Base of the Pyramid
  • Closed

Punts and Rockets

14/11/2013

0 Comments

 
Picture
A cold clear night in Cambridgeshire and my first visit to the GlassWorld Stadium, home of Histon FC and temporary home of Cambridge City. Cambridge, famous for the university and punting on the river, also appears to be completely inundated with cyclists. I haven't seen this many people riding bikes since I was in Amsterdam. Not that this is a bad thing. It should be encouraged everywhere.
Unfortunately for me, I never made it to Milton Road, Cambridge's previous home. I say unfortunately because, from all accounts, Milton Road was a great place to watch football and one of the noisier grounds thanks to the Shed End support. Still, at least Cambridge City still exists after a few years of uncertainty. The club is now run by a supporters trust and looks to have a much brighter future. See http://www.cambridgecityfc.com/ for more information.
Having recently made it as high as the National Conference, Histon have facilities to match that level. The ground has covered areas on all four sides with the main stand and the opposite side both being predominently seating areas. Behind both goals are fairly large covered standing areas. The main stand, being raised well above the playing surface, gives a great view of the game. The capacity is listed as 4,300 but tonight there were just 241 hardy souls braving the winter air to see Cambridge City take on Stourbridge. At this point I shoudl add that there were a fair few Black Country accents around. A pretty good turnout for the Glassboys on a cold Wednesday night.
Stourbridge were going into the game on the back of an 11 game winning streak (admittedly 7 of these have been cup matches) and the 9-0 demolition of Chippenham in their last away league game. I was fairly certain that this game wouldn't end in a similar scoreline. Cambridge, although not prolific scorers have been tight at the back all season, conceding only 11 in the league up to this point.
Cambridge had by far the better of the first half. Apart from an early Drew Canavan effort, Stourbridge didn't trouble Barrett in the home goal. Nick Beasant, son of former Womble Dave, had a couple of chances for Cambridge and should really have put his side in front. However, at the break, it was still all square at 0-0 and could only get better as a game.
Stourbridge actually started the brighter of the two in the second half but went behind to a set-piece in the 53rd minute. A right wing corner was powered home by the head of centre-half and captain Lee Chaffey.
Roly Agbor came on for Jordan Fitzpatrick and almost immediately had a hand in the equaliser. It was Agbor's rolled pass to Sean Geddes that set up the speculative effort from out side the box. A small deflection bamboozled the home keeper and it was 1-1.
From that point onwards the game was fairly even. Stourbridge probably shaded possession but the game could easily have gone either way.
Then Cambridge brought on Josh Dawkins. In the 81st minute he went on a run that took him to within 20-25 yards of the Stourbridge goal and thundered an absolute rocket past Coleman into the top corner. It was the sort of shot that no goalkeeper stops and was well worthy of being a match winner.
Stourbridge pressed hard for an equaliser but, ultimately, the long run had to come to an end. Maybe the sheer number of cup matches has finally caught up with the players. They certainly didn't look as sharp as they had done in recent weeks. Or maybe it was just a ploy to give Stevenage boss, Graham Westley, a false sense of security?
Either way, in my opinion, Cambridge just about deserved the win and looked a far better team than when I saw them go down 3-0 at Chesham a few weeks ago. 

Twitter feeds:
Cambridge City - @cambridgecityfc
Stourbridge - @sfcoffical
Histon FC - @HistonFC



0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    May 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    October 2012

    Categories

    All
    FA Cup
    Football
    Hellenic League
    Northern League
    Southern League

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly