A highly entertaining cup tie between two youthful teams, was finally won by the Crows, as they held their nerve to win a penalty shoot out, after the 90 minutes had produced a 4-4 draw.

In a topsy-turvy game it was Lowestoft who drew first blood as early as the 8^th minute. Visiting forward Ben Fowkes swept past two weak tackles, which was a feature of the defending throughout the 90 minutes, before striking a firm drive inside Joe Welch’s near post. The lead was nearly doubled four minutes later, after more chaotic Crows defending eventually resulted in Gus Scott-Morriss scrambling the ball off the line and eventually away from danger.

With the Crows regularly misplacing passes when in good attacking positions, it was from a Lowestoft defensive error that they restored parity. Joshua Curry, under no pressure, played the ball to home youngster Joe Newton, whose run into the area was cynically stopped for a clear penalty. Rohdell Gordon made no mistake with the penalty, driving the ball just inside Elvijs Putnins right hand post.

The home fans didn’t have to wait long for another goal as just 2 minutes later, with the game approaching the half hour mark, Vance Bola controlled a very high looping cross from Sam Corcoran and slammed the ball into the net, with the Trawlerboys defence offering no resistance as they watched on, momentarily seemingly forgetting they were involved in a football match.

Unfortunately, the Crows couldn’t hold onto their lead until half time, as again more poor defending resulted in Henry Pollock turning in a low cross to restore parity in the 43^rd minute.

The second half continued as an open affair and Lowestoft should have taken the lead, when with the goal at his mercy, Thomas Hughes was only able to scoop an effort up into the air for Welch to easily collect, when he should really have had to pick the ball out of the net.

Royston then hit a purple patch as half time substitute Tom Newman saw his curling effort excellently tipped over by Putnins, a Corcoran cross just eluded three onrushing Crows at the back post and Gordon saw a low shot well turned round the post. Royston were eventually rewarded for their pressure in the 61^st minute as Dan Gallin followed up a well struck Bola shot to turn in his first senior goal for the club.

Lowestoft weren’t behind for long though, as Hughes made up for his early miss, by firing low into the corner of the net in the 69^th minute to equalise the scores at 3-3. This goal took the wind from the Crows sails, as the game became more even and the attacking impetus swung back Lowestoft’s way and it was they who scored a fourth with nine minutes left. Fowkes was played through and strode clear of the home defence, before confidently striking the ball past Welch for his second goal.

To the credit of the by now mostly youthful Crows line-up, they kept pushing for an equaliser, and as happened in the league game 16 days earlier, it arrived in the 5^th minute of added time as Adam Crowther headed in a long Scott-Morriss throw to take the tie to penalties.

With the first three penalties all missed, Newman drove the second Crow’s spot kick home. With Welch saving the third Trawlerboy penalty and Bola and Corcoran scoring their efforts it was 3-1 to Royston, who progress to the next round, and a home tie with Berkhamsted, to be played at Garden Walk on Tuesday 12^th February.

Royston: 1-Welch, 2-Scot-Morriss, 3-Oswick (15-Newman 46), 4-Thomas, 5-Murray © (12-Johnson 46), 6-Crowther, 7-Gordon, 8-Corcoran, 9-Bola, 10-Neal (14-Gallin 48), 11-Newton

Unused: GK-Smart

MOM: Joe Welch