Histon on a Friday night

It is always pleasant returning to Cambridge; so the opportunity to take a 24hour trip to Histon was grasped with both hands. A decision made easier by my wife’s plan to walk three sections of the Black Mountains Way with our dog Wini.

The City of Cambridge never fails to impress. Colleges that have learning stamped all over them. Green spaces that allow the pressures of work to release naturally.

And so many pubs, all offering the finest ales.

The one downside. Ex-students, trying to sell me a river trip, in a Punt. ‘No thank you’, I replied on more than one occasion. ‘I’m here on business’.

Old bookshops. I just love old bookshops. And despite Cambridge not quite matching Hay-on-Wye in this regard, it does have the odd good one tucked away from the main thoroughfares.

Not far from King’s College, founded in 1441 by Henry VI and one of the first to admit women, I came across a splendid little shop. A shop stuffed from floor to it’s oak beamed ceiling with books and ephemera. And in the corner a complete collection of Herge’s Adventures of Tintin. My memories of the 104 five-minute episodes produced from 1958 to 1962 flooded back.

Of course dedicated followers of the comic books were unhappy with the series as it often varied from the original text. In fact it often changed whole plots. In the book Explorers on the Moon, Tintin goes to the Moon for scientific exploration, but in the episodes of Objective Moon Espionage, he goes to rescue the trapped Snowy. Who would be a Tintinologist when such games are played?

As I left the book shop I paused for a moment and reflected on just some of King’s distinguished alumni…..David Baddiel. Distinguished? I went back to my car and set off for the Red Lion, Histon.

Histon FC founded in 1904, as Histon Institute, played in the Eastern Counties League from 1966 to 2000. And from the obscurity of the ECL, Histon’s rise through the Southern League and then the Conference South has been rapid.

The building of a new headquarters for the Cambridgeshire FA and new 500 seater stand will bring a better sense of scale and importance to The Glassworld Stadium, which for now looks no better than many of the grounds found at Step Three and Four.

And I guess with Razorlight headlining at the Reading Festival on the same evening, all of the portable toilets in East Anglia….well less the five in use at the Glassworld Stadium for away supporters….must have disappeared down the M11, around the M25 and along the M4 to Richfield Avenue, Reading.

Although the funny thing was….five loos and no queues.

I meet Steve Fallon, the Histon Manager, in the pub just around the corner from the ground. It was very late at night and he seemed tired and a bit drained. Steve had been a central defender in his playing days, making 410 league appearances for Cambridge United between 1974 and 1986 before sustaining an injury that cut short his career.

He seemed pleased to spend some time discussing the game without the pressure that comes from the need to convince his Directors, the Press or ‘The Stutes’ supporters.

One of the interesting points to come out of our chat was that he had read the Aldershot message board….and that he had read this blog.

Steve felt that Histon’s fitness let them down. I didn’t agree with this observation. In my view it was Histon’s lack of a quality and inability to make the most of all the second balls that they won throughout much of the 90 minutes, that was their downfall. And probably not making the most of the lack of pace down the right side of our defence was a big mistake too.

But overall we both agreed that it had been an even game with Aldershot’s obvious quality in two or three positions being the difference between the sides.

And the opening goal….I guess he will not be too pleased that his keeper was beaten from at least 35m. The wall was probably poorly aligned but the keeper saw the ball for more than 25m….Ok, it was beautifully struck. But to be beaten from 35m.....

And with that Histon is consigned to history and my thoughts turn to Crawley on Monday.