There is much excitement in the
scholarly city of Cambridge as the Manchester United Red Devils are in town to play
Cambridge United at the Abbey Stadium in the FA Cup. A crowd of just
over 8,000 is expected and I suspect there will not be too much going
on in the college libraries tonight.
Now a League 2 side (4th
Tier) the original club was called Cambridge United from 1909
(nothing to do with the present club) but in 1912 a club known as
Abbey United formed. By 1949, the club became Cambridge United, and
joined the professional ranks in the Eastern Counties League and then
the Southern League. In 1970 United joined the Football League
replacing Bradford Park Avenue.
The 1990s was United's greatest period
as the notorious “POMO” man, John Beck, played his direct method
and took the club to the Wembley Play Offs from Division Four. There
was also the small matter of two FA Cup quarter-finals and a Football
League last eight.
United won the 3rd Division
championship in 1991 and then came 5th in Division Two.
They were a play-off away from the Premier League.
By 2005 the club was relegated to the
Conference. After much coming and going, especially financially, recently, head coach, Richard Money has led his team in 2013-14 to qualify for the Conference play offs
and then beat Gateshead at Wembley to return to the FL. There was also
another final in the FA Trophy that led to a defeat by Gosport
Borough 4-0 at Wembley.
Alan Brazil has been giving Cambridge a
decent coverage on TalkSport and he fondly remembered pre-season
tournaments from Ipswich as East Anglian teams came together. He also
mentioned playing the university team on Fenners, the CUCC home
pitch, when Ipswich Town and Gown came together. Mark Saggers and Max
Rushden are well known as staunch supporters of the “Us”.
Money hopes that his team
gives a good account of themselves, especially local lad Luke
Chadwick, who having been at Man U from 1997 till 2004, with
considerable success, now is very much part of his Cambridge side.
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