Royston Town 2 Needham Market 4

After two hard fought games in the FA Trophy between these two teams the league fixture at Garden Walk ended up being a comfortable day at the office for the Marketmen, writes Paul Munn

A brace each from Adam Mills and Reece Dobson set up the the victory. Although Royston’s Vance Bola also scored a brace, but it was not enough to hold back a dominate Needham, who produced a good all round hard working team performance and in all honesty the winning margin could have easily been much wider.

It was Needham who opened the scoring in the seventh minute. A Needham corner was delivered to the near post by Gareth Heath where an unmarked Mills had all the time he needed to nod home from close range.

With the 27th minute approaching Needham, went from nearly going two-up to conceding the equaliser. Firstly, Mills was put through giving him a one-on-one with the keeper.

He tried to slide the ball passed him but the keeper got a fingertip on it to stop it going in as it came off the post and went for a corner. The corner itself was gathered up by the keeper Jow Welch, who punted it upfield where Joe Marsden and Bola battled for the ball. The later came out the strongest and chipped the Needham keeper from 20 yards.

Five minutes from the break saw Needham regain the lead, Dobson picking his spot perfectly from 18 yards.

But on the stroke of half-time Royston were back on terms with a second for Bola as he curled a shot into the far corner.

The second half couldn’t have started better for the Marketmen as they came close with an effort that required keeper Welch to be at his best to stop them taking the lead. However he could do nothing moments later when Gareth Heath found Mills, he tried his luck and struck his shot goalwards. However a Royston defender got a boot to it, but all that did was to deflect it passed the keeper and into the back of the net.

The purple patch continued when two minutes later Needham increased their advantage when Dobson received the ball inside the area, took his time and smartly lashed it passed the keeper.

Meanwhile, despite goals for Brendon Heath and Roman Carvell, Needham Market reserves lost 2-3 to Leiston in Thurlow One.

In a thoroughly entertaining game between two young sides, Leiston took the lead but Needham responded with a goal each side of half-time, before the visitors netted twice in the final 20 minutes.