22 January 2022 Histon Fc 0 v 1 Chasetown FC
Northern Premier League Midlands Division
Saturday saw me visiting a new ground (for me), with a visit to The Glassworld Stadium, home of Histon FC. I went there on the day Leeds United were hosting Newcastle United in an FA Premier League game.
The relevance of this? Well, a few years ago, over13 years ago to be precise (November 2008), Histon FC hosted and beat Leeds United in the FA Cup 2-0. The following season, Histon finished 3rd in the National League ( 5th tier of football) and lost out narrowly to Torquay in the play off semi-finals. If they had won, the play offs they would have been in the English Football League. Sadly, for Histon these were their greatest achievements. They have not reached the FA Cup 1st round since 2008/9 and by 2017/18 they had slumped to the 9th tier of English football. They spent 2 seasons there before returning to 8th tier for the 2 Covid abandoned seasons and this current season.
The fact Histon reached the verge of the football league is an incredible story for a little village / town on the edge of Cambridge. Even more so when Cambridge has two established clubs, Cambridge United & Cambridge City. Cambridge United recently went away to Newcastle in the FA Cup and won there [See how I neatly linked there back to Newcastle playing Leeds today].
What it has also meant is that Histon have a ground that is fit to host National League football, which is a class above most other grounds at this level. All four sides of the ground are covered. With covered terracing at both ends. Relatively simple Atcost style terracing of approximately 4 or 5 steps. The far side of the ground is all seated Atcost style stands. The Main Stand has a very similar seated stand next to it which also hosts the Cambridgeshire FA Headquarters.
The ground whilst a class above many grounds at this or even the 2 levels above, does show signs of neglect. The seated stand opposite the main stand has a number of broken, and unrepaired seats. The seats in this stand are also dirty. In one corner of the ground is a toilet block that looked closed, and above it sat what looked like a police observation box that had not been used for many years. With Histon averaging around 200 fans a game this season, its no surprise that the police box is not used.
At the back of the Main Stand is the clubhouse bar. This is rather small and not what you would expect from a club that had played for several seasons at the top of the non-league pyramid. I’ve seen a lot larger bars at many clubs playing at the 9th and 10th tier of English football.
There was only one catering outlet in the ground, which was more than adequate for crowds of 200. I presume that when they played at a higher level, mobile catering vans were used to dispense food and drinks. The club serve the usual fare, burgers, including ½ lb burgers with cheese and bacon, chips (with wonderful smelling curry sauce if desired).
Turning then to the football itself. The expectation was for a convincing away win. Histon were bottom of the table and Chasetown in 3rd place. The game started and after the first few minutes I expected a landslide win for the visitors. Every time they got the ball they cut through the Histon defence. However, Chasetown seemed to be unable to get shots on target, after doing the hard work of beating the last man and getting crosses in. After 12minutes, they did score what turned out to be the only goal of a rather drab game. Neither side seemed to want to score. It was rather dull affair, only livened up by a couple of incidents of handbags between the players over nothing. The Chasetown manager in reality should have been sent off numerous times over. His foul-mouthed abuse towards the referee and linesman was not needed and served no purpose. He seemed unable to speak without foul language. Perhaps he needs to be reminded that Law 12 provides that it is a sending off offence for:
“using offensive, insulting or abusive language and/or action(s)”
Positives from the day were good spectator facilities, friendly people and a football ground in a lovely setting surrounded by trees on three sides. Apart perhaps from Macclesfield, this will be probably the best ground in Step 5 next season ( unless the Isle of Man get promoted)
Bobby Shaftoe's Gone to Sea 