Royston Town boss Steve Castle has hailed ‘sublime’ striker Adam Marriott after the Crows in-form hitman hit four in 5-1 win over struggling Merthyr Town.
The Crows made it nine goals in two games after wins against Merthyr and Kings Langley, continuing a trend of high-scoring spells this season.
Hot-shot Marriott has netted six of those nine goals, finding top form on his return to the squad.
Speaking to CrowSport, boss Castle said: “There’s no disputing he’d walk into any team at our level or a level higher, he’s proven at this level and his finishing is sublime.
“It would be lovely if we could keep him. When he has played for he’s had more than enough goals, injuries have been a factor.”
“He’s a great lad who is a pleasure to have around.”
The legendary former Leyton Orient midfielder also said he would like to have Marriott for another season as he’s been unavailable to play as many matches as Castle would like and could have had an even bigger impact.
The former Stevenage man was aiming to equal his 40-goal season at Cambridge City in the Evo-Stik Southern League but he’s already missed 15 games.
However he is still Royston’s top scorer, ahead of fellow striking option John Frendo, who is currently serving a ban for abusive language in February’s 3-0 Weymouth defeat.
Castle, who said players should ‘fear for their jobs’ if they continued to show behaviour like Frendo’s, said: “Myself, the chairman and John cleared the air. He’s an experienced lad and he took everything that was said to him on the chin, and we move on.
“John’s a very good lad, a very talented player, but it’s a bit of an achilles heel and a problem that hopefully we can get to the bottom of.
“It’s all well and good putting disciplinary action in places but the lads are adults and they need to be responsible for their own actions.”
Frendo has one more game left of his suspension, and Castle said he will be available for selection at that time.
Marriott has gone on record saying he has a good understanding with Frendo, a partnership the Crows could benefit from as the play-off fight hots up with 12 games to go.
Their main rivals for the final play-off spot, with the other three play-off positions all but out of reach, are Slough Town, who’ve earned only a point in their previous two games, allowing rampant Royston to close the gap.
After Saturday’s game against Banbury was cancelled, Castle went to watch the Berkshire side draw 2-2 with bottom-half side Bishops Stortford.
Castle said: “It’s getting quite interesting. If we can take it to the last week of the season and have a fighting chance of taking six points off Slough to get in the play-offs that would be great.”
The Crows travel to Dorchester Town on Saturday, a side 22-points behind Castle’s side.
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