Royston Town Women’s FA Cup hopes were shattered by an 88th-minute winner as they finished on the wrong end of a seven-goal thriller against Fulham Women in the second round.

The visitors landed the first blow in the ninth minute of Sunday's tie when a Fulham player headed an Annie Georgiou corner into her own net.

Both teams were looking to attack, resulting in an entertaining contest, with Royston having a chance to double their lead when Riana Badal played a good ball into Laura Mills and the keeper made a save.

However, the home side went very close to equalising in the 33rd minute when Ellie Olds hit the crossbar with a shot.

But it was their opponents who landed the next blow when Mills ran down the pitch and struck a low finish beyond the keeper’s reach to put her side in dreamland.

(Image: James Simpkins)

Unfortunately for the visitors, they were unable to take a two-goal lead into the break as Megalie Mendes scored in injury time in the first half.

However, Royston regained their two-goal cushion when Mills scored a second that was similar to her first goal, beating the keeper and the ball rolled into the empty net.

That lead was soon reduced as Ella Tagliavini made it 3-2 before the hosts landed a big sucker punch when Ella Newman equalised.

Fulham completed the comeback two minutes from the end of normal time when Olds got the decisive touch after a goalmouth scramble to break Royston’s hearts.

The women have another cup game this weekend when they travel to Essex to take on Bowers & Pitsea Women in the League Cup.

It’s been a great week for the men who followed up Saturday’s 3-1 home victory over Redditch United with a 4-0 triumph at Biggleswade Town on Tuesday night.

It might have turned into a very different evening had the hosts taken the lead with a penalty inside the opening 20 minutes but this was saved by Tommy Dixon-Hodge.

This was punished soon after when Josh Dawodu’s low cross was tapped home by Adam Murray at the far post to give the visitors a 23rd-minute lead.

The Crows doubled their advantage four minutes before the break when Ben Weyman was played in, saw his shot saved but Kian Harness latched on to the rebound to score.

Royston further turned the screw with a third goal in the 51st minute as Weyman scored at the second attempt after some quick thinking by Murray saw him throw the ball to Harness.

The gloss was applied in stoppage time when Archie Locke followed up his first goal for the club at the weekend with another following a near-post flick.

Saturday’s victory was secured in awful conditions, Harness setting the Crows on their way with a close-range finish from a Josh Coldicott-Stevens corner.

Locke made it two with a header from a corner and it was his goalmouth clearance that Luke Johnson latched onto to score his side’s third.

The visitors pulled one back through Jack Kelly but the damage was already done.

Royston head to Lincolnshire on Saturday to face Stamford in the league.