Royston moved through to the next round of the Herts Senior Charity Cup following a 4-2 victory against Cheshunt at Theobalds Lane.

The game was a largely disjointed affair with neither team playing with any great fluency, partly attributable to the number of changes both teams had made from their respective league games on Saturday.

It didn’t take long for the game to spring to life, with Daniel Brathwaite having to make a goal saving block after Oluwole Akinsaya had rounded debutant Aaron Benstead in the Royston goal. The reprieve was short lived though, as from the resulting deep delivered corner, Mark Hughes was able to head back across goal, where Bobby Sears was on hand to open the scoring in just the 9^th minute.

Royston’s response was immediate, as within one minute they were on level terms. A James Potton through ball found Josh Castiglione, who pounced on a moment’s hesitancy from the home goalkeeper, to slide the equaliser into the bottom corner.

With both sides giving away possession too cheaply no further chances were created until the Crows went into the lead in the 22^nd minute. Gus Scott-Morriss sent in a weak looking cross that was completely missed by the Ambers centre half. Bradley Bell didn’t need a second invitation to latch onto the ball and drive it into the top corner giving Harry Girling no chance.

The game continued to be a scrappy affair, although Royston did work the ball well on a few occasions to open up good crossing opportunities and they nearly extended their lead in the 29^th minute as the Cheshunt defence again failed to cut out a cross. This time, home stopper Girling was able to tip Joe Hankin’s effort over the bar.

With little other action the half petered out and Royston took a 2-1 lead into the break.

Royston re-emerged having made all 3 substitutions and were soon 3 -1 up, as Jhai Dhillon converted a penalty after he had been clearly fouled in the box, much to the consternation of the home bench.

Having gained a two goal lead, Royston were pushed back by a determined Cheshunt side and with neither full back venturing as high up the field struggled to maintain good possession. Having started to get on top, Cheshunt were rewarded in the 62^nd minute as a good free kick routine found Nathan Koranteng with too much space on the edge of the area, and he took his time to place a low shot into the net.

Two minutes later Cheshunt were nearly level as a lapse in the Crows defence saw Akinsaya have a great chance to level things up, but another debutant, Adam Crowther, was well placed to block his goal bound effort.

Having wasted the chance to equalise, the game was put beyond Cheshunt in the 71^st minute as Vance Bola latched onto a Potton flick, turned his marker inside out and finished well into the bottom corner to restore the Crows two goal advantage.

Cheshunt kept pressing forward but Royston looked increasingly confident, although late on Benstead had to make a good low save, and ex-Crow Emiel Aiken headed over, but the restoration of the 2 goal cushion had made sure there would be no nervous last few minutes to play out.

1-Benstead, 2- Scott-Morriss, 3-Dhillon, 4-Thomas, 5-Murray, 6-Brathwaite © (15-Crowther 46), 7-Castiglione, 8-Potton, 9 Hankin (12-Bola 46), 10-Sesay, 11-Bell (17-Powell 46)

Unused subs – 14-Gordon, 16-Alomenu

MOM – Josh Castiglione

Attendance – 70