Histon FC will join the Northern Premier League under the Football Association’s long-awaited reconfiguration of the English football league. John Payne told Liz Hill about the changes afoot.
Histon FC is moving from being one of the most northerly outposts in the Isthmian League to sit in the most south-easterly corner of the Northern Premier League (NPL) following a Football Association (FA) review into the structure of non-league football.
The Bridge Road club will start the 2021/22 season in the Northern Premier League’s Midlands division.
The new 20-team league has been formed based on geographical location and Histon FC will be one of five Cambridgeshire-based clubs in the competition. The Stutes will be joined by local rivals Soham Town Rangers and Cambridge City, with Wisbech Town and Yaxley also being relocated.
They will all join nine former members of last season’s Northern Premier League, plus six clubs that have been moved across from the Southern League Central Division.
This change brings to an end the two-year period in Histon FC’s history when they were members of the Isthmian League but didn’t complete either season due to the Covid-19 restrictions.
Into the unknown
The English Football Pyramid system allows promotion and relegation from a County League right up to the Premier League, with different leagues at different ‘steps’ in the pyramid.
The restructuring is part of the FA’s plan to create eight ‘Step 4 divisions’, giving the National League System a configuration that will reduce the need for lateral movements of clubs between the various leagues at the point of promotion and relegation between Steps 3 and 4 – something the Stutes have suffered from in recent years.
First team manager Lance Key has mixed feelings about the move. “It is disappointing in some ways in that we have come out of a league in which we have found our feet over the past two years and were starting to become competitive” he reflects.
“Going into the NPL Midland Division means we are going into the unknown in terms of the opposition we will be facing. Some clubs we already know about, such as Corby Town, Stamford, Soham Town Rangers and Cambridge City, but we will have to get our homework done on the clubs based in the West Midlands area.”
Travel challenges
The greatest impact of the change will be on the club’s players. Everyone from last season’s first team squad was willing to return again, including players who have been loyal to Histon FC in recent years and wanted to end their playing career at the club until Covid-19 intervened.
But whether players based in Essex or working in London will be able to play, given the distances they will have to travel and fit around their normal jobs, this is far from certain. “We will have to look at all the possible scenarios for next season while organizing our pre-season schedule”, Lance said.
Supporters of the club will be faced with the additional mileage to away fixtures as a result of the re-structuring. To attend every away match next season, as many will do, fans will need to travel a total of 2,788 miles compared with the 2,066 they would have travelled last season had Covid-19 not intervened. The longest road trip will be the 230 miles to Belper Town and back on the edge of the Derbyshire Peaks district.
Despite the challenges ahead, Lance is as bullish as ever about the prospects of continuing the progress of recent years: “Things will be different next season but we will be up for it and are looking forward to having a crack at it. Sometimes changes do you good, so we will have to wait and see what it brings.”
The Stutes’ pre-season campaign gets under way on Friday 9th July when the club will be welcoming fans back, Covid precautions permitted, for an evening match against Walsham le Willows. The Histon FC league programme kicks off on Saturday 14th August.
The full list of the teams making up the Northern Premier League Midlands division is:
Bedworth United
Belper Town
Cambridge City
Carlton Town
Chasetown
Coleshill Town
Corby Town
Daventry Town
Halesowen Town
Histon
Ilkeston Town
Loughborough Dynamo
Shepshed Dynamo
Soham Town Rangers
Spalding United
Sporting Khalsa
Stamford
Sutton Coldfield Town
Wisbech Town
Yaxley
