Ridgeons Youth League

Somersham Town 0-4 Royston Town

ROYSTON TOWN U18s produced another fine performance in the Ridgeons Youth League on Thursday night in their 4-0 win at Somersham Town.

The young Crows are now guaranteed a second placed finish and will now hope results go their way if they are to pip leaders Stotfold to the title.

Again the squad was made up by mainly U16s and U17s after last week’s fine win versus Huntingdon Town and once again the youngsters did not disappoint against the team at the bottom of the table.

The hosts played a lot of good football in the first half but couldn’t break down the Royston defence and probably the pace the Crows in attack proved the difference on the evening.

Royston took a 7th minute lead when one of the best moves of the night involving Jake Booth, Ellis King and Daniel Bond ended with Jahrome Mullings getting beyond the last defender to half volley into the net from 12 yards.

The visitors continued to look the mostly to score albeit mainly from set plays. A trio of George Duffin inswinging corners caused horrendous problems in defence with Daniel Bond having one cleared off the line and the other two scrambled away.

The lead was doubled in the 40th minute when some strong individual work from Duffin on the right resulted in his whipped in cross being turned into his own net by the centre half.

The trend continued in the second half with Somersham having plenty of the ball but mainly being limited to efforts outside of the box that didn’t effectively trouble goalkeeper Harry Williams.

A formation change to 4-3-3 midway through the half helped Royston gain some dominance in the remaining time where they looked increasingly likely to add goals.

A handball by a home defender gave away a penalty but Luke Reed’s well placed spot kick was turned onto the crossbar by the keeper.

Royston weren’t to be denied and Bond drilled home an angled third goal with 18 minutes remaining from 10 yards.

Bond had another couple of efforts just miss the target as did Mullings and Booth before Duffin completed the scoring in the 85th minute with a fierce drive from a narrow angle.

There was a still time for a second spot kick, this time for the hosts after a foul in the area but Harry Williams pulled off a stunning one-handed stop to his right to keep a deserved clean sheet