Histon retained the Cambridgeshire Invitation Cup with a comfortable victory on a night City will want to forget as they picked up another injury and a red card to add to their Abbey Stadium woes.

The Stutes came into the game full of confidence having hit the top of the Southern League on Saturday courtesy of 3-0 victory over already relegated Solihull goals from an Ian Cambridge free kick and further strikes from David Bridges and Neil Andrews sealing the win.

Michael Gash out-jumps former City defender, Colin Vowden

City were similarly impressive at the weekend. Gary Fiskin’s strike securing a comfortable 1-0 triumph over Hayes which makes the Lilywhites favourites to finish second behind Grays in Conference South.

Whilst Histon remained unchanged Michael Gash stepped up from the City bench to replace Richard Scott as the Milton Road club reverted to a conventional 4-4-2 formation.

Both teams took advantage of the ideal weather conditions and superb playing surface to make a bright start in front of a large and expectant crowd.

Early Histon pressure resulted in them forcing a series of corners which City defended resolutely. As the last of these was cleared the Lilywhites broke quickly in the shape of Dale Binns who accelerated down the right before sliding a pass into Matt Robinson whose first time strike forced Lance Key to save low at his near post.

In truth City spent most of the opening exchanges on the back foot and on twelve minutes Histon’s high tempo approach forced the opening goal. An Ian Cambridge corner from the left fell to Rob Nightingale whose miscue wrong footed the City defence allowing Neil Kennedy the space to head against the inside of the post. With the Lilywhites struggling to clear the ball ricocheted across the face of goal and into the path of Jamie Barker who fired home at the far post.

As City looked to strike back early Matt Langston flicked on Rob Miller’s free kick but Michael Gash’s headed effort landed on the roof of the net.

Histon were fortunate to retain their lead as City clawed their way back into the game. Fiskin’s right wing corner found Langston whose goalbound header was intercepted by Colin Vowden, forcing Key to scramble across his six yard box and palm the ball behind, thus saving the blushes of the former Dover central defender in the process.

The Stutes were the sharper of the two sides around the box and when Rob Nightingale’s intelligent through ball found Andrews who had peeled off Langston a second goal seemed inevitable, however Duncan Roberts had other ideas and an outstanding one-handed stop denied the skipper of the Bridge Road club.

Andrews then returned the compliment completing a powerful cross field run from the left before laying off to Nightingale who skied his shot from the edge of the box when well placed to work Roberts.

With less than half an hour played City suffered a further blow when Rob Miller who had come off second best in a full blooded challenge with Andrews a few minutes earlier was forced to limp out of the action to be replaced by Richard Scott.

City put pressure on the Histon defence

As City did their best to exploit the space in wide areas Fiskin angled a ball out to Matt Robinson on the right, but the player who started the season at the Abbey Stadium fired narrowly over. Moments later Robinson, scorer of a hat-trick in the semi final at Soham, thought he had gone one better when he was played in by Gash and shot low from a similar position. This time the bounce deceived Key who could only palm the ball into his own goal. However the assistant referee flagged for offside and despite a Histon player getting the last touch the effort was ruled out.

The Lilywhites contended themselves with taking the sting out of the Stutes attack for the remainder of the half and were probably reasonably happy to go in 1-0 down at the break.

City started brightly immediately after the interval and Binns combined with Fiskin to force key into another save low at his near post.

The Lilywhites were unable to sustain any real attacking momentum however and Histon were soon to carve out another chance that should have put the game beyond doubt. Slick inter-passing between Ian Cambridge and Barker through the inside left channel put Adie Cambridge clean through but Roberts again came to City’s rescue rushing from his line and blocking superbly.

Steve Fallon then made a double change withdrawing Rob Nightingale and Neil Kennedy for Leon Gutzmore and David Bridges respectively.

Within a couple of minutes of the change City engineered their best opening of the evening. Craig Pope played Matt Robinson in behind Wayne Goddard, the former Ipswich player angled the ball back from the bye-line into the path of Dale Binns whose miss-hit shot fell kindly for Fiskin who saw his fierce drive deflected over the bar.

Duncan Roberts kept City in the game yet again as the hour mark approached, Adie Cambridge crossed low from the right and found Bridges who had done well to work himself space in the box, the former Cambridge United striker hit a shot on the turn which forced the giant custodian to plunge to his left and divert the ball behind for a corner.

Leon Gutzmore, one of a host of former City players now plying their trade at the Glassworld Stadium took advantage of the Lilywhites’ high defensive line by springing the offside trap but the pacy striker was reeled in by the even quicker Craig Pope who marshalled his opponent to safety.

In an attempt to give City more of a cutting edge in front of goal Gary Roberts introduced Jon Stevenson in place of Michael Gash.

There then followed another unusual incident when Erkan Okay went through the back of Dale Binns. The referee booked the Histon defender and then surprisingly carded Binns too, presumably for the none too friendly exchange of views which followed the challenge. However this begged the question that if the confrontation, in which both players showed equal menace, was worthy of a caution, then combined with the foul tackle by Okay why was he not further punished?

Matt Robinson on the ball, watched by Histon's Erkan Okay

With Histon still very much in the ascendancy Glen Fuff, who had been one of relatively few City players to perform to their full potential clashed with Colin Vowden in an aerial duel which resulted a free kick for the Stutes just outside the box. Adie Cambridge stepped up and sent a well executed curling effort narrowly wide and into the side netting.

With a little over a quarter of an hour remaining Histon scored the goal that killed off the game. Craig Pope’s ball in from the right was charged down midway inside the Histon half sending Bridges clear against a back-peddling City rearguard. Showing good strength to hold off Langston he rounded off a direct run with a fierce drive which Roberts could only parry, the loose ball fell kindly and Bridges followed up to square for Gutzmore who bundled the ball home under challenge from close range, game over.

The Stutes successfully took the heat out of the remainder of the contest and even the magnificent vocal backing the Lilywhites received from their supporters throughout the game failed to lift them in the closing stages.

Just when it seemed the night was fading to a close City suffered a further blow in the final minute when Carl Williams went up for an aerial challenge with Wayne Goddard. The Histon player went to ground holding his head and referee Deadman immediately brandished a straight red card. It was impossible to see what had happened from the far side of the pitch but the City midfielder was clearly very unhappy with the decision, indicating to the bench a facial injury he had received in the incident.

City really need to get back to the normality of the league as soon as possible and focus on the far more important task of gaining promotion through the play offs. Histon were deserved winners on the night and this victory will no doubt spur them on in their aefforts to clinch the Southern League title.