Cheshunt Reserves 0 Royston Town 4 THE Crows moved within a point of Stony Stratford Town at the top of the South Midlands Division One table with four more goals seeing off Cheshunt Reserves on Saturday. It was a strangely subdued performance from Ro

Cheshunt Reserves 0 Royston Town 4

THE Crows moved within a point of Stony Stratford Town at the top of the South Midlands Division One table with four more goals seeing off Cheshunt Reserves on Saturday.

It was a strangely subdued performance from Royston, with the equally youthful Cheshunt piling on the pressure in what was a slow first half for the visitors.

From the off, the home side attacked using their immaculate pitch to great effect, with their two tricky wingers causing Royston problems. Fortunately their final ball lacked the quality to hurt Damion Williamson's goal with The Crows' defence working overtime to thwart the Cheshunt attack.

A couple half chances went a miss for the home side, with one clear opportunity blazing over the bar. So it came as a surprise when Royston took the lead after 14th minutes when Peter Chappell's quick throw in found Tom Malins whose through ball was duly slotted home by striker Ashley Townsend.

Other than that Royston remained relatively quiet in front of goal, as their normally effective passing game never found its tempo, much to the annoyance of manager Paul Attfield - who vented his own frustrations at half time.

And it seemed to pay off, as The Crows returned to action with a spring in their step, despite Jamie Babbage having to scramble one Cheshunt effort off from the line early on.

Gradually the visitors began to turn the game around with defender David Cain going close with one effort, before striker Craig Hammond added a second after 66 minutes.

Royston's number nine grabbed his 21st of the season courtesy of the penalty spot after Luke Robins was upended in the Cheshunt box, sending the keeper the wrong way with a confident strike.

Robins was then replaced with teenager Greg Jackson, who made an immediate impact lobbing the ball over the top for Hammond to square for the advancing Townsend for 3-0.

The score line was then completed in injury time following a howler from the host keeper who put the ball on a plate for Malins, who calmly rolled the ball into an empty net from 25 yards.

Attfield said: "The score line was a fantastic one for us because there was never a four-goal difference between the two teams on that showing. We created five or six chances and scored four goals, which once again shows our strength up front.

"However, I was very disappointed with the overall performance and the attitude that was shown by the majority of the players in the first half especially.

"We played slightly better in the second half, but our collective work rate and desire were not at acceptable levels and we got away with it."

However Attfield warned: " We will need to be better on Saturday when we face Stony Stratford Town.