A Game of 2 halves - no really.
Well I forgot to take my camera with me to the Boxing Day Derby between Cambridge and Histon, but here are a couple of videos. The first shows the North Stand, where I was standing, before the game started and the secons shows Scott Rendell's goal for Cambridge. Luckily for the Us he has just extended his loan period at the Abbey from Peterborough.
Although you can't really pick it up from the videos the game was played infront of an impressive crowd of just under 7,000 in an electric atmosphere, it was nearly a sell out for the home fans whoe hadn't been put off despite a lack of public transport that had had me reassessing the situation on the morning of the game. Not surprisingly the players were also feeling the passion of the crowd and the tackles were flying in. However, the ref must have left his cards in his car as he didn't book anyone until the second half.
Cambridge had most of the early play and on 15 minutes Ben Farrell played in Wayne Hatswell who drilled the ball in for 25 yards.
After the goal went in Cambridge continued to have most of the play and Rendell particularly made several good chances. However, it was Histon who were next to get the ball in the net. On 35 minutes Knight-Percival put the ball in the goal for the Stutes, unfortunately for him it was offside. On 42 minutes Cambridge managed to extend their league through the goal shown on video above with Wilmott crossing the ball in for Coulson, who got it on the far post for Farrell before Rendell headed it into the back of the net.
Wilmott also came close for the Us before the break, but Histon had a couple of corners that they could easily have converted. So at half time despite being 2 down the Stutes were far from out of the match.
The half time entertainment was actually quite entertaining with the fans of either team doing their best to aggravate the crowd and the crowd responding in an appropriate way. the fat lad in goals for the Cambridge fans and the kid with a Histon scarf tied round his head particularly seemed to have been on their grannys' egg nog over Christmas.
The second half was a far different affair to the first half and the tackles really started to fly in as Histon tried to find a way back into the game. On 48 minutes Potter, the U's goalkeeper, let the ball deflect off his shin and Jack Midson put in the rebound for Histon. Cambridge, who hadn't conceded a goal at home September 13th, would have normally been expected to contain the visitors, but although the forwards looked capable of adding to the lead, the defence looked all too shakey. On 59 minutes they really looked shakey, when Midson beat Coulson and Antonio Murray blasted the ball in from 6 yards to make the score 2-2.
Things then really started to get a bit nasty on the pitch as Histon tried to keep the valuable away draw and Cambridge pushed on for a winner that would have put them in a play off position. Midson was particularly lucky to stay on for the visitors and on 86 minutes Cambridge were unluck not to have been awarded a penalty with both Rendell and Coulson being fouled in the box. Despite a frantic final few minutes the result remained Cambridge 2 Histon 2 in what was a very entertaining game, with probably a fair result, although for me Cambridge shaded it
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