Royston Town’s season of despondency was summed up on Saturday in a particularly poor penultimate home performance against mid-table Aylesbury United.

In 90 minutes of painful to watch football the Crows huffed and puffed throughout, but had no real cohesiveness and certainly didn’t have the team spirit that their visitor’s demonstrated.

Boss Steve Castle gave ex-pro Gary Hart his full debut and he showed undoubted class touches but this alone could not carry his new team to higher standards.

In-form Ryan Ingrey was dropped to the bench and Castle persisted with the struggling for form Luke Robins.

In a non-descript first half the only goal came from a Ducks’ corner that was delivered wide and low and bounced up sharply for skipper Jack Wood to connect with his head to loop over the static Royston markers.

Reece Dobson nearly hit back straight away with a move that saw him and Kaan Fehmi linking well and Dobson shooting just over.

Again the Crows worked hard to create decent footballing moves and Robins was unlucky with a flick and volley that went wide and Hart did similar with a low firm effort.

No changes were seen to the Royston line-up as they re-took the field and the home supporters’ hopes were prodded on 53 minutes as the scores were levelled with some quick feet and good run by Fehmi that brought a lateral cross that was crashed high into the net from two yards by full-back Jack Bradshaw.

Two substitutes were used as Robbie Mason replaced Dobson and Ingrey swapped for Fehmi pushing Hart upfront and this new combination almost sparked as Hart’s neat header was met by Mason whose half-hit shot was bravely blocked and the same duo worked together again for Hart to flick just over. Not to be ignored, Aylesbury United had a shot cleared off of the line and Joey Acheampong clipped the bar with a fierce long shot.

Apart from these rare chances, this dull game looked like finishing level until a moment of sheer beauty from Duck’s striker Acheampong in the 85th minute.

He connected brilliantly with a 25 yard shot on the half volley that rifled diagonally past Crow’s keeper George Lawton, clipping the far post perfectly to bounce back into the net and to take all three points home to Aylesbury.