Royston through to South Midlands Cup semis

Royston Town 3 Broxbourne Borough 1

ROYSTON gained another Premier Division scalp with a convincing performance win over Broxbourne Borough at Garden Walk on Tuesday night to set up a South Midlands Cup semi final tie with Hertford Town next Tuesday.

Royston started well and in the opening three minutes Craig Hammond had an angled drive blocked by the keeper's leg and from the resulting corner Jamie Babbage had a headed heacked off the line by a defender.

Hammond opened the scoring for Royston with a sublime 18 yard volley into the top right hand corner but some defensive hesitancy when clearing the corner allowed Ryan Tuncatt the chance to level from close range soon after.

Despite the set back the Crows continued to dominate and took a deserved lead when Luke Robins lobbed the keeper from 18 yards after a defence splitting ball from Greg Jackson.

Within a few minutes of the restart Hammond had fired just wide from a fine Robins cross and a Robins 20 yard effort was tipped wide by the keeper.

From the resulting corner Arron Welch had a bullet header stopped on the line by a defender.

At the other end Ryan Wade had Broxbourne's best chance when his close range volley hit Jorden Gibson and flew over the crossbar for a corner.

The game got quite scrappy with five yellow cards being issued by a fussy referee when there were never any dirty challenges.

Broxbourne threw extra players forward but never looked threatening in the box and Royston won a last minute penalty when Jackson was brought down by the goalkeeper with Hammond converting from the spot to give Royston a fourth cup semi final of the season.

Royston: Gibson, Endacott, Stephens (Apostolos), Babbage, Cain, Welch, De Lacy (Edwards), Jackson, Young, Hammond, Robins (Malins). Subs: Bronti, Barlow.