Bedford Town away

[cliveh]

Won 3-2.
Not the most convincing performance all round, but some good aspects.
Still a long way, I would say, from the finished article, but there's a couple of weeks to go yet.
Steve & me had the pleasure of the company of Ray Peacock, a Cambridge City legend and very good friend,who had joined us from his Milton Keynes home. Wonderful afternoon of reminiscences , memories, and enjoyment of some aspects of the play. Superb goal by Jordan Nicholson, some extremely encouraging performances by the younger members, but worryingly, rather poor defending overall, plus a pretty desperate need for an out & out No9. But it's still early days. The League will be harder this time around, but Brian & Co will sort it, I have no doubt.
Support the Stutes.

[histonfan01]

It was actually 4-2

[cliveh]

Yes, of course it was.

[stevep]

Match Report from Club Website

BEDFORD TOWN 2 HISTON 4

Manager Brian Page had said that this game was the first one for which he had most of his squad available and was the game he had targeted as when the pre-season preparation started in earnest. Stutes supporters got their first glimpse of new signing Jordan Nicholson as Page fielded a strong starting XI although he did experiment tactically, changing to 3 at the back during the first half and making further alterations later in the game.

Much of the first half was fairly quiet although the hosts tested Denzel Gerrar in the opening minute with Bedford’s Josh Bamford finding himself one on one with the keeper, but Gerrar stood up well and smothered the attempt.

Page made a change on the half hour bringing on Miles Smith for Salim Relizani and going to three central defenders at the back with Ashley White and Max York encouraged to push forward more as wing backs. The changes paid off when York was bundled over in the area just before half time. Referee Gavin Muge awarded the penalty which was confidently struck home by Lee Smith, sending the Eagle’s keeper the wrong way. The first half scoring wasn’t over yet though as a minute later, and just before the Ref blew for half time, a good attacking move ended with Ryan Auger lifting a lovely ball over a defender and into the path of the overlapping Ashley White. The defender lifted the ball deftly over the keeper to double the lead.

HT: Bedford Town 0 Histon 2

The Eagles started the second half strongly and were rewarded a couple of minutes in. Jake Knight sent a huge goal kick forward and Joel Norris muscled his way into position to beat Gerrar and make it 1-2.

Soon after, Page made a raft of changes bringing on all his subs and again experimenting with his team’s shape and the personnel within it, and it took a few minutes for the side to settle down and find their rhythm.

Find their rhythm they did though and on 65 minutes the Stutes restored their two goal cushion when Lee Smith artfully volleyed home Max York’s cross from 10 yards giving the home keeper little chance.

Five minutes later and it was 4-1. The impressive Luca Dusi spotted Jordan Nicholson in space on the left edge of the penalty area and angled a superb ball over the defender and into Nicholson’s path. The impressive debutante didn’t hesitate, volleying powerfully across the keeper and into the far corner for his first goal in a Histon shirt, a quality goal all round.

Nicholson had been growing into the game and looked a real threat on his Histon debut whilst there were also plenty of other good performances out there for the Manager to evaluate, however the hosts made it 2-4 with five minutes left on the clock. The Histon defence dallied in trying to clear a cross and were made to pay when the Bedford forward ran with the ball back into the area drawing a foul from Luca Dusi. Russell Bull made no mistake with the resulting penalty to finish the scoring.

FT: Bedford Town 2 Histon 4

There were plenty of positives for the Manager to take from this game as he ramps up the pre-season preparation for his squad. “This game was a good test and Bedford had a real go at us for large parts of the game” said Page. “I was really pleased with the progress the squad showed and I could see the work we had done prior to the game being put into practice. It’s always pleasing as a manager to see things you have worked on in training being done in games and the team getting success from it. We will now continue to try and develop the team shape both with and without the ball and be as prepared as we can be for the Dorchester game on the 8th August.”

Histon: Denzel Gerrar, Max York, Ashley White, Evan Key, Danny Rumens, Tom McGowan, Salim Relizani, Lee Smith, Sam Ives, Ryan Auger, Jordan Nicholson.

Subs (all used): Brendan Brown, Miles Smith, Rogan McGeorge, Luca Dusi, Curtis Fulcher, Matthew Meacher, Elkanah Sibanda.

Bedford Town scorers: Joel Norris (48), Russel Bull (86 pen)

Histon scorers: Lee Smith (43 pen), Ashley White (45), Lee Smith (65), Jordan Nicholson (72)