Evo-Stick Southern 1 Central
Saturday 28th January 2017
Dan Gleeson scored the winner for the second game in a row as we made it 4 wins on the bounce in our quest to get ourselves out of trouble at the foot of the table.
Lance Key made two changes to the team that started at Uxbridge two weeks ago, Jake Chambers-Shaw and Ben Yeomans coming in for Marcus Hall and James Carman whilst Pat Bexfield made the bench after a long spell out with injury.
The game livened up after a fairly quiet start with a quarter of an hour gone. Kidlington went close to opening the scoring, breaking quickly from our corner before sending an effort just wide but within moments we were ahead. The ball came to Matty Allan lurking on the left and he advanced on goal, stepping inside a defender before sending an angled shot across Sam Warrell into the far corner.
Within a couple of minutes Allan could have doubled the lead when Ross Munro and Jake Chambers-Shaw moved the ball quickly to send Allan clear but his final touch deserted him, allowing Warrell to collect bravely at his feet.
The hosts looked bright enough when in our half but we enjoyed the bulk of possession and played in their half most of the time, looking for an opening.
The second goal came with 36 minutes on the clock. Max York’s throw into the box was headed on by Dan Gleeson at the near post but the defender’s header sat up nicely and the alert Gleeson reacted quickly to direct a header into the far corner to make it 2-0.
At half time things were looking good but after the break the home side came out with intent and put us on the back foot. Within 7 minutes of the re-start it was 2-1, Jack Dunmall on the end of a nice move to finish past Sam Roach and our hosts had their tails up.
Concentration was called for at the back as Kidlington pushed forward but we had a real threat on the break and could have added to our goal tally. Allan tricked his way through three defenders before being hauled down on the edge of the area but inexplicably the Referee saw no infringement. A couple of minutes later and a nice move down the right saw Tommy Wright fire over a dangerous cross that Warrell could only palm out towards Chambers-Shaw and it was only a great last ditch defensive block that kept his shot out.
Kidlington broke quickly after their narrow escape though and forced Roach into an excellent save low to his right as both sides went looking for goals. Gleeson was an influential figure at the back and a calm head when the home side started to build up the pressure.
Despite Kidlington’s possession in the last fifteen minutes they weren’t able to really stretch Roach again and when our young keeper was called into action he dealt with everything with authority. Nerves were jangling amongst the travelling Stutes support as six minutes of added time seemed to last forever but when the whistle finally went it was 12 points from 12 and another step closer to safety.
Histon: Sam Roach, Tommy Wright, Cameron Watson (Daniel Happe 71), Ross Munro, Max York, Dan Gleeson, Matty Allan, Simon Unwin, Ben Yeomans (Danny Gould 64), Jake Chambers-Shaw (Marcus Hall 78), Elkanah Sibanda.
Histon subs not used: James Carman, Pat Bexfield.
Histon yellow cards: Matty Allan, Ben Yeomans, Simon Unwin.
Histon goal scorers: Matty Allan (15), Dan Gleeson (36).
Kidlington: Sam Warrell, Chris Weedon (Jack Quainton 42), Mark Flanagan, Charlie Wise (Callum Harvey 46), Tom Franklin, Lewis Gabbidon, Lewis Coyle, Elliott Osbourne-Ricketts, Anaclet Odhiambo, Eric Odhiambo, Jack Dunmall.
Kidlington subs not used: Tommy Castle, Bojan Tetek.
Kidlington yellow cards: Charlie Wise, Lewis Gabbidon, Mark Flanagan, Lewis Coyle.
Kidlington goal scorer: Jack Dunmall (52).
Attendance: 47
