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Abbey Stadium
Cambridge, Cambridgeshire
CB5 8LN

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The current Cambridge United were known as Abbey United and were formed in 1912, and played there home games at various locations. It was not until 192011 that they player their first competitive season of football, that was in division three of the Cambridgeshire Football League. United started to play their home games at Station Farm just off Newmarket Road, nicknamed the "Celery Trenches" due to the ruts in the playing surface. Then in 1931 Henry Clement Francis?offered the club the land on which the current Abbey Stadium stands. They joined the United Counties?League, turned semi-professional in 1947 and became a limited company in 1949

The club renamed itself Cambridge United for the 19511 season and, thanks to ground improvements, joined the Southern League South East Section in 1958 enabling them to compete in the same league as then superior rivals Cambridge City, for the first time. The 1960's saw United reach the Southern League Premier division, one step away from league football and become a team of full-time professionals - early when you consider that many of today's conference clubs are still semi-professional.

In those days non-league clubs had to be elected into the football league by chairman of the clubs and after a number of tries, in 1970 Manager Bill Leavers turned United into a league club. It also saw a record attendance of 14,000 - still a record. The match was against Chelsea and literally a game of two halves, united playing the first and Chelsea reserves taking their place in the second, "united" running out 4-3 winners.

United's first season saw them finish 20th in Division Four and by 1973-74 they were promoted to Division Three, but relegated again. Then, in 1974 Ron Atkinson took over from Bill Leavers.

On January 6th a milestone in English football was reached, United became the first League team in English football to host a match on Sunday. Oldham were the opponents in this F.A. cup match which kicked off at 11:30am there were a few other matches on this day all kicking off at the usual time of 3pm, allowing United to make history. They were unable to charge for tickets, due to Sunday trading rules, but charged 50p for a compulsory programme (30p for concessions). Clearly Sunday football was a success as in this day and age it appears to be the norm, especially for televised matches.

Big Ron first gained real success until 1977 when United were crowned champions of Division Four, runners up of Division Three in 1978, entering the second division (now the first). Unfortunately his success attracted the attentions of bigger clubs, in January 1978 United lost Big Ron to West Brom of the First Division. John Docherty and Paddy Sowden replaced him. United remained in this division until 1984, a poor season for united in which they went 32 games with out a win.

1989 saw, the start of United's most successful and exiting stint since joining the league. A team led by the controversial John Beck, took the club from the Fourth to Second division in successive seasons, only losing out in the play-offs to the newly formed Premiership, and then they only just missed out on an automatic promotion spot.

Success included: Division Four Play-off winners in the fist ever Wembley play-off final and Third Division Champions saw them enter the second division for the second time in their history. During this era United also reached the F.A. cup in two successive seasons losing to Crystal Palace in the first season and Arsenal in the second. In 1993 the club were relegated from Division One.

In 1996 United fell back in to the basement. Former Derby and England Defender Roy McFarland took over from the departed Tommy Taylor and in 1999 took the?team to the Second division narrowly missing out on the championship, in a decider match on the final day of the season. Roy McFarland was sacked in 2001 after a poor spell and John Beck re-appointed against the wish of most fans. He was forced out later that year and replaced by John Taylor.

Taylor's first season saw relegation. It was not all bad news, however, as in 2002 united appeared in a national cup final for the first time ever at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, but lost 4-1 to Blackpool. The end of the season saw the completion of new 1,500 all-seater stand at the South end, a state of the art medical centre and control room were built.

Financial crisis hit the Abbey Stadium as it has most other clubs after the ITV digital fiasco, but United had survived serious crises on two occasions, one the close season after ITV and the second in December 2003 where United had to find ?500k, increasing the need to redevelop the rest of the Abbey. Plans have been submitted to built a new North stand identical to the one at the south end, and double the size of facilities in the Main Stand. The plans also include a 120 bedroom hotel, 14 luxury apartments, a restaurant, a gym and other money making schemes, which should allow the club to break even.

Season 2004/2005 promised much and delivered very little and the club was relegated to the Conference. Just as things couldn't seem to get any worse the club went into administration, but by doing before the end of the season it?allowing them to have the 10 point penalty deducted that season before they?joined the Conference.?