Robins scores late as Crows catch the worm

Wormley Rovers 1

Royston Town 2

Floodlit Cup First Round

LUKE ROBINS’ 86th-minute winner ensured Royston got their defence of the Floodlit Cup up and running on Tuesday night.

This was a tough match for the Crows, who had to work hard against a resilient Wormley Rovers side from the Herts Senior County Premier Division.

They had to wait until the 70th minute before taking the lead when Jack Bradshaw prodded home Jason Beck’s miscued effort following a Joe Clemo corner.

But for all their hard work to get their noses in front, they allowed Rovers to equalise within two minutes of the restart. The centre midfielder was allowed too much time in the middle of the park and he picked out Mitchell Linger with a through-ball and the striker kept his cool to beat Crows’ ‘keeper Will Norris.

However, Paul Attfield’s side continued to probe for a winner and it came with four minutes remaining when Lewis Endacott’s cross was headed home by Robins despite being clattered by the Wormley ‘keeper in the process.

Attfield said he was pleased to eventually come through the tie, in a competition that means a lot to the club having won it in each of the last three seasons.

“When you play a team from the division below you’ve got to force the game from the start and get your noses in front and we didn’t press the game well enough in the first half,” said Attfield.

“The longer they were in it the more they were going to keep their work-rate up but once we scored we switched off and all of a sudden they’re back in the game again, so it wasn’t a comfortable night.

“I’ve been in that position before, when you play a team from a level above it’s your one big game and you want to do well. But Luke did well with the header to win it and he probably got a whack on the head for his trouble.

“We wanted to prioritise this competition because we’ve won it the last three years and it’s a good record, which means a lot to the club.”