At our home game against Aylestone Park last Saturday we had a visit from the “Groundhopper” community, one of which was kind enough to post an account of his first visit to Bridge Road on the Non-League Matters website. It is always interesting to hear what others make of us, and it seems from the following that the Bridge Road atmosphere created by our hard-working volunteers and excellent supporters is getting the recognition it deserves.
The account, written by “Shotover” reads as follows;
To quote from the great Etta James “At Last” a really entertaining and enthralling UCL game, only been 25 years but it has been achieved!
Histon has always been on my list to visit and yesterday, which was the 16th anniversary of their win over Leeds in the FA Cup was as good a day as any. Many will know the Bridge Road Stadium but what surprised me was that there was no air of decay about the place. Everything was clean, bright and tidy. And my goodness me what friendly staff, volunteers and supporters. So this game pitched second in the league Aylestone Park against 6th placed Histon. What we got was a really good game, very few fouls, no bad language from either bench and excellent officials.
Aylestone took the lead on 10 minutes when the dangerous Lamar Parker sent over a peach of a cross for Abdul Sunmonu to knock in. On 23 minutes the evergreen Billy Kee contrived to miss an almost open goal whilst at the other end the Aylestone defence were keeping the fast forwards of Histon at bay. Just on half time Billy Kee was twice denied by excellent saves from George Whitehall.
The second half was equally competitive and equally foul free. Lots of good approach play and goalmouth action, but it came as no surprise when another Parker cross found Billy Kee who this time did not miss. With time running out Taylor Franklin pulled one back for Histon when he shot through a ruck of players. Histon pressed hard and had a few very close near misses. Billy Kee still managed to miss a couple of half chances and one gold plated one on one How did he miss that chance!
I went home happy in having seen such a quality game and, as I left the car park the attendant thanked me for coming and wished me a safe journey home. Personally, I would hope that Histon can get back up the ladder. On this performance, and I know nothing of the state of their ground, I would expect to see Aylestone take the UCL South and move up the ladder at the end of the season.
