CROWS WIN 5-3 BY THE A3
BALHAM FC v ROYSTON TOWN FC
Saturday 21st September 2019
Royston Town twice had to come from behind to progress in the Emirates FA Cup away to Balham, two divisions below the Crows.
The game kicked off with Balham playing down the hill at Wibbandune, home of both Balham and their landlords Colliers Wood United. A well-worked move saw our hosts draw first blood after just eight minutes as Jack Robinson fed his strike-partner Tom Read who finished neatly past Joe Welch.
This early advantage lasted just six minutes when Birthday boy Matt Bateman’s poked shot was saved by Balham keeper Haydn Read but the ball fell to the feet of Scott Bridges who gladly tucked the ball home.
On 31 minutes Balham regained the lead with Tom Read repaying his strike partner for Jack Robinson to score. Once again the lead didn’t last long as in the 39th minute the ball was fed out wide to Joe Newton who proceded to turn Balham full back Anthony Thompson inside out before driving the ball forcefully past Read to make it 2-2.
The second half carried on in the same entertaining vein as the first. This time it was the turn of the Crows to take the lead through Matt Bateman’s tidy finish finding the far corner from inside the box. Undeterred the hosts continued to press causing the Crows to often give up possession cheaply. With fifteen minutes to go Balham’s impressive work rate was rewarded with an equaliser – Piers Oldland tapping home after some great work and a decent cross from Tomasz Wocial.
Just four minutes after being pegged back the Crows regained the lead from Adam Murray’s powerful header from a Gus Scott-Morriss corner. Despite taking the lead for the second time it wasn’t until Adam Murray’s second goal of the game, a neat lob past the advancing Read in the Balham goal, that the Crows looked truly comfortable and could then start to look forward to being in the hat for the next round.
Royston: 1-Welch, 2-Scott-Morriss, 3-Newton, 4-Bridges, 5-Murray, 6-Brathwaite ©, 7-Crowther (Adams 58 mins), 8-Asafu-Adjaye, 9-Martin, 10-Bateman (Knight 71 mins), 11-Ofosu (Mentis 67 mins)
Unused: 15-Joseph, 16-Castiglione, 17-Smart (GK), 18-Green
MOM: Adam Murray
| BALHAM | ROYSTON TOWN | |
| 8 | EFFORTS ON TARGET | 8 |
| 4 | EFFORTS OFF TARGET | 2 |
| 2 | OFFSIDE | 5 |
| 8 | FREE KICKS AWARDED | 10 |
| 3 | CORNERS | 2 |
| 0 | YELLOW CARDS | 2 |
| 0 | RED CARDS | 0 |
This match report is kindly sponsored by Lounge India.
Lounge India is an exceptional Indian Restaurant based in Royston. They take great pride and care in every aspect of producing the food from their wide an varied menu and also the service. The authentic cooking methods used by their highly skilled and experienced chefs guarantee mouth-watering and memorable dishes. Lounge India insist on using only the finest natural ingredients in their dishes and each is cooked fresh to order. For more details visit Lounge India
