Saturday 4th January 2025 12.30pm – The Abbey Stadium – EFL League One

With the EFL deciding to move a number of games each Saturday to 12.30pm kick-offs, I started a journey to revisit some of the grounds I haven’t been to for many years. Some held strong memories from previous visits, or had been significantly modernised as football moved into a new commercial stratosphere. Eventually, I will “redo” the 92, first completed back in 1995, but at a leisurely pace, taking advantage of the variable kick-off times to also grab a 3pm game close (ish) by.

It has been 15 years since my last visit to The Abbey Stadium, home of Cambridge United. On that day, Luton Town were the visitors whilst both clubs were in the now National League. A hefty police presence and nearly 4,900 fans saw a seven-goal thriller, which Luton won 4-3. I was there with my good friend Football Jo, who at the time was the partner of Luton Town manager, and legend, Mick Harford. Keeping the theme of legends, a few years previously the Fuller family had been guests of the then Commercial Manager of the club, who was at the time partner of John Taylor, scorer of over eighty goals in three hundred and fifty games for the club.

But my first visit to the Abbey Stadium is still one that sticks firmly in my memory and for this early kick-off on a chilly Saturday morning, I was able to take the same spot as I stood nearly 45 years previous.

I assumed it was an April Fools Day joke when my Dad said to me on the morning of 1st April 1980 that he would pick me up from school and we would be driving up to Cambridge to watch West Ham play in a Division Two match. This was to be only my third ever West Ham away game, my first outside of London. It is hard to comprehend how easy we have it today in terms of going to a game. We can buy tickets online, we can find a parking space online, and we can get real time traffic information, online. None of that existed in the 1980’s. We had to use an A to Z to find where the ground was, with my older brother on directions, first to find the infamous Colonel Fudpuckers restaurant (as a 10 year old it just sounded rude) then across the city to the ramshackle Abbey Stadium for the game, getting there early enough so I could get a place to see, and of course hoping we could get a ticket.

Back in 1980 West Ham were slowly becoming one of the best teams in English football. They were in the semi-finals of the FA Cup despite being in the second tier, and would go on to beat Arsenal in the final. A year later they swept everyone away in the league, cantering to the title, reaching the European Cup Winners Cup quarter finals and taking the mighty Liverpool side of the early 80s to a replay in the League Cup Final. Cambridge United had been elected into the Football League in ten years previously, at the expense of Bradford Park Avenue, then had risen through the leagues under the management of Ron Atkinson. They would go on to finish eighth in the Second Division, one place below West Ham, their highest ever league position.

With 45 minutes to go until kick-off on that April night, we found a spot at the front of the terrace that ran along Coldhams Common. I was lifted up to sit on the perimeter wall, along with the rest of the kids, almost within touching distance of heroes such as Ray Stewart, Billy Bonds and Alan Devonshire. It was a very strong West Ham side – in fact 10 of the 11 starters would go on to win the FA Cup final against Arsenal just over a month later, but on the night, as the rain poured down, it was Cambridge who ran out winners 2-0, in front of nearly 9,000 fans.

Back to the present day and I found what would have been my spot at the front of the Habbins Terrace for the 12.30pm kick-off against Bristol Rovers on a freezing cold day. The Main Stand opposite hadn’t changed, although at either end of the ground, new stands have replaced the old terraces. It had been a tough season so far for the U’s, fighting at the wrong end of League One. Having seen them lose last week at Leyton Orient, I didn’t hold out much hope for the visit of The Gas, who themselves weren’t fairing much better.

It wasn’t a classic, with the game decided by a single strike from Rovers Luke Thomas in the 26th minute. Cambridge huffed and puffed, having 17 shots to the visitors 7, but it wasn’t enough, and as the majority of the home fans drifted away, the U’s were reduced to ten men when Morrison was sent off in injury time.

There was something enjoyable though about revisiting the ground, remembering how it felt to come here 45 years later after that evening in 1980. Time may have moved on in terms of football, but memories never fade.