For any side, a central defender who can chip in with the odd goal is an asset. But for Maidstone United, Ryan Royston is more than just a defender who scores an occasional goal. For in the past two games, Royston has proved to be instrumental in The Stones gaining maximum points from their fixtures.
The game against Croydon was notable for the fact that this was the match in which Royston registered his first ever hat-trick and thanks to the other results going in their favour, The Stones extended their lead at the top of Ryman League One to five points.
Other than that, Maidstone were made to scrap for the victory and perhaps as a result of the fact that most of The Stones players got lost leading to a fifteen minute delay in the kick off, Maidstone looked particularly sluggish in the first half.
Certainly Royston was unimpressed with Maidstone’s first half performance saying: “At half time Lloyd said we were poor other than the goal. We started well in the first ten minutes then drifted out of the game and we gradually got worse as the first half went on.”
It seemed as if The Stones had got off to the ideal start on five minutes when Mo Takaloo made the most of Alex Tiesse’s pass to shoot past Sam Moore in the Croydon goal, but Takaloo was adjudged to have been offside.
Although Maidstone were enjoying the majority of possession, slowly the home side began to find some fluency and on twenty one minutes, Pat Mullin had to be alert to push Danny Young’s free-kick over the bar before Danny Walwren skipped past the challenges from Sam Tydeman and Errison Ahwan only to fail to trouble Mullin with his resultant shot.
With Maidstone facing the prospect of a half time rocket from Lloyd Hume and Alan Walker, Royston made sure that there was at least something positive to emerge from the opening forty five minutes when latched onto a loose ball inside the area and leathered his shot into the left hand corner of the net.
The second half saw an improved performance from The Stones as they dominated possession and both Takaloo and Nick Hegley both went close before Royston powered in an unstoppable header with sixty five minutes gone.
Some complacent defending from The Stones briefly let Croydon back into the game as Jason Mabbs scored from the edge of the area with a low drive but with just five minutes remaining, Royston completed his hat-trick. Once again, like so often in recent seasons, Aaron Lacy hurled the ball into the box and Royston’s header sailed past Moore.
This goal, like Royston’s second, was a typical central defender’s goal and he was delighted to have sealed his hat-trick in this manner saying: “ Alan Walker has been moaning at me all season about the fact I have been getting myself in the right position to score but then I haven’t been finishing that well. But today it all came together and I got two goals from such runs. I haven’t scored a hat-trick before day, even at youth level, so it was quite a surprise although obviously a nice one!”
There was still time for Maidstone to add gloss to their win with a fourth goal - their nineteenth in five games – thanks to a Simon Austin close range effort and the victory means that The Stones have now won their last six games.
So what does Ryan Royston make of The Stones’ current position? After the game, Royston was cautiously optimistic about Maidstone’s promotion chances saying: “We are top of the league and obviously that is where we want to stay for the rest of the season. The one team I have got my eye on is Tooting and Mitcham as they are flying. At the moment as far as I am concerned it is between the two of us but you never know what is going to happen, as there are still thirteen matches for us to play and any team from eleventh place upwards can still make the playoffs.”
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