History of Cambridge United F.C.

Since establishment in 1912 as Abbey United to play friendly games, the club grew quickly and was eventually elected to the Football League, of which it was a member for 35 years before relegation in 2005.

Their key player of this era was high scoring centre forward Dion Dublin, who had joined the club on a free transfer from Norwich City in 1988.

John Beck was sacked in October 1992 with Cambridge United battling relegation from the new Division One, and Birmingham midfielder Ian Atkins was named player-manager.

Atkins was unable to steer the U's clear of relegation (although he did take them to the quarter-finals of the League Cup) and he was replaced by Beck's former assistant Gary Johnson.

When the player market dried up, the directors turned to loans, supporter fund-raising and eventually a ground sale to pay off debts.

However this time around Beck was less than successful and was sacked half-way through the 2001–02 season to be replaced by veteran striker John Taylor who was given the role of player-manager.

Taylor took Cambridge United to the final of the LDV Vans Trophy, where they made their only appearance at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.

He remained in charge until March 2004, with Cambridge United struggling in the bottom half of Division Three, when the club's board terminated his contract and named Frenchman Claude Le Roy as his successor.

The following season he made way for assistant Hervé Renard, who in turn lasted just five months before being sacked and replaced by Steve Thompson.

On 22 July 2005 the club came out of administration with a deal being struck with HM Revenue and Customs at the eleventh hour, after the intervention of then sports minister Richard Caborn, and had no worries about starting the 2005–06 Conference National campaign.

[9] On the eve of the 2006–07 season, it was announced that former Norwich City striker Lee Power would be the club's new chairman taking over from Brian Attmore's interim reign.

Jonny Hon was also to rejoin the board as vice-chairman after John Howard's resignation on conflict of interests grounds (owing to his ownership of Bideawhile 445 Ltd, United's landlords).

[10] Director Paul Barry also confirmed on 6 August 2006 that the club would breakeven for the forthcoming season after a fresh injection of funds following Howard's resignation.

After speculation that Chris Wilder was leaving Halifax to take up the post, on 15 September 2006 the club announced Jimmy Quinn as the new manager, with Steve Castle as his assistant.

in the FA Trophy, and subsequently suffered a run of six consecutive league defeats, which many supporters found unacceptable and led to calls for the manager's dismissal.

A seven match unbeaten run gave renewed optimism, and although this was ended with two consecutive 5–0 defeats (against Altrincham and York City), the 7–0 demolition of Weymouth F.C.

A strong start to 2007–08 saw Cambridge United establish themselves as one of the favourites for the Conference National title and promotion back to football league.

Unfortunately Cambridge United missed out on the title to Aldershot Town who won the league and the sole automatic promotion place.

[11] This came on the back of positive news off the field as a 26 March EGM allowed fresh investment in the club from current board members and American businessman Adrian Hanauer.

They finished second in the Conference National and triumphed 2–1 over Gateshead in the playoff final to end their nine-year exile from the Football League.