Royston Town's hope of putting two bad defeats behind them began well enough before having a shocker at home to Barwell.

The Crows' disappointing form had started with 5-0 drubbing away to Needham Market and then a 3-0 loss at Hemel Hempstead Town which knocked them out of the FA Cup.

A 3-2 away to Rushall Olympic hinted at something better but Tuesday's return to Garden Walk ended in a 4-2 loss to Barwell, the visitors scoring twice in the opening six minutes and the fourth after being reduced to 10 men.

Royston's second came in the 11th minute of stoppage time through Dan Newton with Matt Bateman getting the other.

The striker had scored on Saturday too in what had been a far better day. His goal and that of Nathan Tshikuna had twiced levelled the scores in Walsall.

Jay Rolfe was then sent off with 19 minutes to go but the resulting penalty was held by Dimi Kyriatzis and a minute into stoppage time, Jarid Robson popped up with the winner.

Manager Steve Castle had been delighted with the attitude in that success.

Speaking on the club website he said: "To a player, the boys were superb on Saturday. It wasn’t easy and for large parts of the game we were behind but the resilience the group showed was remarkable.

"To come back and win with 10 players showed just what character these boys possess.

"We were on the back foot from the start. Not having Muzza, Spyros or Mense to choose from was tough but the players that started the game dealt with it with a confident approach.

"Everyone pulled together to get a great result. The experienced lads, the younger ones, they all pulled together to secure a great comeback victory."

What will have annoyed him is that he had stressed that backing it up with a home win over Barwell was "of paramount importance" and they couldn't relax.

They go to Redditch United on Saturday.

Away from the league, the Crows will make their bow in this year's FA Trophy away to divisional rivals Stratford Town following the draw for the third round qualifying.

That will take place on October 8.