Royston IV 3 Harpenden IV 1 ROYSTON completed an excellent second half of the league season with a thoroughly deserved victory over league champions Harpenden. This win, the seventh in a row ensures Royston finish runners up and if two sides are

Royston IV 3 Harpenden IV 1

ROYSTON completed an excellent second half of the league season with a thoroughly deserved victory over league champions Harpenden.

This win, the seventh in a row ensures Royston finish runners up and if two sides are promoted will mean they have earned promotion two years in a row.

Perry Noble again broke the deadlock, scoring with a deflected shot after a brilliant run from midfield.

Keith Markham scored his 21st goal of the season to make it a 2-0 lead at half time.

Only an excellent performance by the Harpenden keeper prevented the home side from extending this lead.

Harpenden got a goal back shortly after half-time and looked likely to get an equaliser as the home side lost their shape and began to give the ball away unnecessarily.

A couple of positional changes, saw Nick Broadley move to centre midfield and Andrew Simmons move to right midfield gave Royston more control of the game.

The home side effectively killed of the game as Steve Welding converted a Nick Broadley pass to make in 3-1 with only 10 minutes to go.

Welwyn Garden City IV 3 Royston III 0

ROYSTON'S promotion hopes were hit with this defeat at Welwyn.

The visitors started well and kept possession, but did not take the chances they created with excellent passing movement from both sides of the pitch.

The first 20 minutes should have resulted in a goal for the visiting side; as the ball was repeatedly played back into Colin Smith at sweeper and the move forward not resulting into the final accurate pass to make the goal.

From open play Royston conceded possession and gave a soft goal from a reverse stick shot from the Welwyn playmaker that gave Smith the run around and slotted his reverse stick shot through a crowded D to beat the stranded Gary Pinner in the visitors goal.

The second from the same player was from a penalty corner with the ball fiercely struck going through Pinner's pads.

Royston fought back with Michael Welding and Sam Polge switching on the right side with Polge delivering an inch perfect pass to the charging Simon Campbell for his shot to be parried by the Welwyn keeper and the ball drop behind.

The second half was much the same. The biggest problem was the lack of accurate passing through the midfield, so a switch took Chris Berry off to bring Mike Parsons into the left midfield with Royston pushing hard to gain a goal.

A penalty wrapped up the win for Welwyn, and Royston now need to win their remaining three games to have a chance of promotion.

Royston V 1 Letchworth VI 2

A solid first half performance gave Royston the edge in the early stages of the match.

Having much of the play Royston were allowed to move the ball around well from the back working though the mid-field and feeding the forwards.

They had many opportunities to score but by half time had only managed to take the lead with a single goal from Steve Gourd.

The second half was a turning point for Letchworth and with Royston not being able to find their first half form a Letchworth goal made it all square.

Royston responded well and showed determination to score the winning goal but were caught out by a Letchworth brake away that led to them scoring the late winning goal.