The win came courtesy of a Sohan Dhana first half strike, bamboozling the defence as he sought a chink in the armour.

Sam Levene engineered a wonder save at the death of the half to secure a crucial lead and, as Royston lost their early momentum, Gate capitalised through some cute touches to engineer a string of three shorts. From the first Will Hargrove slipped the ball back to injector Jon Huddleston to lash home. The second saw an inch perfect in out with Sohan before Will tucked it away. Finally, Will found space to flick the ball home from the third. Clinical.

Once again the team triumphed through a potent combination of youth and experience. The defence was strong again, Steve Gwynn-Jones MVP in a masterful display alongside James Rushton, Jon and Fergus Comrie.

Oli Yaoz, Arun Solanki and Simon Holmes held a high midfield line to maintain constant pressure and Alex Prior and Felix Rushton were a permanent thorn in the opposition defence, always getting ahead of their markers alongside Sohan.

The consolation goal came at the death from an inch perfect short corner strike after Gate had earlier successfully run down a couple of Royston chances.

Alongside MVP Steve, Jon picked up 3 votes with others for Will, Oli, Felix and Fergus. It was though, once again, a true team performance.

Up to fifth now for 4As, on a string of results post the turn that would have seen them second in the table. Up next old foes, fourth placed WGC. Bring it on…