Royals were knocked out of the Charity Cup today, by a determined and well organised Meole Brace Colts team, who over the 70 minutes just deserved their victory. In windy, freezing and wet conditions, the game nearly did not go ahead, but the referee decided in the end that it was just playable.

Royals were on the back foot from the start, with their opponents dominating midfield. There seemed to be a large hole in midfield due to the Royals central midfielders pushing forwards much of the time. This resulted in the Colts being able to take control of the area.

After 20 minutes Weynberg was introduced to fill this gap and Royals succeeded in getting back into the game in this area. For the rest of the first half they matched their opponents and were able to start passing the ball with better effect.

Although neither team was able to break the deadlock in the first half, the best chance fell to Lewis, when he saw his shot ricochet off the cross bar from just 5 yards out.

Watts replaced Agnew at the start of the 2nd half and the first 15 minutes were an evenly matched affair with both sides creating chances.

Meole Brace saw one of their shots hit the post, another superbly cleared off the line by Green with a diving header and another cleared at the last moment by Al-Houbani.

Just when it looked that the game would go into extra time, Royals were awarded a penalty for a foul committed just inside the area. Green stepped up to take the spot kick, but saw his shot expertly saved by the Meole Brace keeper. He was able to rush up to the rebound, but hit his second attempt over the bar.

This seemed to give Meole Brace new hope and from somewhere they found the energy to launch one more attack, this time finding the back of the net with just one minute to go.

In the dying seconds Royals were able to get the ball up field for one more attempt. Hearle sent over a corner but saw the resulting header go just wide.

Team: Keugler, Agnew (Watts 35), Green, Miles, Al-Houbani, Hearle, Moffat, Fielding, Baker, Lewis (Weynberg 25), Smith