Fallon goes again, and other stuff

Not content with nicking our title of "biggest club in Cambridge", the Villagers seem intent on taking the "most shambolic team in Cambridge" crown too.

Steve Y'know's sacking, just two days after he returned to work, was such a ridiculous (and funny) event that I'm half expecting Tony Roach to tear off his face and reveal that he is actually George Rolls masquerading in a Roach suit. Rolls/Roach hasn't even bothered to come up with a new reason for firing Fallon, instead just copying and pasting the statement he made when Lingy left and changing a couple of the names:

"After resuming the role only yesterday it soon became very evident that underlying irreconcilable differences between Steve and myself and the Board would preclude the partnership ever working for the benefit of Histon FC so it was a unanimous decision of the Board of Directors to relieve him of his responsibilities with immediate effect," the Histon supremo said, as he removed the last trace of the Baldwin era from the the Glassworld Stadium.

One suspects the irreconcilable differences between the pair may be small, bald, and Uncle Fester-shaped, as Lewer has, er, stepped into the shoes of his ex-boss on several occasions in the past. It should also be noted that none of these forays into management have gone particularly well, so I wish the Villagers luck with that one, they'll probably need it.

Meanwhile, United secretary Wayne Purser is on his way, meaning there is a vacancy in the club's backroom to be filled ahead of the AGM. A job for former Histon secretary Mrs Baldwin perhaps? Certainly it's looking more and more likely that she and/or her husband will be involved with United at some point in the future.

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New year stuff

Happy new year folks. My journey back through the channel tunnel seems to have transported me to a bizarre parallel universe where League One Leeds are capable of beating Man United, the BBC deem it appropriate to make the awful Colin Murray the new face of the BDO world darts championships, and Histon think they can nick three of our senior players.

Perhaps Tony Roach has made it his new year's resolution to troll United as much as possible in 2010. Not content with declaring that the Villagers are the "biggest club in Cambridge" (anyone see the slight flaw in that? Unless Histon and Impington has jumped across the A14 in my absence that is) today Stutes acting manager Uncle Fester revealed he is interested in signing up Gleeson, Willmott, and Beesley: "I’ve always been a big admirer of Beesley, Gleeson and Willmott, I’ve spoken to a director at Cambridge and made my interest known to him," he said, before adding that he had put in a call to Sir Alex to enquire about Wayne Rooney's availability, and was looking at Stephen Gerrard as a potential replacement for Josh Simpson.

If this wasn't such a transparent PR stunt I would be quite happy at the prospect of someone taking Beesley and Willmott off our hands. Still, it's good to know that the Roach magic wand has done it's work on the Villagers precarious finances, to the extent that they can now put in bids for full time players and expand their stadium's capacity to 5,200 (average attendance so far this season; 973). Obviously there's nothing to worry about at the Glassworld.

Sadly Lingy must have plenty on his mind after our 4-1 defeat at Stevenage, not least that we could go into our Trophy game against Eastbourne next week with a backline comprised entirely of players yet to hit puberty. With Saah and Hatswell suspended, and Tonks on his way to Oxford, a totally CRC-spawned defence of McAuley - Coulson - Hudson - Coakley looks a distinct possibility, acne-tastic!

However, perhaps the freezing weather will come to our aid and the game will be postponed; it's bad times when the Trophy is all you've got to play for, but it has to be our priority now, and I would rather the senior players missed a league game than this, gulp, important cup tie.

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Snow joke as fixtures are put on ice (ba-dum-tish)

The annual bout of snow we seem to get in this country nowadays is manna from local newspaper heaven.

After all, why bother digging around for actual stories when you can fill pages with pictures of smiling kids on sledges, user-generated content (ie, people sending in pictures of their snowmen), and long-winded quotes from weathermen who don't really know what they're talking about. My working week is done before it's even started, hurrah

Groundsmen up and down the country weren't so pleased to welcome the waves of wintry weather which swept across the Uk last Friday, laying waste to the entire Blue Square Premier weekend programme including United's planned Friday night clash with Oxford.

In a way I was disappointed to see the game be called off as I was looking forward to seeing how we'd fare against an outfit who thus far have been comfortably the best in the division. However our Christmas schedule looks considerably less daunting now that the toughest match of the four has been taken out of the equation. Mansfield haven't been in great form recently, so I'm fairly confident we can get something there, and in the home game against Stevenage, although the away leg in Chavsville will be a very tricky proposition. Of course we'll have to play Oxford at some point, but psychologically the postponement may have been a timely one - a heavy defeat on Friday night could have set our confidence back ahead of three matches in quick succession.

Meanwhile Steve Y'Know's future with the Villagers remains about as certain as Eurostar's festive timetabling plans, with talks continuing about the size of his pay off how his situation can be resolved. It might be a good idea if somebody got Stutes chairman Tony Roach a Harry Potter outfit for Christmas, as it seems he has been busy with his magic wand since taking over:

"I’m fed up of reading about Histon being in crisis – there was a crisis when I took over, but there isn’t now," he told the CN, before adding “everyone’s working hard and working together, and there are a lot of positives at the club at the moment.” It seems that, despite their well publicised differences of opinion, Roach has inherited his predecessors penchant for spin. Plus ca change.

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