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Friday, August 08, 2008, 09:09
They were effectively the 'smallest' club in the league, and still are, hailing from the twin villages of Impington and Histon, a couple of miles north of Cambridge.
Small they may be, but the Stutes — the nickname comes from their previous name of Histon Institute — are big on ambition, hope and pride. There is a real club spirit about the place.
Sure enough, they exceeded all expectations by finishing seventh in the league last season, continuing a remarkable run of success under their management team of Steve Fallon, once a talismanic defender with local rivals Cambridge United, and John Beck, the ex-U's, Preston and Lincoln boss.
Only eleven years ago Histon were playing in Division One of the Eastern Counties League. Six promotions since, most of them under Fallon, have raised the club to their current status.
Several of their players have been at the Glassworld Stadium throughout that remarkable rise.
Not even the sale of leading scorer Cliff Akurang in the January Transfer Window stopped Histon last season.
They promptly signed versatile forward Jack Midson from Bishop's Stortford, and this summer added pacy goalscorer Damien Reeves to join a striking roster already including Danny Wright and Antonio Murray.
Wright hit 18 goals last season, 15 of them in only 30 league starts.
Several of Histon's midfield are club stalwarts.
Jamie Barker and Neil Andrews are starting their eleventh seasons there, Adrian Cambridge his ninth, Robbie Nightingale his fourth and Nathaniel Knight-Percival graduated through the youth team.
John Kennedy, not very big but all action, is a past Player Of The Year award winner.
Ex-Barnet player Danny Naisbitt is first-choice in goal, backed up by goalkeeping coach Lance Key.
Competing for full-back places are Craig Pope, Gareth Gwillim and Erkan Okay.
And Fallon has recently added Llanre Oyebanjo from Brentford to a centre-back squad of Matt Langston, Mat Mitchel-King and former Exeter stopper Patrick Ada.
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