Royston Town 0-5 Wroxham
The FA Carlsberg Vase
Fifth Round Proper
3pm, Saturday 13 February 2010
Garden Walk, Royston Town FC
FA Carlsberg Vase results Wroxham may only be 13th in the Eastern Counties League Premier Division, albeit with several games in hand, but they were much too good for Royston Town of the Spartan South Midlands League in Saturday’s Fifth Round tie at a packed Garden Walk.
The Norfolk side managed just one goal in the first half but really went to town in the second, knocking the Crows off their branches with four more strikes to earn a Quarter Final at Needham Market on 27 February.
Leading up to kick-off there was rain and sleet and a sky so dark that the floodlights had to be switched on. Wroxham were switched on too, going a goal up with three and a half minutes on the clock. Paul Cook put a slide-rule pass through for Steve Spriggs, sprinting in from the right wing. He took the ball into the right side of the box and from an apparently impossible angle thumped it across ‘keeper Jorden Gibson and a foot inside the far post.
It was the visitors who continued to create chances, although Royston’s Luke Robins did take the ball round Scott Howie in Wroxham’s goal before being crowded out by three or four defenders.
Then Wroxham had a lethal spell early in the second period, scoring on 50 and 52 minutes to more or less put the tie to bed. The first goal again involved Cook and Spriggs, the former lobbing the ball over the last defender for the latter to run in behind and fire well wide of Gibson. Spriggs, a clear candidate for Man of the Match, set up Danny White for a hooked right-footer that flew into the corner for 3-0.
Royston made two substitutions to try and steady the ship but White was fouled from behind a yard inside the box on 73 minutes and substitute Owen Paynter’s spot-kick made a solid connection with the inside of a post before spinning over the line. Paynter played a key role in Wroxham’s fifth and final goal seven minutes later, turning the ball inside for Matt Daniels, another substitute, to lash it high into the net from six yards.
With six minutes to go Royston’s giant centre-forward Will Turl was shoved in the box to ironic cheers from home fans massed behind the goal. To complete a miserable afternoon for the Hertfordshire hosts Howie saved Robins’ penalty with ease. Now there will be an intriguing Suffolk v Norfolk clash in the next round with Wembley on the horizon.
Attendance 650
