FA Vase 5th Round
Bridge Road, Impington
Admission : £8.00
Programme: £2.00
Attendance: 643
When the FA Vase draw was made, this was the standout fixture for me to attend, as it was to be played at one of the few relatively easily reachable grounds left in the competition that I had not previously visited. Freezing temperatures and snow on the ground in the days leading up to matchday saw a swathe of games across southern England called off on Friday evening, with many more to follow on Saturday morning. But after a group of volunteers helped to clear Histon's pitch of snow, it passed a 7.30am pitch inspection, and the swift announcement of this allowed me plenty of time to make my way up to Cambridgeshire in confidence that the game would go ahead.
After arriving at Cambridge train station, I then caught a bus for about a half hour journey northwards to the Histon & Impington stop on the Cambridgeshire Guided Busway, from which the stadium is a five minute walk. The stadium has quite an impressive entrance, with the turnstiles at the foot of the one of the stands, with a seemingly rarely if ever used ticket office to one side and the back wall of the other, main stand to the other. Once through the turnstiles, visitors pass under the stand and by tables offering programmes and club shop items, and also an array of doughnuts, before reaching pitchside along one length. There are two all-seater stands very close to each other, one being the main stand, which offers an elevated area of seating, and is virtually all that is left from the days prior to the club's rise to what was the Conference. The rest of the ground was built up to accommodate their status in the top tier of non-league football - indeed, it passed the criteria to host Football League action - and also as a result of the Cambridgeshire Football Association setting up their headquarters there, based inside and behind a second all-seater stand situated immediately adjacent to the main stand. They fit very well together, being of similar designs, and a tea bar is located on the ground floor. As for the rest of the ground, in some ways, it is a case of "look away now" for those who do not like the modern metallic "Arena" stands - there can be few other grounds where they have been installed so extensively as here. However, they actually do not look bad at all here, looking neat and tidy as they provide seating along the entire opposite length, and steps to stand on behind both goals between both corner flags. Similar to the £8.00 admission fee to Step 5 football, the 24 page programme was somewhat overpriced for what it was, printed in black and white although it did have quite an attractive cover in colour, and it covered the basics well enough.
This was a match between two clubs who have fallen on hard times since they were both members of what was the Conference Premier, Histon for four seasons before relegation in 2011, and Northwich Victoria played at that level for three decades, apart from one season, before relegation in 2009 and ensuing financial meltdown, during which they vacated their original home stadium as well as their subsequent one, and have been groundsharing since 2012. Moving to the present, Histon came into this game in second place in the Eastern Counties League Premier Division, following 15 wins and two draws from 19 league games, three points adrift of leaders Godmanchester Rovers but with four games in hand. Northwich Victoria were in sixth place in the North West Counties League Premier Division, following 14 wins and two draws from their 25 league games. Being 22 points adrift of the leaders in the only automatic promotion spot available, promotion looks extremely unlikely. To reach this stage, Histon had beaten Colney Heath 2-0 at home in a replay, Woodbridge Town 5-4 at home. Leverstock Green 5-1 at home, and finally Lye Town 2-1 at home. Northwich Victoria had beaten Maltby Main 2-0 at home, Cammel Laird 5-0 at home, Prestwich Hayes 1-0 at home, Silsden 3-0 at home, and finally Newcastle Benfield 2-3 away.
On an afternoon that was sunny at kick off but turned very cold as the second half wore on, the first half did not lack for effort but did somewhat for quality, probably mostly due to the pitch being tricky and slippery, as players on both sides struggled to control the ball and play it effectively. Histon had more possession, whilst Northwich had more sights at goal without really threatening, and it was no surprise that the scoreline remained goalless at half time.
Not surprisingly, things slowly started to pick up in the second half, and it was Histon who broke the deadlock on 64 minutes. James Chivers lumped the ball down the right wing from the half way line for Dan Brown to chase, and he superbly floated the ball first time over the keeper, who was in no-mans land, and into the empty net. That really seemed to wake up the visitors up, who rolled their sleeves up and started to apply a lot of pressure in the attacking third, and it was no surprise when they equalised on 71 minutes. The ball was crossed in from the right, and Darryl Mason rose to head the ball home from close range, just beating the keeper to the ball. The game then settled back down after that, and with relatively little further incident, normal time finished level and extra time was required to try and find a winner today, to avoid a replay in Cheshire next Saturday.
In extra time, the visitors seemed to find an extra gear, and after having a goalbound shot cleared by a defender, they went into the lead on 94 minutes. John Brownhill ran onto a ball forward into the right side of the area and crossed the ball, which just evaded the keeper and rolled into the path of Mason who struck the ball into the roof of the net from a couple of yards out. Things were now starting to go wrong for Histon, and on 102 minutes, Matt Green was shown a straight red card for a late, high tackle. They then started the second half of extra time down to nine men, when they had a player off injured, but he did rejoin the action within a couple of minutes. The hosts had a great chance to equalise on 115 minutes, when Brown crossed the ball from the right but Max York volleyed the ball wide at the far post - it was a difficult chance, coming at him awkwardly and at pace. They had one final chance a minute from the end when a corner was headed over, but shortly after, the visitors made absolutely sure of their progression to the last eight. Jordan Darr intercepted a pass between Histon players, raced clear before coolly slotting the ball under the keeper and into the net, to confirm their progression to the next round.
And so Northwich Victoria will be in the hat for the quarter-final draw, and the dream of a day out at Wembley become a little more real. They had very good support on the day from a loud and colourful contingent, which at times was matched by good vocal support from the home fans, helping to create a decent atmosphere. As for Histon, it was not to be their day, but they arguably have bigger fish to fry anyway as they can now concentrate on winning the Eastern Counties League Premier Division to return to Step 4 football - they are in a great position to do just that.
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