Villagers:1 U's:1

Although there are a lot of things I'd happily accuse Gareth Baldwin of, stupidity wouldn't usually be one of them.

But in the wake of the quotes in today's CEN I'm beginning to wonder. Referring to the crowd issues last night which saw 250-300 fans locked out at Bridge Road, he said: "The decision was made by our safety officer because Cambridge sold 590 tickets, so we gave them the whole of the away end and 300 seats in the home end (...) If I'm honest, we didn't think we'd get to capacity, but once we were, Trading Standards and our safety officer said no more fans in the away end."

Baldwin's comments just about sum up why his club are a million miles away from being a professional outfit off the pitch, even if they are pretty good on it. How could anyone in their right mind think that less than 1,000 United fans would turn up on the night to watch their team, given that for a lot of them Histon is probably closer to home than the Abbey? It defies all belief or logic, and to make matters worse they clearly had no contingency plan in place. After the gates were locked they started letting United fans without colours into the home end, but soon put a stop to this, meaning a large number gathered on the hillside to watch the game instead.

So the "massive crowd" predicted by Steve Fallon turned out to be 2,500. Quelle Surprise. The only consolation I can take from having to watch the game in Histon territory (yes I was one of the colour-less few that made it in) was that their own incompetence probably cost them a few thousand quid. Never mind eh.

The absent masses didn't really miss a lot as the match itself was fairly low quality, being played as it was on a surface which made any move involving the players taking more than one touch virtually impossible. United sprung a surprise by naming last minute signing Lee Phillips in the starting line up. I'm not entirely sure that getting yet another player in is a good idea, even if Beesley is going to miss the rest of the season. I'm sure our budget is already stretched to breaking point, and with Parky set to return soon Willmott could feasibly be pressed into service up front. And if we are in the business of signing cash-chasing Conference journeymen, we could have at least pushed the boat out to get the greedy journeyman's greedy journeyman, Daryl Clare.

Phillips did little of note on his debut, bar one surging run and shot in the second half that was narrowly wide, though it would perhaps be harsh to judge him too soon, especially on such an atrocious pitch. Nothing much happened at all in the first half, save for a lot of whistling from the referee, who at one point seemed set on penalising Scott Rendell every time his feet left the ground. Heaven knows what watching Setanta pundit, and budding refereers assesor, Steve Evans made of it all.

Jack Midson shot wide when well placed for the Stutes, while Rendell deflected a wayward Gleeson shot into Danny Naisbett's ample midriff. Naisbett also clung onto a volley from Jai Reason, but the half time whistle came as a welcome relief from the tedium on the pitch, if only because it gave us the chance to be deafened by Histon's abnormally loud tannoy.

United at least seem to be able to cope with Histon now, something which could never really be said last season. The start of the second half saw us get right in their faces, and Naisbett was called into action to turn a looping header from Bolland over the bar. Then came the afforementioned Phillips chance, before Hatswell blasted a long ranger high and wide.

Little did we know that the trigger happy defender was just warming up. In the 74th minute Phillips was chopped down 30 yards from goal. The resulting free kick was punched clear by Naisbett, but the ball fell kindly for Hats, who mowed a tremendous dipping 35-yard volley back over the stranded keeper into the top of the net. 1-0.

Unfortunately we all know the Stutes are at their most dangerous in the last ten minutes, and although they looked down and out at this point, their tremendous self belief began to kick in. Free kicks, throw ins, and corners rained down on the United defence, and Antonio Murray spurned a great chance to equalise, beating Potter with an angled shot but seeing his effort come back off the post.

A goal was certainly brewing though, and when it came it was unfortunate that it again stemmed from an error by Pottsy. Our number one looked to have Langston's header under control, but instead of catching or punching effectively, he merely helped in onto the bar, and Midson was on hand to tuck in the rebound. 1-1.

At that stage the Stutes looked the only likely winners, but for all their late pressure they failed to muster another shot on target, and in the end a draw was probably a fair result. As with Saturday's game, I thought the sides were fairly well matched, and while I will never be totally confident when facing the Villagers, I think that if we do end up meeting them again in the Play-Offs we will be more than a match for them and their strong arm tactics.


Man of the Match: Wayne Hatswell - It would be harsh to not give him MotM after such a stunning goal.

Mong of the Match: Plenty to choose from in Histon, but the drunk, spitting, Stutes chav who wandered in our direction in the second half wins. Fair play to the tattooed but very polite steward who reprimanded him for "acting like a div".