Welwyn picked up what could a crucial victory on the road in the East Hockey League.

The 3-2 success dropped Royston into the bottom two and while Welwyn remain in ninth, they are now five points above the bottom three in Division Two South West..

The home side started well with lots of movement among their forward players and good transition of the ball.

But Welwyn weathered the early play and began to look dangerous on the counter attack through the pace of Nate Last and Dave Allmand Smith. 

It was Last who put them in front too, Paul Marchant breaking down the right before sending the marauding forward clear to finish from a tight angle.

But the confidence that goal brought led to WGC just overstretching themselves slightly, and Royston made them pay with a first time finish on the break.

Worse was to come for the visitors though and after conceding and then saving a penalty corner, the ball was recycled and deflected in at the back post.

There were some frustrations through the half-time interval but WGC knew they could get back into the game with better movement and composure.

And they showed more of that instantly in the second half and levelled through a penalty corner of their own.

The routine wasn't executed perfectly but it did allow Nick Reilly to finish clinically.

On more than one occasion after that, the Welwyn forwards got into excellent positions but were muscled out of it by the Royston defence.

However, they kept plugging away and on one counter attack, they drove forward and Reilly's pass to Allmand-Smith was finished with aplomb by the ace marksman.

Royston did everything they could to draw level in the final 10 minutes and Dan Klinger had to make one big save on the dive to keep them out.

But when a last gasp penalty corner was blocked by Pete Mullens, the final whistle sounded.

They host Bishop's Stortford on Saturday.