A SOLITARY second-half strike from Nick Freeman gave hosts Histon all three points against the Magpies tonight.

Freeman, who had a penalty saved by Alan Walker-Harris early on, netted the only goal of the contest in the 72nd minute.

Dorchester did play better than they had during last Saturday’s loss to Wimborne, but it still wasn’t good enough to take anything from the Evo-Stik Premier Division fixture at the Glassworld Stadium.

The county town side now drop to 19th in the table, one point off the last relegation place.

Magpies’ boss Graham Kemp brought Ryan Murray, Oakley Hanger, Sam Lanahan, Nick Crittenden and Ben Joyce back into the visitors’ starting line-up for the clash in Cambridgeshire.

Matt Oldring and Chris Dillon were injured, Micky Hubbard was dropped from the matchday squad altogether and both Kieran Parrett and Dan Smith had to settle for places on the bench.

For Histon, Denzel Gerrar and Peter Clark were unavailable due to shin and ankle injuries respectively.

Dorchester’s preparations for the match weren’t ideal as their coach got held up on the way to the ground, leaving the Magpies with little time to get warmed up before kick-off.

And Kemp’s men nearly came unstuck as early as the 10th minute.

A foul in his own area by Murray resulted in the referee pointing to the spot to give Histon a glorious chance to take the lead.

However, Walker-Harris gues-sed correctly, diving low to his right to save Freeman’s penalty.

Freeman was in the thick of the action soon after, linking up well with James Akintunde, though the latter’s ball back across goal was cleared to safety.

After Tony Rolls received the first yellow card of the encounter, Andy Robinson had rather half-hearted appeals for a spot-kick waved away when he went down a bit too easily in the Histon box.

At the other end, Freeman and Akintunde continued to look dangerous for the Stutes, and the latter headed wide following a long-range effort from his team-mate.

Chances were few and far between for the Magpies and they suffered a setback just before the break when Jamie Gleeson had to go off. Smith was the midfielder’s replacement.

Histon remained the side most likely to break the deadlock when the second period got underway.

Walker-Harris was kept busy during the opening minutes of the half, making crucial saves from Stuart Wall and then Mateusz Kuzimski.

The Magpies finally began to get a foothold in the game following their keeper’s good work, though they still couldn’t create anything meaningful to test Enol Ordonez in the Histon goal.

However, just as it looked like the visitors were in with a shout of nicking all three points, the home side took the lead with less than 20 minutes left.

A poor clearance presented the ball to Freeman on the edge of the Magpies’ box and the youngster drove a shot past Walker-Harris.

Parrett came on for Rolls with around 10 minutes to go as Dorchester looked to find an equaliser, and after Walker-Harris had made a couple of decent saves and been booked for dissent, Joyce fired just over.

But even though they kept battling, the visitors were unable to prevent Histon from claiming a fourth consecutive league win.

Dorchester must now pick themselves up for Saturday’s home encounter with Biggleswade Town.

Histon: Ordonez, McDonald, White, Key, Wall, Rumens, Akintunde, McGeorge, Kuzimski (Libertucci), Fulcher (Lowe), Freeman. Subs not used: Peacock, McCoy, Root

Magpies: Walker-Harris, Murray, Hanger, Gleeson (Smith), Walker, Rolls (Parrett), Crittenden, Lanahan, Joyce, Odam, Robinson. Subs not used: Murphy, Godfrey, Brookes

Bookings: Histon – None

Magpies – Rolls (foul), Walker-Harris (dissent), Walker (dissent)

Referee: Andrew Aylott (Bedfordshire)

Attendance: 132

  • Poole Town are the visitors to the Avenue tonight (7.45pm) in the Under-21 Development League.