Date	Sunday 2nd September 2012
Match	Royston Town Youth v Hertford Town
Competition	Pre-Season Friendly
Result	Lost 1-2

We played our second pre season friendly against a very good Hertford Town who came runners up in the very strong Mid Herts Rural League and reached the last four of the county cup.

 

We started this game really sluggishly and were second best all over the pitch and it came as no surprise that after only two minutes Hertford took the lead with a neat finish eight yards out. The next twenty minutes followed the same pattern and only good defending from Alistair, Jack, Callum and Matt and some fine saves from Robbie kept us in it. To be fair to Rhys when we did get the ball up front he did something with it and was causing the Hertford back four plenty of problems with his hold up play and movment. We did start to get more into the game when James R moved into the middle of the park and put his foot in. We started to test the Hartford goalkeeper and the game became a lot more even. With five minutes to go before half time we won a corner which James R delivered and Rhys as he so often does lost his marker and his bullet header left there keeper with no chance, so at half time we were level 1-1.

 

Myself and Ash were not happy with that first twenty minutes too many of the boys gave the impression of a late night something which we needed to get across so it will not happen again in the future. The positives were how they fought there way back into the game and we asked for them to show more patience on the ball and look to support Rhys quicker in the final third.

 

A really open second half with both teams having and missing chances, both teams knocked the ball around well and were both putting some nice passing moves together there really was nothing to choose between the sides now. Eamon deserves a special mention his work rate was as usual first class and I lost count of the times he made strong but fair winning tackles. We ended up losing this game with ten minutes to go, for the sixth time Hartford took a long throw and there big number sixteen out jumped us and planted his header beyond Robbie for the winning goal, it was slightly rough justice on us but against the really top sides you must stay switched on for the whole game.

 

Plenty to work on but also plenty of positives, the way we knocked the ball around and kept it at times was fantastic to see and once again this team showed it will not roll over and are a match for any side in the county.