Crows travel to Suffolk tonight for their FA Vase replay against Leiston

CROWS boss Paul Attfield was delighted with his team’s performance in Saturday’s 2-2 draw with Leiston in the FA Vase and insists it’s still all there to play for.

Royston put two previous bad results behind them with a terrific display against the Ridgeons Premier Division side at Garden Walk but now face a 200-mile round trip to Victory Road tonight (Tuesday) in an attempt to win the tie at the second attempt.

While disappointed not to have won on Saturday, Attfield says he couldn’t have asked for any more from his players.

“It was brilliant,” he said.

“I asked them before to put 101 per cent effort into the game and I can’t ask any more of them. We gave them an almighty battle and I think they were shocked with the performance we gave them.

“Right through extra time and the end of normal time we were probably getting tired ourselves and I don’t think the one-man advantage counted for much. The experience they had in their side was probably worthy of that extra time.

“You’ve got to give Leiston credit because they are a really good side. They got to the fourth qualifying round of the FA Cup and they’ve only lost one game in the league this season. We really gave it a good go. We passed the ball well and battled well and I don’t think we could have done any more.

“One of the main ingredients of any cup game is that you want to win the game more. You see in all competitions, be it the FA Cup or the FA Trophy, there are shocks and it happens. You’ve got to be up for the battle.

“We started the game poorly and our equalising goal spurred us into life and we suddenly looked like we started to believe. We started to run that bit harder, tackle that bit harder, pass the ball better and the first 25 minutes of the second half was the best I’ve seen us pass the ball this season.

“But we couldn’t quite turn that possession into clear chances and we probably needed to score another goal in that time and of course when it’s only 2-1 you leave yourself open to what happened at the end.”

Attfield should welcome back centre-half David Cain for tonight’s match as well as a number of other players who weren’t deemed fully fit for Saturday’s match.