Royston Town Veterans 3 Birchanger Veterans 2 A STUNNING last-minute strike from the prolific Paul Lewis helped Royston Vets beat Birchanger Vets 3-2 at Garden Walk last weekend. With the return of Colin Bowers, Daryl Quinn, and Carlo Silenti, and a stron

Royston Town Veterans 3 Birchanger Veterans 2

A STUNNING last-minute strike from the prolific Paul Lewis helped Royston Vets beat Birchanger Vets 3-2 at Garden Walk last weekend.

With the return of Colin Bowers, Daryl Quinn, and Carlo Silenti, and a strong looking bench, Town went into the match confident of victory, and controlled the opening minutes with some excellent possession football.

The pace of Lewis and strike partner Peter Leete always looked likely to catch out the Birchanger defence, and so it proved when a defensive error allowed Lewis a clear run on goal. He kept his cool and slotted the ball wide of the advancing keeper.

Leete twice went close with headers, while Kevin Barthrop also shot wide, before Royston doubled their advantage. Leete made a good run down the right before unselfishly squaring for Lewis to side-foot home. Minutes later Lewis spurned a great chance to complete his hat-trick when he escaped the attentions of his marker but saw a powerful shot turned away by the keeper.

Royston looked to add more goals in the second half, but poor finishing let them down and two breakaway goals from Birchanger levelled the scores at 2-2.

Silenti and Lewis both missed good chances as Town struggled to convert their possession into goals. But with the match seemingly heading for a draw Leete flicked a long throw into the path of Lewis, who, with his back to goal, produced an overhead kick which flew into the top corner.

It was Lewis's second ­consecutive hat-trick, as the striker also netted all three goals in Royston's 3-1 win at Walkern Vets.

In this match the Vets took a deserved lead when Colin McArthur put over a ­precision cross which Lewis touched home from close range.

However, despite solid defending from Steve Holden and Kevin Flack, Walkern equalised just before half-time.

Kevin Barthrop moved out to the right wing for the second half, and this paid immediate dividends when he outpaced his marker and put over another tantalising centre which Lewis ­converted.

Peter Leete went close with a curling effort before Lewis completed his treble and wrapped up the win.

This time Jason Clark provided the pass for the striker, who confidently beat the advancing keeper.