This season marks the 50th anniversary of Cambridge United’s last season in the Southern League which concluded in being elected into the Football League. Week by week we will look back on events of that memorable season and also 30 years ago, a season which saw the U’s win the first ever play off final at Wembley.
| 1969/70 Sat. Aug 30th Crawley Town (A) 2-0 Horrey, o.g. Mon. Sep 1st Hillingdon Borough (A) 0-3 Sat. Sep 6th Burton Albion (H) 2-0 Walker, CassidSat. Sep 13th Romford (A) 3-1 Horrey, Cassidy, Butcher Mon. Sep 15th Brentwood Town (H) 0-3 Thur. Sep 18th Nuneaton Borough (A) 1-1 Horrey With six Southern League matches in 19 days and the last three coming in a week it was a busy time for United. Can you imagine today’s teams coping with such a schedule? With a small squad there was very little room for player rotation. Eight players played in all six matches. The match at Hillingdon proved to be a bit of a crossroads for attitudes and commitment. Three goals down at half-time a furious Bill Leivers fumed at his players, telling them they had forgot the pre match instructions and that thumping the ball around aimlessly never works and that too many of them think they know better than the manager. After the earlier match at Weymouth, Leivers had given the players four games to prove themselves. This being the forth match, Leivers was as good as his word, putting Bill Cassidy, Peter Leggett and John Saunders on the transfer list and giving three others a warning “buck your ideas up or you will be on the list”. Five days later, Saunders and Cassidy were still in the starting line up, but Leggett not. After the match Leivers commented “ Cassidy and Saunders both looked determind”. There was bad news for goalkeeper Rodney Slack when it was revealed he had broken his leg. With Keith Barker unsettled, Leivers brought in former Arsenal keeper Peter Goy on a months trial. The registration papers being signed in a bus shelter outside Addenbrooks Hospital in the middle of a 150 mile dash from Colchester to Nuneaton |  1989/90 On Satuday 9th September 1989 Chesterfield were the visitors to the Abbey. Neither team had so far shown anything like the form they were to later in the season. The only goal of the match came when Chris Leadbitter got his bearings wrong and planted a header into his own net from a Chesterfield corner. The following Saturday the U’s travelled to Exeter again losing, this time by the odd goal in five. After going a goal behind in the 21st minute, United came back with a goal from Phil Chapple and a Alan Kimble penalty to go in 2-1 up at half-time. However second half goals from Dryden and Rowbottom saw the Grecians take all three points. No wins in five matches and United sitting in 21st position it was worrying times for manager Chris Turner. FOOTBALL IN SEPTEMBER 1989 This weekend was international break for the top teams. England played out a goalless draw in Sweden which may be enough to see them through to the following season’s world cup finals, although in theory they need a point from next month’s visit to Poland. Terry Butcher was England’s hero, continuing to play the captains role after having 10 stitches in a cut head during the interval. THE WORLD IN SEPTEMBER 1989 Black Box, remember them? Not many people do. Were No1 in the charts with “Ride on Time.” Number 2 was Jason Donovan, what happened to him? With “Everyday.” |
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