Steve Castle praised his side’s second-half attitude as Royston Town battled back to claim a 2-2 draw at Barton Rovers in Southern League Division One Central on Tuesday night but knows it could, and most probably should have been more.

The Crows dominated the opening half but somehow went into the break a goal down via Jordan Davis’ 37th-minute strike plus the heroics of home keeper Kyle Forster.

With the game taking a similar turn to Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Uxbridge at Garden Walk, in which the hosts converted just one of 25 efforts on goal, Royston dug deep and turned the game on its head midway through the second period as skipper Scott Bridges and Danny May provided the finishing touches twice in nine minutes to go 2-1 up.

However, Jason Blackett pounced late on to nick a point but Castle was satisfied his side had partially learnt from the weekend’s wastefulness.

Castle told the Crow: “I think we did really well overall, especially in the second half battling against the huge slope so I’m happy.

“I think on Saturday we could feel disappointed with 25 opportunities and one goal but in this one a lot of our efforts were on target and it is mostly down to their keeper that we couldn’t come away with the win so it is a step forward in that respect.

“I feel very confident that if we keep creating that amount of chances the victories will return sooner rather than later.”

Royston face a difficult December if they are to stay in touch with the league pacesetters, facing off against the only three sides sat higher in the league than themselves - leaders St Ives Town (December 26), Chalfont St Peter (December 12) and, next up this Saturday, AFC Rushden & Diamonds.

An ominous run of fixtures at a busy time of the year but Castle is laid back about the Crows’ chances.

He continued: “It’s easy to say now but if we can start to relax in front of goal more and take a few more chances that are coming our way then that will help us to win some of these tough games we have.

“These teams are at the top for a reason but then so are we so I think they will be just as wary about us as we are of them.

“At the end of the day, you have to win big games to gain success so for us, if we want to go two steps better than last year and get promotion, we have to beat the better teams and that’s just how it is.”