Club honours include the Challenge International du Nord in 1912, and Southern League champions 1962–63.

The club competed in the Southern Amateur League, developing a fierce rivalry with Ipswich Town that was evident both on and off the pitch.

Cambridge United were elected into the Football League in 1970,[5] and from that point City struggled to attract as many supporters to their games as their cross-city rivals – by the early 1980s, when United were enjoying a prolonged spell in the 2nd Division, City were attracting fewer than 200 supporters to each game.

[citation needed] 1975–76 saw the second relegation in the club's history, into the Southern League's Division One North.

They remained there until 1979–80, when a re-organisation of the league's structure, in order to become a feeder to the newly formed Football Conference, placed City in the Midland Division.

After a few seasons struggling at the wrong end of the table, including another reprieve from relegation in 1999, City's league form improved at just the right time and the club joined the Football Conference's newly formed South Division in 2004–05, embarking on a successful FA Cup run in the same season – following United's relegation from the League in 2005, the two Cambridge clubs were only one division apart.

[8] In May 2008 City were demoted from the Conference South, after their ground failed an FA inspection, to the Southern League Premier Division for the 2008–09 season.

The original ground was one of the largest outside the football league and was estimated to have a capacity in excess of 16,000 although the highest recorded attendance was 12,058 against Leytonstone on 11 February 1950.

The club was in a legal dispute with their landlords over the ground, which was sold by a previous board of directors for less than its market value.

The Lilywhites revived their share with Histon at the start of the 2018–19 season till 2022–23 before returning to Westwood Road again for a temporary short-term arrangement.

[16] Manager: Jamie Cureton Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply.