U's 1-0 Histon: Village people's hopes go west
Wednesday 26th December 2007 - U's 1-0 Histon: Village people's hopes go west
So how was your Christmas then? GBH or GHB? Did Santa bring that Wii or PSP, or did it ming like year-old Brie? Whether the big bearded one's sack had been bulging like Beckham's lunchbox or was as empty as his wife's head/dinner plate/career options, there was one thing above all others that United and Histon fans wanted for the festive season. Or rather, three.
It has been sixty-one years since the clubs competed on an equal basis, but all memories at the Abbey on Boxing Day were cast back little more than a year, to That Match at the Glass World Stadium and one of the blackest days in Cambridge United's history... and one of the brightest in that of Histon.
Five United players had survived to start today's match, and seven from the visitors' line-up, but there the similarities ended for a resurgent U's with only two defeats under their belts all season (we don't count the Setanta Claus Shield, do we?). Histon, however, lay only three points behind with the second best away record in the league after an undeniably impressive introduction to the highest level of football at which they have ever played.
The sheer volume of supporters flocking to the Abbey on a mild, sunny Boxing Day afternoon was proof that the good times are definitely on the way back for the Mighty U's. All four sides of the ground were filled by United loyalists, whether regulars, irregulars or just curious glory-hunters, while the visitors' modest following was secreted away in an inconspicuous corner. Well they must have been exhausted after all the traditional village rituals they would have been performing over the last few days. That burning wicker sheep was visible as far as Ely.
For the U's faithful it was just nice to be back for a league game at the Abbey, the first since the 2-1 victory over Northwich back on 17th November. The last game of any sort, that Shield match with Rushden, had seen something of an experimental line-up, and the four most inexperienced players, Messrs Hoyte, Hyem, Coulson and Willmott were returned to the bench (not even that far for Hoyte) as JQ went for older heads Mark Peters, Michael Morrison, Lee Boylan and Courtney Pitt.
Histon also went out of the Shield at the first hurdle, at home to Halifax in front of not so much a 'crowd' as a small informal gathering. That notwithstanding, the same team started today except for the restoration of key playmaker/long throw specialist Adie Cambridge in place of club captain Jamie Barker.
There were of course plenty of Abbey connections within the Histon personnel. Manager Steve Fallon was one of United's greatest and most loyal players and now does a mean line in pacing moodily around the technical area on matchdays. His coach John Beck needs no introduction of course and he's the one who does all the shouting. He's portlier than in his Abbey days (join the club) and doesn't dye his hair any more but whatever his faults, and we do recall a few, we all remember the good times under him with fondness still.
They can also boast genial PR man Graham Eales, the son of another Abbey legend in Jamie Murray's boy Antonio, and a couple of former U's juniors in Erkan Okay and Mat Mitchell-King. And the man with the poshest name in football since Forbes Phillipson-Masters in the 1970s, Nathaniel Knight-Percival. Leading scorer Cliff Akurang was missing, however, the Stutes presumably unwilling to risk injuring him now they have agreed a lucrative transfer fee for him with Barnet to go through in January.
The atmosphere was crackling better than a barbecued porker as the two teams ran out, Histon resplendent in change shirts of Cambridge blue, to the largest Abbey crowd (7,125) since 8,175 turned out to see Sunderland in the Worthington Cup in October 2002, and it was the biggest league attendance at the Wembley of the Fens since the last real local derby with the Posh back in December 2000 (7,505).
Histon are like an episode of 'Last Of The Summer Wine'; you know exactly what you are going to get before they even start, and you can't quite believe that they're still going. But they just keep doggedly and remorselessly on. Their game is simple but effective, and strangely familiar to U's fans of the early 1990s: high tempo, direct, hard-working, pressing the opposition all over the park, and specialising in rigorously organised set pieces, whether corners, free-kicks, or long throws. And by God, it still works.
To be able to combat this, the opposition must first match them for workrate and commitment. And initially, United struggled to do so, the midfield in particular resembling a rickshaw attempting to stop a steamroller. Danny Brown and Stephen Reed were off the pace, hustled and harried by their village counterparts, and supply to the forwards was limited to hopeful high balls which were comfortably gobbled up by Mitchell-King and Matt Langston.
First hint of danger came on 6 and unsurprisingly it was from a Histon corner, Langston nodding Gareth Gwillim's inswinger narrowly over. The Stutes' instructions for flag-kicks were clear: pack the six-yard box and give Danny Potter as little room to move as possible. The outcome was a preposterous logjam of up to sixteen players jostling on or around the goal-line, but Gwillim's and Cambridge's delivery was not of sufficient quality to cause the chaos that they intended.
The visitors remained in control, though. Adie Cambridge is something of a human catapult and one long throw on 13 was helped on by Knight-Percival to Murray, but his header was off target. Langston headed another corner over a minute later.
United's most effective players were Pitt and Rob Wolleaston, and the latter linked with Dan Gleeson on the quarter hour in a characteristic dash from midfield but fired well wide. The visitors' tackling was uncompromising, as one would expect, with John Kennedy the prime culprit; the man who does the dirty work in the middle so his more refined colleague Cambridge can do the fancy stuff. And the long throws.
Kennedy was first into the book on 19 for a clumsy clattering of Gleeson in the centre circle, but this did not stop him from diving in time and again. A minute later Knight-Percival lashed a low skimmer wide of the near post, and on 23 Boylan was unlucky to pick up United's first yellow card for his first-offence foul on (who else) Kennedy.
Two minutes later Boylan was felled in a challenge with Craig Pope but as he lay clutching his knee ref Kinseley allowed play to continue and Murray burst clear down the right channel. Entering the box, he shot low for the near post but was foiled by a fine reaction save from Potter.
It seemed only a matter of time before Histon scored as United still struggled to get out of first gear in a performance all too similar to the feeble capitulation to Rushden last week. They needed a break, and the officials obligingly supplied one on the half hour when Main Stand side linesman Rathbone retired hurt to be replaced by fourth official Feerick. Shouldn't have eaten all those sprouts yesterday, mate. It also took the sting out of an increasingly heated verbal contest between the two benches.
Tellingly, United enjoyed their best attack of the day almost immediately after the restart, gaining a corner from which Pitt crossed to Boylan who had a goalbound header blocked behind by Cambridge. Pope picked up Histon's second booking on 33, a cynical-looking foul on Pitt, and on 35 some good work down the right by Wolleaston culminated in a cross for Peters whose header was deflected wide by Okay. United were at last beginning to assert themselves.
Kennedy continued to concede fouls, but the man in black seemed unwilling to wave a second yellow at him, lucky boy, satisfying himself with a few words of admonishment. Where is Amy Rayner when you need her, eh?
Now both sides were setting about each other. Boylan fired wide on 40, then another Histon corner melee set up Kennedy for a blast at goal, but he spooned hopelessly over from fifteen yards, to the NRE's delight. Back up the other end Langston half-cleared a United corner to Mark Albrighton, but he lashed ambitiously wide, then a nice ball from Brown set up Pitt for a run and cross from the byline which was bundled desperately clear by Langston.
There was still time for United to come even closer, Gleeson's cross finding Albrighton lurking unseen at the far post, and his low shot flashed across the six-yard box and was cleared almost off the line by Gwillim.
So ended an exciting half which had been dominated for half an hour by the tireless, well-drilled visitors, but into which United had very much come back by the end. Part two would doubtless be even more eventful.
No changes were deemed necessary by either management team, and United began purposefully, Boylan sprinting down the right almost from the off and crossing low for Scott Rendell to stretch and poke just wide on the run. Good start, but it almost went pomegranate-shaped for the hosts less than a minute later.
Big target man Danny Wright gained possession in a corner of the United box but was robbed by Peters; under challenge, the ball spun clear, and with everyone waiting for a whistle that never came, it found its way back to Wright whose low angled shot flew past Potter, crashed against the inside of the far post and ricocheted back past the bewildered U's keeper, who may well have deflected it into his own net if he had actually moved, before being scrambled away. Danny will, of course, claim he had it covered all along...
The teams continued to probe and push each other like bovver-booted dentists, Reed arcing a sighter into the arms of Stutes keeper Danny Naisbitt, then on 54 came a breakthrough from a most unexpected source.
Reed's left-wing corner found Peters' head, but he could only nod it on to Albrighton behind him in the far right-hand corner of the area. In one stunning movement, he unleashed a quite stupendous volley that screamed past Naisbitt and into the far top left corner of the net, almost tearing a hole in it. What a stonker: 1-0!
It was only the United defensive stalwart's second goal in the black'n'amber after his effort in the early-season stuffing of Farsley. Quality, not quantity, and what fantastic quality, too.
Histon did not deviate from their game plan, however, but although United were still some way from their best, they were managing to give as good as they were getting. We all know General Beck's beliefs on set pieces, though: the more you get into the danger areas, the more likely you are to score. A Gwillim free-kick on 68 found Wright's head, but he nodded just over. The lack of a challenge from a United defender was cause for concern, though.
The U's were still firing on only half their cylinders, and on 73 JQ attempted to shake things up with the only substitution of the day, Leo Fortune-West replacing the hard-working Boylan. The big man made an almost immediate impact, lunging for a ball to which Pope just beat him, but his momentum took him into a collision with the Histon right-back. Honest, guv. Pope did not see it that way, the red mist descended and next thing we knew he was kneeling astride LFW and attempting to punch him in the face, right in front of the Habbin.
The players were pulled apart, several Histon men getting themselves involved unnecessarily, and Leo received a yellow card for his trouble. Astonishingly, Pope got off scot-free as the three wise officials showed no sign of seeing his assault on the big man. Lucky, lucky boy.
LFW's presence had an instant impact on his colleagues, too, offering a useful outlet both for layoffs and as a target for potential through balls, and all of a sudden the Histon defence had a new and difficult problem to deal with, like introducing a velociraptor into a lions' den. Gleeson fired over on 78, and both LFW and Wolleaston made dangerous runs into the visitors' box only to be foiled by last-ditch tackles.
Up the other end Potter had been imperious in his command of his area, despite the visitors' deliberate targeting of him, but he excelled himself on 81. Ironically it all stemmed from a United break, Rendell sprinting clear down the middle but Wolleaston making a complete pig's ear of a relatively simple through ball. Histon played it quickly forward, Knight-Percival crossed to Wright who found acres of room between Peters and Morrison, and his towering close-range header looked a certain goal all the way as it flew into the top corner... only to be pawed superbly by a diving Potter off his line and around the post for a corner. A quite breathtaking save, and confirmation that this was to be United's day.
The two sides continued to slug it out toe to toe, but blocks and tackles were the order of the day to stop further goal menaces, until five minutes from the end. Okay found Wright without a marker again in the box, and another header from the lumbering target man cannoned off the top of the bar, which may or may not have been covered by an flying Potter. On another day he might have had a hat-trick... but not today.
That miss seemed to finally knock the stuffing out of the visitors, and the remaining few minutes belonged to United - Reed's long-range blaster fumbled by Naisbitt and the rebound nicked off Rendell by Mitchell-King at the expense of a corner - and Histon threatened no more.
Joyous scenes accompanied the final whistle and as hard-fought a win as United will get all season. In truth they will have to play a whole lot better than they did today to maintain their promotion challenge, but any team which can beat close rivals at only half capacity must be doing something right. If they won't get our sympathy, Histon do deserve our respect, and we can be assured that they will be back and raring for more in part two of this series on New Year's Day. Bring it on.
And if United could have been said to be lucky to win by some, consider their last league game, at Kidderminster on 6th December, when they played some of their best football of the season, overwhelmed the opposition... and lost 1-0. Maybe it does all even out in the end.
Perhaps the most exciting revelation about today was the extent of United's partly untapped support. Take away Histon's 650-odd and you have six and a half thousand people paying to see the Mighty U's in a Conference game. Doubtless many were long-range supporters back in the area for Christmas, but let us hope that we have encouraged more 'casuals' to come back for more. That's what we want, the gift that keeps giving.
The attendance of 7,125 was only seven hundred-odd behind the Conference's best attendance of the day, a derby between two 'big' clubs in Exeter and Torquay. It was larger then ten out of twelve League Two games (just over 3,000 saw Posh's dismal defeat at bottom-placed Mansfield), better than four attendances in League One and comfortably beat the 6,000 at the Championship's Colchester versus Southampton. Although no doubt their rickety hovel was full to capacity.
It was United's 92nd largest home attendance ever and their second-best non-League crowd after the 7,813 who saw them lose 1-0 on Easter Monday 1968 to Chelmsford City in a game which effectively decided the Southern League championship, Chelmsford finishing two points ahead of Wimbledon and four ahead of the third-placed U's. United are back up to third place now; but there's no need to settle for the playoffs just yet. Go to it, boys.
Statto Corner
The rivalry between Cambridge United and Histon goes way back to the 1921-22 season, when the then Abbey United first met Histon Institute Reserves in Division 3 of the Cambs League. Two seasons and two promotions later, the Abbey boys enjoyed their first encounter with the Stutes' first team in Division 1, the U's winning 1-0 in the opening game at their new ground at Station Farm, Barnwell, known as the Celery Trenches, on 8th September 1923.
Overall the two clubs' first teams have now met 71 times in thirteen different competitions, with United in front by 32 wins to 28. The last time before today they met in a league game was on 21st September 1946, when the U's won 1-0 at the Abbey in a pared-down Cambs League still adjusting to the ravages of World War Two. Such was the ad hoc nature of local football then that the return match was never played as United completed 18 league matches that season to Histon's 21 and champions Camden United's 22. United then departed for the United Counties League, while Histon joined the Spartan League in 1948.
The last time the clubs met in a 'normal' league match was on 1st May 1939, Histon winning 3-2 at the Abbey in the Cambs League Premier Division. The clubs were regular league rivals in the 1920s and 1930s, Abbey finishing above the Stutes eleven times in sixteen seasons.
All fans will remember our most recent encounters, in the FA Trophy and Cambs Professional Cup last season. Apart from friendlies, our previous meeting before that was a 4-0 away victory for the U's on 29th January 1985 in the East Anglian Cup, goals coming from Andy Sinton, Steve Spriggs, Mark Cooper and Alan Comfort. For the last meeting in a non-local competition you would have to go back to the FA Cup of 20th September 1947 and a remarkable 6-4 home win for Histon.
That should put the kibosh on anyone saying this fixture has no history!
Player Ratings
Potter 9. Commanded his area and made a match-winning save.
Albrighton 8. Cool at the back and a red-hot goal up front.
Peters 8. A picture of steadfastness, although Wright was left unmarked for two near-miss headers in the second half.
Morrison 7. Steady game without any costly errors.
Gleeson 6. Forced back by Histon's pressing tactics and made little contribution creatively.
Brown 6. Looked woefully slow and out of touch first half, improved considerably in part two.
Wolleaston 8. Best of an underachieving midfield, his tireless runs always offered United hope.
Reed 6. Another disappointingly below-par performer in the middle.
Pitt 7. Reasonably lively and gave Histon a few things to think about.
Rendell 6. Struggled aerially against the Stutes' big men and was unable to make much of an impression.
Boylan 7. Attempted to stretch the visitors' defence with some intelligent running which did not always get the service it deserved.
Fortune-West 8. The impact player United desperately needed came on at just the right time.
Match Summary
It was tough, it was packed, it was gruelling. And after the Boxing Day Sales, the Abbey was pretty rammed too. An under-par United were tested to the limits by a well-drilled Histon side, but a rollicking festive derby was decided by Danny Potter's agility, the width of a post and a stunning winner from Mark Albrighton. Same time next week?
Man of the Match
Danny Potter. Dealt magnificently with Histon's high-pressure aerial barrage and capped it all with a world-class save. Whatta guy.
Ref Watch
Kinseley 6. Very lenient on Kennedy and Pope, but luckily for him it never really 'kicked off.' Quick to give free-kicks, slow to really punish them.
Non-League Player's Name of the Week
Banstead Athletic's Dave Marvell. Must be their captain.
Soundtrack of the Day
Oh No Ono 'Practical Money Skills For Life'
Andrew Bennett
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