Southern League Central
Royston Town 2 Rugby Town 1
Rugby put in a disappointing performance in the opening match of the season to go down to a narrow defeat at Garden Walk against a physical Royston side. Manager Dave Stringer picked his strongest side despite a couple of forced absentees.
The home side started the game more positive and their intentions were clear from the start with striker Chris Watters seeing his first shot going agonisingly wide of the goal. Midfielder Kaan Fehmi got in on the act when he forced Rugby keeper Joe Mellings to punch away a ferocious free kick effort. Rugby couldn’t get hold off the ball with Royston constantly chasing and closing them down, and Fehmi saw his first time header go inches wide before the hosts took the lead in the 37th minute through the lively Watters. He received a through ball on right and at a tight angle managed to drill his shot past Mellings from about 10 yards out. Rugby’s response was just before half time when David Kolodynski fed through his fellow striker Seb Lake-Gaskin but he could only force a corner and not produce a shot after putting Royston’s 44 year old keeper under pressure.
Royston started the second half as they finished the first, and went further ahead in the 54th minute. Watters hit a powerful shot from just inside the area, Mellings managed to save it, however the rebound fell kindly to Ryan Lockett who coolly tucked the ball home. Boss Stringer had to make changes and brought on Richard Blythe and returnee Lewis Bishop to freshen things up and Rugby did play a little better for the remaining 20 minutes or so. Kolodynski produced his first shot on target producing an excellent save from Paul Bastock and just a minute later Nathan Fox got Rugby back into it with a tremendous strike, and 30 yards out managed to see Bastock off his line. Despite a late rally, Rugby failed to get the equaliser they needed to get back into the game to leave Hertfordshire deflated and pointless.
Rugby Town: Mellings 6, McBride 7, Kelly 6, Simpson 6, Gudger 6, Youngs 6, Marsden 6 (L.Bishop 5), Jephson 6 (Blythe 6), Kolodynski 5, Lake-Gaskin 5, Fox 7.
Subs not used: K.Bishop, Weale
Booked: L.Bishop
Star Man: Nathan Fox
Royston Town: Bastock, Azzopardi, Bradshaw, Bridges, Endacott, Wharton, Fehmi, Bridges, Lockett, Hart, Watters.
Attendance: 187
