Gary Hackett's men have suffered three straight losses away from home, tasting defeat at Hitchin, Lowestoft and Tamworth since the turn of the year, which has been in stark contrast to their continuing strong home league record.
Striker Luke Benbow is again expected to be missing at Royston as he continues his recovery from injury, however, the Glassboys will be able to call on the services of new loan signing Zak Lilly as they look to complete a league double over the hosts.
With Kettering falling to defeat at Biggleswade last Saturday, there is now an eight-point gap between the league leaders and Stourbridge in second, while Stourbridge are currently seven points ahead of 3rd placed King's Lynn Town, who are due to visit the War Memorial Athletic Ground on the last Saturday of the 'regular' season, so it is imperative that the Glassboys continue to pick up points.
Royston finished 7th in the Southern League Premier Division last season after being promoted as champions of the Division One Central in 2017. The Crows made a strong start to the current campaign to suggest that they would be strong contenders for promotion this time around, but their challenge fell away during a dismal run of results which saw them claim only two victories in sixteen league games between the start of November 2018 and early February 2019 and they dropped back into the middle of the table. Royston then enjoyed four successive wins to climb back into the top half of the league standings, only to suffer a last gasp 1 - 0 defeat at home to Redditch a fortnight ago, although they bounced back with a 2 - 1 win at Bedworth last Saturday.
They have bolstered their playing ranks in the last couple of months with the signing of three players from St Neots with Taylor Parr, Luke Knight and Devante Stanley all moving to Garden Walk. The Crows have also had Tom Knowles on loan from Cambridge United recently. Knowles having scored the late free-kick winner for Kettering at Stourbridge back in January.
Stourbridge FC
