Royston Town joint manager Chris Watters welcomed Cheshunt to Garden Walk for the first preliminary round of the FA Cup having played for the Ambers earlier in his career. But he wasn’t in charitable mood as his Crows side ran out 1-0 winners.

These two teams are separated by a 30 minute drive along a stretch of the A10 at opposite ends of the road that seperates North East and South East Hertfordshire; or the length of time it takes to watch an episode of The Bill.  The popular crime drama that was curated by Royston resident Geoff McQueen who named Sun Hill after a street name in the town.

Cheshunt started the better and created numerous chances but found Crows keeper Louis Chadwick in good form. The rest of the half was punctuated with a couple of penalty shouts for both sides. In the sixth minute Greg Sandiford’s darting run into Cheshunt’s penalty area was adjudged to have been stopped fairly. While Cheshunt were denied a spot kick, too, when the away support felt they had been robbed.

Royston improved after the break after Samson Esan was introduced as a substitute and he was able to influence the game. There was nothing criminal about the winning goal however, which came in 74th minute, when a Josh Coldicott-Stevens cross was nodded back by Cain Keller for Florian Tsaguim to score.