| Date | Tuesday 19 August 2014 |
| Match | Aylesbury v Royston Town |
| Competition | Southern League: Central Division One |
| Result | Lost 1-0 |
| Attendance |
118 |
| Royston Scorers | – |
| Crows MoM |
Paul Bastock |
The only Royston player to leave the pitch after this sub-standard and depressing match who could hold his head up high was veteran keeper Paul Bastock, who had stopped this embarrassing 1-0 loss seeing a scoreline as bad as the team performance, with some impressive saves and stops.
Steve Castle has got to go back to the drawing board as the display from his available squad on Tuesday night just wasn’t good enough. The tally of only one shot on target in a ninety minute game, despite dominating play and possession, has got to be viewed by the ex-professional player as unacceptable and the Crow’s inability to connect successfully to good set piece delivery must be extremely worrying for the Royston boss.
Aylesbury FC did create some half chances, but their only goal, scored in the 38th minute by Gareth Price, was a gift gleefully accepted after the usually safe Jack Bradshaw firstly mopped up a Moles breakthrough only to present the ball meekly to the surprised but grateful Price to smash home past the exposed Bastock.
The approach work from Royston was at times slow and ponderous and when the ball did eventually reach the final third it was lost cheaply or the selected pass being easily dealt with by the straight-forward, but extremely effective no nonsense defending from the Moles’ backline – notably Connor Baker who had a fine match at left back, not missing a header all game.
That was part of the problem in the latter part of this game as the Crows continued to play high balls forward that were easily won by the vertically superior defenders. The pressing from the central midfield pairing of Scott and Stuart Bridges was evident but their ultimate decision making when their team-mates were well-placed was poor, losing the ball too often and not bringing their attackers into this frustrating match.
Royston did have good chances late in the game to salvage something from the free-kicks and corners that were put in and assistant manager Chris Watters summed the inability to connect with one word “unacceptable”.
The Crows cause was not helped when they lost Lewis Endacott half way through the second half to a facial injury and Ryan Lockett, with minutes to go and no substitutes left, to what looked like a hamstring strain.
The Crows host the other side From Aylesbury on Saturday and then St Ives on Bank Holiday Monday and will need to raise their game considerably if they are to get something from these matches.
Team: Bastock, Azzopardi (Ingrey), Dhillon, Bradshaw, Endacott (Mentis), Bridges Scott, Bridges Stuart, Fehmi (Nightingale), Lockett, Hart, Watters.
Subs not used – Edwards, Russo.
