Royston won a physical encounter against league new boys Basford to get their campaign off to a winning start.

The Crows were out of the blocks quickly and Jarid Robson should have opened the scoring as early as the second minute, as his close range header from George Ironton’s well flighted cross was saved by the outstretched foot of Kieran Preston in The Lion’s goal. Robson was not to be denied though, as he opened up his Crow’s goal account just eight minutes later as he was on hand to head in at the back post after Adam Murray had headed James Brighton’s deep cross back across goal.

The lead was doubled just 7 minutes later as Murray’s harassing caused Riece Bertram to under hit his back pass. Matt Bateman closed down Preston, winning the 50:50 tussle to leave him with the simple task of finishing into an empty net.

Basford soon hit back though, skipper Matthew Thornhill was given too much space in midfield and was able to cross into the box for Joshua Barnes to time his run to perfection and head past Dimi Kyriatzis.

The second half saw few chances, Basford looked to get the ball forward early, but on the whole the Crows defence dealt with everything that was thrown at them, restricting the away team to just a couple of efforts on target that Kyriatzis easily dealt with. 

The win was sealed in injury time as debutant Nathan Tshikuna’s low 25 yard strike nestled in the bottom corner to give the Crows the perfect start to the season.

Royston: 13-Kyriatzis, 2-Henry, 3–Brighton, 6-Mensah, 18-Rolfe (20-Bustamante 62), 8-Newton, 4-Tshikuna, 7-Ironton (11-Williams 93), 10-Robson (19-Mentis 58), 5-Murray ©, 10-Bateman

Unused: 12-Keane, 15-Green

MOM – Carl Mensah