Histon 1  Leeds United 0

Leeds went down to Histon in the pouring rain in Cambridgeshire, on a surface that didn’t exactly suit our usual neat passing game. A 38^th. Minute goal from Langston was enough to take the non-league side to the fourth round, despite a spirited fightback from Leeds in the second half.

We were glad to welcome back two first choice defenders for this game, with both Sheehan and Rui returning from injury, and generally we had a far more solid look at the back than we had in recent games. But with Beckford missing, Macca decided to use Snodgrass as an out-and-out striker for the first time, with Hughes starting on the right hand side of midfield.

We had the first decent attack of the game, when Sheehan tried a clever chip from just outside the box that could have embarrassed the keeper, but it dropped just over the bar. But we soon got bogged down by the conditions, with quite a few passes going astray as the ball didn’t run on in the way that it would have done on a better playing surface.

In truth, during the first half I was thinking that it was turning into an absolutely awful game of football, and as the rain continued it must have crossed the referee’s mind that he was going to have to abandon the game if conditions got any worse. We had another chance on 23 minutes when some good work by Snodgrass set Becchio up for a shot from about 12 yards, but it bobbled just before the Argentinean struck it, and it sailed comfortably over the bar.

And disaster struck for Leeds in the 38^th. Minute, when Histon took the lead from a corner. Lubo had seemed to be a tower of strength up until now, but this time he allowed Langston to get in front of him, and the Histon man was able to send a powerful header past Lucas into the net.

We came out looking determined in the second half, and with the wind at our backs we put the Cambridgeshire side under pressure throughout the second 45 minutes, as the superior fitness of the full-time side began to tell. All we needed was to get a goal from somewhere. But when the first chance of the half fell to Becchio on the left hand side of the box his finising was again wasteful, sending a left-foot shot well wide of the post.

Misden could have put us further behind on the break, but he was denied by a fine block from Sheehan. Macca must have started thinking about a substitution by now, and his hand was forced when Robinson had to be carried off the field with what looked like a hamstring injury. Showumni came on to play up front, and Snodgrass went back his usual wide position.

The second substitution saw Howson coming on for Hughes, and although this might sound like sacrilege, I might have taken Delph off instead. Our starlet just couldn’t get into the game in these conditions, and the only contribution I can remember was a turn and shot that went well over the bar.

We finally knew that it wasn’t going to be our day, when Lubo went very close with two excellent shots after going up for corners, yet somehow the ball stayed out both times. The first shot came back off the inside of a post and bounced clear, the second was acrobatically headed off the line by a Murray, with the keeper well beaten.

As the minutes ticked away I tried to buy an equaliser by nipping to the loo, which would have been a noble sacrifice had I missed a Leeds goal, but unfortunately I didn’t. We continued to lay siege to their goal and shots rained in, but we just couldn’t force the ball over the line. Bizzarely the bench refused to allow Lucas to go up for our final corner (why, what did we have to lose?) and after four minutes of injury time Histon had held on to claim their victory.

So we lost to a non-league side the in the FA cup for the first time in our history, and yet I can’t fault the effort that any of the Leeds players put into the game. It truly was just one of those days, with the game played in atrocious conditions that suited Histon far more than ourselves, Beckford missing up front, Histon scoring with one of their few clear opportunities, and Lubo being unlucky not to score with one of his two shots. But that, as they say, is what the FA Cup is all about, and it’s Histon who go on to play Swansea in the third round.

Photo: Action Images

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