Andy Peaks reflects on Tuesday's defeat to Royston | AFC R&D 1-3 Royston Town

 



AFC Rushden & Diamonds suffered a fourth league defeat of the season at the hands of Royston Town on Tuesday night (28th).

The Crows raced into an early two-goal lead with Joshua Williams converting from a cross and Isaac Galliford pouncing on Ben Garwood’s short back pass. Jesse Akubuine halved the deficit as he capitalised on Royston’s mistake of their own before Brandon Adams secured the points for the visitors late on with a spectacular spinning volley.

It was a wet and windy evening at Hayden Road which had an impact on proceedings, but Royston utilised the conditions to their advantage early on. Isaac Galliford skipped down the left wing and whipped in a dangerous delivery, skidding off the surface, for Joshua Williams to slam home at the back post.

The visitors sensed an opportunity to extend their lead and soon after found another goal. Ben Garwood’s backward pass was robbed by Isaac Galliford who tore down on goal and slotted the ball past Dean Snedker.

Speaking to AFCRDTV, Andy Peaks was left disappointed and believes the opening minutes foreshadowed the events that followed.

“I knew exactly what to expect from Royston from previous years with Steve’s [Castle] teams” said Peaks.

“We had to compete with them, physically, and we didn’t do that so that set the tone. To be two [goals] down in 15 minutes, it was always going to be a tough night after that and I’m disappointed. Yeah, the conditions were not great, there’s always going to be mistakes but for me we weren’t at the races tonight”.

Jesse Akubuine gave Diamonds a route back into the game as he pounced on Adam Murray’s short back pass, rounded Joe Welch in goal and rolled the ball into an empty net.

The Diamonds midfielder scored his second league goal of the season, following his strike at Needham Market a few weeks ago, and joins Alex Collard as one of the club’s leading scorers this season.

Rushden traditionally look to apply more pressure in the second half of matches at Hayden Road, particularly when going ‘down the hill’ and shooting towards the Maple Road end but the Diamonds manager felt he did not get the reaction he was craved in the second period against Royston.

“The positive at half-time was that we were still well in the game”, admitted Peaks.

“For me we never really got going [in the] second half either. [There were] not a lot of positives in the fact that we didn’t pass the ball well enough, we didn’t create goalscoring opportunities and therefore we didn’t trouble their keeper.

Royston top scorer Brandon Adams entered the frame as a substitute and had the defining impact of the match. The ball was knocked down for the forward who struck a sweet volley, on the turn, which nestled into the top corner and killed the contest.

“They [Royston] play the game how this league is all about”, said Peaks.

“Hitchin are a little bit different as in they play loads of football, but this is proper Step 3 football. They’re a team of men, they’ve been in it a long time, they play into areas, for set-pieces and they do the fundamentals really well and they were better than us tonight”.

The defeat to Royston sees Diamonds drop into 12th position in the table with ten points from their opening eight matches.

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