| Originally playing their
football on Parker's Piece, they had to find a new home
when Parker made his piece off limits. Founded in 1919,
Abbey United took their name from the Abbey district of
Cambridge - a name they retained until they turned
professional in 1949, when a national building society
stopped sponsoring the club. By this time they had moved
on to play in the Celery Trenches, where they established
a huge following amongst vegetarians across the city. The
club did toy with the idea of changing it's nickname to
"The Dreaming Spireites", but this had already
partly been taken by another club. The club really came to prominence in
1970 when they were elected to the Football League and
then had a rapid rise in fortune winning promotion to
Division Three in 1976-77 as Champions, then finishing
second in that division in 1979-80 to go up to the old
Division Two. Despite a good run in the eighties in Division Two and in 1992 they lost a play-off and a chance
to reach the top flight, over the years the club has
slipped back down the ladder. In fact in 1983-84, the
club lost 31 consecutive games and were, unsurprisingly,
relegated. However, more recently, in 1991 they won the
Third Division championship and last season they were
runners-up in Division Three and won automatic promotion.
Back in 1974, Cambridge United were involved in the first
Sunday FA Cup tie against Oldham Athletic, which ended in
a 2-2 draw. The club’s top crowd was strangely
recorded against Chelsea in a friendly, just before the
start of their League career.
During their days in
Division Two, with John Beck at the helm in the 1980's,
the club earned a reputation for bizarre training methods
and "dirty tricks" to make their opponents feel
ill at ease. These included freezing cold showers for his
own players, dirty changing rooms and deflated kick-about
balls for the opposition and long grass in the corners of
the pitch to slow the long balls into those areas,
allowing the U’s forwards to reach them. Beck
carried on his dirty tricks even after leaving to take
charge of Preston North End - taking nine of the
Cambridge United players with him !! He was not the only
famous manager at the club, with Ron Atkinson taking the
club from Fourth to Second division and Ex-England and
Derby County centre-half Roy McFarland currently sitting
in the hot seat.
Before their entry into the
League, a local animal sanctuary had an escapee and it
was found grazing on the pitch at the Abbey Stadium. This
lead to the moose connection with the club, as in the
club shop you can buy a range of moose souvenirs to show
your allegiance to the U’s. With some good young
players, the club need to battle to stay in Division Two and build on it
to make the transition to a higher league in due course.
FAMOUS PLAYERS : - Dion
Dublin, Don “The Don” Donn, Steve Spriggs, Tom
Finney (no not that one), John Taylor, Charles
Clare-College.
FAMOUS FANS : - Gary Newbon (Football commentator and
broadcaster - Talk Radio), Tom Findlay (Musician - Groove Armada)
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