Huntingdon Town will meet Cambridge City after dramatic FA Cup win over St Ives Town

Craig Green’s 88th-minute effort settled the tie at Jubilee Park just four minutes after substitute Joe Jordan had grabbed their equaliser 33 seconds after coming off the bench.

But the Huntingdon manager, with one eye on the next round and a game at Cambridge City, a team that were beaten 5-0 by St Neots Town in the Southern League Premier Division on Monday, said: “It doesn’t make us a great team and we will keep our feet on the floor.”

Huntingdon pocketed �1,750 preliminary round prize money after collecting �1,000 for their extra preliminary round win at Irchester United. They beat Irchester again last week, 4-1 this time, to kick-start their United Counties League campaign after injury problems and holidays had seen themget off to a slow start.

A win in Cambridge on Saturday, September 8, would bring in another �3,000.

“It will be the same as the game against St Ives,” said Marheineke. “We were the underdogs against them and we will be the underdogs against Cambridge, too.”

Ironically, it was Gary Roberts, the Cambridge manager, who Marheineke turned to when he suddenly found himself short of players two weeks ago. Both Ben Sawer and Victor Torres are on loan at Huntingdon from Cambridge City and both of them played against St Ives. The introduction of Sawer in the second half turned the game on Saturday.

“Our game plan was to stick to Conor Washington but they surprised us with their formation and I felt we had the stronger bench when it came to changing things.

“Ben Sawer and Joe Jordan made a big difference when they came on.”

St Ives joint-manager Jez Hall said: “Huntingdon totally deserved it really – I thought we were dreadful. We missed Karl Gibbs who was at a family wedding and we tried to play with one up front or three up front. It didn’t really work ... we’re a natural 4-4-2 side and perhaps we should have stuck to that. You live and learn.”

THE heavens opened and lightning illuminated Jubilee Park just in time for Craig Green to smash home Huntingdon Town’s dramatic 88th-minute in their big FA Cup preliminary round derby against much-fancied visitors St Ives Town on Saturday.

On paper, it was St Ives’ game – even the Huntingdon manager Ricky Marheineke had said so. “If we play them 20 times we might win once!” But the same man also told The Hunts Post last week: “A derby is a derby … and anything can happy!”

He got that right. As ends to games go it was one of the most dramatic Jubilee Park will have seen..

Huntingdon took an early lead in the much anticipated derby – the first competitive meeting between the two clubs in many years – when Dan Drane lobbed goalkeeper Niall Conroy-Owen. But that was a goal against the run of play and the Saints were 2-1 up by half time.

First winger David Cobb found his way through Huntingdon’s defence to smash home the equaliser, and then St Ives’ dangerman Conor Washington gave them the lead when he beat goalkeeper Dave Beeny with a fantastic shot across the face of the goal from a tight angle.

Surely it was going to be more of the same in the second half. But no.

The longer the second half remained 2-1, the more dangerous Huntingdon looked. And then Marheineke threw on his subs.

“No one likes players running at them,” Marhineke said, and that’s exactly what Cambridge City loanee Ben Sawer and Ollie Medwynter, signed from Peterborough Northern Star on Friday morning, did.

Substitute Joe Jordan’s 84th minute equaliser – just 33 seconds after he had left the bench – seemed to stun St Ives who then left gaps in their defence with Sawer becoming the favoured supply line down the right hand side of the pitch.

One of his crosses found the head of Green – but the midfielder’s contact was poor and the ball bounced wide. It looked like the tie was going to a replay...

Green was given another chance when Sawer put in another great cross and this time the player controlled the ball superbly on his chest after a nod back from the far post to swipe it home before being buried under a mountain of celebrating Hunts bodies. Job done.

Joint St Ives manager Jez Hall admitted his side hadn’t performed on the day. “The second half of the first half was decent and we had quite a lot about us. In the second half we came out and didn’t do anything.,” he told The Hunts Post.

“You should never concede two goals in the last five or six minutes of a game of football. It was bad enough to let them get an equaliser – but to let them get a soft winner as well was worse.”

Marheineke said: “Our game plan was to stick with Conor but they surprised us with their formation and I felt we had the stronger bench when it came to changing things.

“Ben Sawer and Joe Jordan made a big difference when they came on and we looked like we had more goals in us.”

The only downside for the Huntingdon manager was the late injury to Dave Beeny. The goalkeeper went down unchallenged in injury time with a dislocated knee. He will be out for up to six weeks.

Huntingdon: Dave Beeny, Josh Crick (Ben Sawer), Ryan Spencer, Jamie Blackwell, Victor Torres, Ricky dear, Darren Ray (Ollie Medwynter), Craig Green, Stuart Easton, Dan Drane (Joe Jordan), Charlie Bowen.

St Ives: Niall Conroy-Owen, Jordan Lambert, Jamie Alsop, Dan Newman, Will Fordham, Jimmy Dean, David Cobb (Lee Ellison), Scott Everdell (Junior McDougald), Conor Washington, Jon Stead, Stuart Codd (Scott Fielding).