Histon 3 Stags 0

FOR supporters of the big clubs, flicking through their morning paper with only a vague interest in the lower divisions, this result will read as something of a surprise.

Mansfield, with all their years in the Football League, losing comprehensively to Histon, a team who most people could not find on a road atlas?

Indeed, to most Stags fans it would have been an unthinkable prospect even five years ago when the Stutes were still well down the pyramid.

But for anyone who has followed the Blue Square Premier this season, the Cambridgeshire side's victory comes as anything but a shock. Those who were at the Glass World Stadium last night, will also know it is no more than the home team deserved.

Ask the likes of Forest, Leeds and Manchester City and they can testify from recent spells in the third tier of the English game that reputations count for absolutely nothing.

What really matters, as Histon continue to prove, is the contribution of the players on the pitch. Their long ball method may be unfashionable and frowned upon by the game's purists, but there is simply no denying its effectiveness.

Just as at Wimbledon and Cambridge before them in the 1980s and 1990s, the Stutes have a system that gets the best out of their squad. With the help of their tight, bobbly pitch, they are particularly successful on home turf, losing once in front of their own fans all season.

And they were more than a match for the Stags, with many visiting fans having started the journey back up the A1 well before the final whistle that signalled their third consecutive away defeat.

Mansfield boss David Holdsworth believed it was two individual errors for Histon's first two goals, within four minutes of each other just before the break, that were costly after his side had been holding their own. He felt his charges had played some decent stuff at times.

Former skipper Adie Moses was another not too disappointed with the overall performance, feeling that the Stags had stood up well to the bombardment from Histon. But there are those, this writer included, who felt that Mansfield were totally outplayed and unable to cope with the physical presence of their opponents.

Time after time the Stags were at panic stations in the box from Gareth Gwillim's long throws and equally ill at ease from corners and free-kicks.

Even if those two first-half goals could have been eradicated with better defending, there were plenty more occasions when the Stutes could have made the breakthrough.

Mansfield, aside from a few promising flashes on the counter-attack, struggled to pass the ball with any fluency as Histon hustled and harried as if their lives depended on it.

Their dominance was particular evident in the second half when Mansfield failed to muster an effort on target. Perhaps the only real surprise was that it took until four minutes from time for the Stutes to make the game safe with a third goal.

Where there is no room for argument was that the game could have mapped out entirely differently had Nathan Arnold not spurned a golden chance with the game goalless.

He made a superb run and was found by an even better diagonal ball from Ryan Williams to race clear one-on-one with Danny Naisbitt. But he shot too close to the keeper, who pulled off a relatively simple save.

Less than a minute later Adie Moses got caught the wrong side of Antonio Murray, giving the Stutes striker a similar chance – one he gobbled up by beating Marriott.

If that was a setback to Mansfield then a stoppage-time second goal was a hammer blow. With the Stags protesting for a foul, Josh Simpson played on and curled in a pinpoint centre that was glanced in by Nat Knight-Percival.

Holdsworth, quite rightly, attempted to change things early in the second period by throwing on Daryl Clare and Louis Briscoe.

But it did not have the desired effect as Histon went on to prove their game is not all brawn, showing they have more ability, especially in Murray, than people give them credit for.

And it was Knight-Percival who wrapped things up with a powerful header off the underside of the bar from another Simpson cross.

Holdsworth has stressed there is still plenty to do for Mansfield to make the step up from mid-table to play-offs next season.

This match only served to underline that view.