Kempston 1-2 Royston

Kempston suffered a 2-1 defeat to league leaders Royston this afternoon.
The first half belonged to the hosts, and Kempston's pressure showed as they took the lead on the 9th minute through Marsala.
The score stayed at 1-0 until half time, however Kempston would have been disappointed they didn't extend their lead.
In the second half, the league leaders showed their quality, and had a lot more of the ball.
The equaliser came in the 67th minute as Brathwaite's header hit the back of the net.
The Crows gained confidence, and clinched the winner in the 80th minute through Murray's looping header.

Here are joint-manager Jimmy Stoyles' thoughts:
As always on a Saturday tough choices have to be made, every player in the group wants to play in big games We made one change from the Aylesbury game with Shepherd coming in for Riley.
We started the game with a real appetite, tempo and quality winning the majority of 1st and 2nd balls while playing some real good football. Looking defensively solid we built on that basis and was creating chance after chance. A good passage of play with Fuller, Ivy, Watson resulting in a finish from Marsala, 1-0 Rovers and well deserved.
We continued to dominate the game playing some real good football with the Royston keeper pulling off good saves to keep the score 1-0. A good cross ball from Fuller put Watson in front of goal who put it over the bar. An impressive first half but we should have gone in 3 up at HT.
Second half started evenly balanced with Royston showing more intent but was marshaled by the back 4 , and Rovers 6&8, Royston never causing Rovers problems in open play and we felt comfortable at 1-0. We started to give away and too many silly fouls which builds pressure, this resulted in a good delivery from Royston with their CB losing his marker for a good header which made it 1-1. Rovers were very much still in the game going into the last 15-20 mins. Rovers impressive No 5 Alex Stoyles came off injured on 74th minute with a head injury for Fryer. Going into the last 8/9 minutes Rovers pace up top was stretching Royston, while Royston's direct play, long throw ins and balls in box was creating pressure. A corner from Royston resulted in a poor goal from Rovers point of view, a nothing header somehow managed to find its way into the Rovers net 2-1 Royston.
This was a good benchmark for us against the leaders to see how far we have come at the half way stage in the season and this group has come a long way. Goals change games and on reflection we should have been out of sight after 45 minutes which cost us, in open play we restricted them to 1 shot but as all good teams do Royston kept going and peppered our box with good deliveries and long throw ins which we should have dealt a bit better collectively.
Disappointing result but everyone associated with Rovers should and can be proud of the performance, and attitude from this special group of lads.