Wednesday 25th January 2012. Royston Town 1 Cambridge City 1 (After extra time) (Cambridgeshire Invitation Cup 2nd Round) (Royston Town won 8-7 on penalties) (7.45pm kick off) att 180.
On my way to my seat I was greeted by some very jovial gentleman who said to his mate, “That’s that Grasshopper!” He mentioned this to me again later as I walked past him and so now he’s got his wish, a mention in my article! Nice to meet you Sir! For a long while I thought that I might not be seeing a goal at all today, as my afternoon youth match at Histon was a nil nil draw. Royston had the best of the first 15 minutes and more particularly the last 15 minutes of the 90 minutes of normal time. The remainder, of which was a highly watchable game, generally belonged to City. But things were just starting to hot up. Extra time saw Royston in the ascendancy, more particularly in the second period when the visiting keeper pulled off some fine saves as the Crows piled on the pressure. But time moved on as light swirling rain set in and still there were no goals. However we nearly got one on 117 minutes. From where we were standing it looked as though a Crows player bundled a City player off the ball inside the area. But the ref said that it was a shoulder barge. He might have also said that if you wait a couple of minutes you could have loads of penalties. Supporting the ref was the ref for the following nights youth match at Garden Walk who agreed with his action. But then a minute later Luke Robins put Royston ahead. We walked round ready to leave but three minutes into stoppage time City equalised. So onto penalties and all 22 players took one each. The defining one was the last one, taken by the Royston keeper, which successfully saw his side through to the semi finals!