Crows extended their lead on 72 minutes with Robins himself finishing a quality move that started with a Tom Malins pass to Matt Standen whose run and byline cross saw the talented left-winger strike home from 12 yards.

The home team came back at their visitors well and got one back on 79 minutes with Dean Worman shooting low into the left hand bottom corner past the diving Norris. This led to the Royston management swapping tiring forwards for more defensive-minded substitutes and in an exciting finale Northwood caused problems in added time and following a chaotic goalmouth scramble, Lewis Endacott headed the resulting home team shot off the line and away to help his team hold on to all three points.

Royston Town: Norris, Parr, Wilson, Bradshaw, DeLaSalle, Spencer, Collins (c), Standen, Fehmi (Edwards 81), Lockett (Robins 56), Malins (Endacott 83).

Man of the Match: Lee Wilson

Attendance: 116