| Date | Saturday 23 August 2014 |
| Match | Royston Town v Aylesbury United |
| Competition | Southern League: Central Division One |
| Result | Won 3-0 |
| Attendance |
169 |
| Royston Scorers |
Watters, Fehmi, Stuart Bridges |
| Crows MoM |
Kaan Fehmi |
In a much improved all round team performance Royston secured all three points with a solid 3-0 victory against an overwhelmed Aylesbury United side. The score-line could have been more emphatic as chances were missed by the Crows but the buoyant home crowd were ultimately satisfied and looking forward to the next game against St Ives on Bank Holiday Monday.
Steve Castle was forced to make a couple of changes with Ryan Wharton returning for the injured Lewis Endacott and Robbie Nightingale starting on the right as Ryan Lockett was on holiday. Kaan Fehmi was pushed up front to support Gary Hart and this seemed to spur on Fehmi to a man of the match display. The bench saw the return of Reece Dobson from Takeley to hopefully help with the striker situation.
Royston were up for this one and an early chance was delivered in from the right and Gary Hart launched an acrobatic overhead kick that needed a good stop from keeper Jack Sillitoe to deny the Crows a very early lead.
Centre back and skipper Jack Bradshaw found himself in a great position following some good play by Jhai Dhillon but put his low shot wide when the goal gaped and briefly thoughts dwelled on missed chances from the two previous games.
These pessimistic thoughts were swept away as on 15 minutes left winger Chris Watters pounced on some poor clearance work from Jack Wood and under pressure slotted a waist high shot past the dive of Sillitoe.
Royston were pushing hard to increase this lead and the Ducks dug deep to hold on until half-time when just before the break Sillitoe did brilliantly to twice deny Bradshaw as the Royston man first powered in a bullet header from a Stuart Bridges’ corner then followed up the rebound with another well blocked shot.
It should have been more but the interval showed just a one goal advantage. However, this was quickly doubled two minutes in to the second period with the lively Fehmi heading at the back post from another Stuart Bridges well delivered cross.
Again it was all Crows as they patiently maintained good possession and dominated most passages of play with Nightingale putting in a good shift alongside the equally impressive Scott Bridges.
Castle was forced to make two quick changes as Watters was feeling a hamstring pull and Ross Collins came on and Hart had took a knock to the head so was sensibly replaced by the returning Dobson.
It was Dobson’s pace and purpose that provided the impetus for the Crows third goal as a tricky, jinking run and shot was blocked low and the hard working Stuart Bridges, in the right place at the right time, buried the rebound. Bridges was feeling a groin problem so was immediately replaced with Spyros Mentis.
The Ducks had no real response to the determined Crows today and the home side’s dominance prevailed and despite a late effort from Ben Baines that Paul Bastock dealt with easily the visitors were below par and there was only one real result possible with a clean sheet bonus and Castle must have been pleased with his squad’s response to the disappointment of the previous outing.
Team: Bastock, Azzopardi, Dhillon, Bradshaw, Wharton, Bridges Scott, Bridges Stuart (Mentis), Nightingale, Fehmi, Hart (Dobson), Watters (Collins). Subs not used – Theobald, Ingrey.
