Crows boss reflects on a disappointing weekend after going out of the FA Vase

ROYSTON TOWN boss Paul Attfield admits he is extremely disappointed with the manner in which his team were knocked out of the FA Vase fourth round on Saturday against Bournemouth.

His team found themselves two goals down after 20 minutes on the south coast, and despite the Poppies being reduced to 10 men before half time, and Ricky Young’s strike with half an hour to play, Town were not able to haul themselves back into the match on what proved a frustrating afternoon for the Hertfordshire side.

The Crows went into the match full of confidence and on the back of six straight victories. However the players were unable to replicate those performance levels and, as a result, were not good enough to earn their place in the last 16 of the competition.

“We didn’t battle the conditions well enough,” Attfield told the Royston Crow. “We never really controlled the game like we know we can and it was a ‘huff and puff-type’ performance from us. When we scored we felt we could get back in it but we never really looked like getting a second goal.

“We thought we did everything right going into the game – we went down on the Friday evening, we’d watched them a couple of times so we knew what we were going into. We just needed the performance but we didn’t start well and when you go two goals down you’ve got a problem.

“Even when it was 11 versus 10 you wouldn’t have known that was the case. The players were obviously disappointed because they performed well below what they are capable of. If we had played like that in a league game we would have lost nine times out of ten.

“We had so many people come down and watch us but the players just didn’t deliver on the day. We had a genuine chance to reach the latter stages of the competition but we let ourselves down.”

There was one small consolation for Attfield and the team to take from the weekend, as promotion rivals Dunstable Town dropped points in their 3-3 draw at home to Aylesbury United.

“Yeah, Dunstable Town dropped points so from a league point of view that was good for us,” he added.

“We can concentrate on the league now and we’ve got a few other cup competitions as well. You want to be able to get the players back on the football pitch as quickly as possible and we’ve got two cup games this week so they wont have too long to lick their wounds.

“I want to see a reaction from them and hopefully we will get better performances this week.”

Bournemouth boss Ken Vaughan was understandably delighted with his team’s victory, and they now face an away trip to either Runcorn Town (Cheshire) or Billingham Synthonia (Teeside) in the next round.

“It was a game of two halves as such – we capitalised on the wind and got a lot of balls into their box, but the second half was like the Battle of the Alamo.

“We knew at half-time we would be defending for our lives, but that’s what we do – we are a good defensive side.

“The wind was very tricky and we rode our luck a bit, but we got what we deserved.”