Royston Town’s players and supporters have been celebrating the club clinching the Southern Division One Central title.

Members of the squad met at the club’s Garden Walk ground on Tuesday evening where news reached them that their nearest rivals, Farnborough Town, could only manage a draw at Kempston.

That result means the Crows are 14 points clear at the top of the league with four games to go and cannot be caught.

Next season Royston will compete at step three of the National League system as members of the Southern Premier League – this will be highest level the club has ever competed at in its 142 year history.

This will bring with it some potential tasty local derby games against the likes of Hitchin Town, St Ives, Biggleswade and St Neots

Chairman Steve Jackson, speaking at the club on Tuesday evening, said: “This is a fantastic achievement after coming runners up in the two previous seasons and I’d like to thank all the players, coaches and supporters for all their efforts in helping us win the championship.”

This is a far cry from the beginning of the season when the Crows got off to an awful start and were languishing in the lower regions of the league.

Thereafter the consistency the team have shown has really paid off including a run since Christmas of 17 games with only one defeat which generated 44 points with 62 goals scored and only 17 conceded.

The celebrations will really kick off when the club is presented by the vice chairman of the league with the championship trophy on Saturday, April 15 after their home game against Aylesbury.

Town, who travel to Fleet this weekend, are hoping for a big turnout of support against Aylesbury and have announced that admission will be on the basis of ‘pay what you want to’.

Their chairman added: “We want as many people from Royston to share and celebrate our achievement – this will be an historic event for our community and one which we hope will be the basis for further success.”