Ground #369 - Bridge Road

Date: 23rd July 2022
Ground: Bridge Road

Location: Impington, Cambridgeshire

My ninth new ground of 2022 was on Saturday 23rd July at Bridge Road in Impington, Cambridgeshire. The game was Histon vs. Cambridge City in a friendly.

Bridge Road is located on the eastern edge of the village of Impington, just north of Cambridge. It is part of a sports complex that includes additional pitches and a tennis club. It has little in the way of neighbours with it mostly surrounded by roads or fields with only a GP surgery to the north. The venue is 2.5 miles north-west of Cambridge North railway station and has been home to Histon since they were formed in 1904.

The main side of the ground is on the west side. The two stands feature seating elevated above the walkway below with the lower section having a food outlet, the two dugouts a tunnel to the dressing rooms. The older stand by the halfway line has 350 seats with a newer stand attached to it with a larger 500 seat capacity. This stand was built in 2008 during Histon's brief spell in the National League and doubles as the Cambridgeshire FA Headquarters.

The other three sides of the ground all have the same base structures at a uniform height. The eastern side has 4 rows of seating for the whole length of the pitch adding 800 seats to the seating capacity and has a gantry atop the stand for TV cameras. The two ends have the same 4 row set-up but have terracing instead of seating.

The match was a friendly between United Counties League Premier Division South side Histon and Northern Premier League Division One Midlands side Cambridge City. It also doubled as a owners vs. tenants match as Cambridge City groundshare whilst their new stadium is under construction. Cambridge opened the scoring in the 8th minute - Ben Nolan advanced down the right before passing to Tommy Rigby who shot low from the edge of the box into the bottom corner. There was some end-to-end action in the middle of the half with firstly Cambridge seeing a point blank shot saved by the home goalie and a minute later Histon were up the other end of the field hitting the bar from a long-range shot. Two minutes before the break City doubled their lead with Mikey Davis laying up Connor Barnes to strike a long-range effort in off the post. The action continued into the second half with the third goal arriving in the 53rd minute after a defensive mix-up by Histon. As a defender headed the ball back to the keeper he dropped the ball and scrambling to grab it was outpaced by Connor Barnes who coolly dribbled round him and slotted into the net. Barnes was then on the hunt for his hatrick for the rest of the game - five minutes later Barnes picked up the ball on the right, shot his shot saved and then chipped the rebound just wide of the goal. With 20 minutes to go a scramble in the box fell to Barnes and this time it was the post denying him a third goal. Finally in the 89th minute Barnes got what he wanted when he got on the end of a cross to head into the net to round off his hattrick and a comfortable 4-0 win for Cambridge City.

Result: Histon 0-4 Cambridge City

Friendly

Attendance: N/A