Good Luck Histon (vs Leeds)...The QPR Connection

And here's more re John Beck at Histon

Mirror

CRACKER BECK ON TOP OF THE HIST Wally 29/11/2008

EXCLUSIVE John's mind games to KO Leeds

Dirty tricks, pounds of sugar in the opposition teapot, relocation of the away dugout to the corner flag and half-inflated practice balls for the pre-match warm-up.

John Beck has had to overcome more prejudice as a coach and manager than Colin Firth conquered in Pride and Prejudice itself before he even got a dance with the ugly sister.

All those charges were levelled at Beck - never to his face, but mainly by sore losers, disaffected players and mischief-makers - when he was manager of Cambridge United in the early 1990s, and he never lived them down.

But prejudice is a cheap currency and closer inspection of Beck's achievements reveal he has presided over seven promotions and saved two clubs from relegation.

Far from being a football dinosaur from the kick-andrush dark ages, he was an understudy to Gerry Francis and Don Masson in the QPR squad pipped to the title by Liverpool in 1976.

Oh, and his Cambridge team could play a bit. Any side including Dion Dublin, John Taylor and Steve Claridge must have had something going for them, even if they did let the grass grow in the corners so wingers could retrieve optimistic passes from the light rough.

Tomorrow, just a few miles north of Cambridge, Beck will be on the bench as non-league Histon attempt to give Leeds their most uncomfortable FA Cup ride in East Anglia since Ray Crawford's goals humbled them at Colchester in 1971.

Since Beck joined forces with manager Steve Fallon three and-a-half years ago, Histon have been almost unstoppable.

Down in the Eastern Counties League, the ninth link in English football's food chain, towards the turn of the century, they are top of the Blue Square Conference: Next stop the Football League.

And if their blueprint for success looks strangely familiar, it's because first-team coach Beck's fingerprints are all over it.

"All those apocryphal stories about what we supposedly did at Cambridge to rile away teams are all untrue," said Beck, putting the record as straight as a spirit level.

"We never did anything like that - and I would have got the sack if we did. The FA would have been over us like a rash.

It was all hearsay and no substance, but it made for better gossip than the work ethic and the science on which that team's rise was built.

"Fair enough, the bit about cold showers was true - we did tip buckets of freezing water over our players. A lot of people probably thought it was just a stunt, but it has since been proved scientifically that ice baths remove lactic acid from the body's system and everybody uses them.

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"Since I've been working at Histon with Steve, we've given the players their own specific nutritional programmes to follow and I've done psychological profiles with them to make them understand their jobs within the team."

Psychological profiles? Is this guy football's answer to Cracker, or just plain crackers?

Judging by Histon's results, Beck, 54, may be more Robbie Coltrane than Rab C. Nesbitt.

The likes of home-grown winger Nathan Knight-Percival, defender Lanre Oyebanjo and top scorer Jack Midson are all flourishing under Beck's tutelage.

It must be more method than madness. Beck said: "Bearing in mind we are one of only three part-time teams in the Conference, Histon's achievements are on a par with anything we achieved at Cambridge.

"Last season we played at Aldershot, who had signed a lad from Reading on £1,500-aweek, and our two midfielders playing against him were a warehouse keeper who had started work at 4.30am and a roofer who had to take half-aday off work.

"We are lucky to work with our squad two or three times a week - and in the last round of the Cup, our preparation for beating Swindon was to run around the ground on concrete because everywhere was waterlogged.

"If Histon make it into the Football League, it would equal Manchester United winning the European Cup. We have built this side mainly by plucking rough diamonds out of nowhere and teaching them how to remain motivated and not too anxious.

"We haven't much chance of beating Leeds. We are just a little village team and they were Champions League semifinalists only seven years ago.

"I heard that when their chairman Ken Bates heard Leeds had drawn us, he had to Google-search Histon."

Don't be fooled by Cracker of Histon. Anyone for a cold shower, Ken?

I heard that when Ken Bates found out Leeds had drawn us, he had to Googlesearch Histon

If Histon make it into the Football League, it would equal Man Utd winning the European Cup


www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/top-stories/2008/11/29/cracker-beck-on-top-of-the-hist-115875-20933398/