Saturday 12th April 2025. EFL League 1. Cambridge United (0) 0 v. Charlton Athletic (1) 1 ( Tyreece Campbell 14). Attendance: 6,707 inc. 1,034 away fans.
Cambridge United: Stevens, Bennett, Morrison (c), Watts, Brophy (Njoku 88), Loft (Kaikai 74), Stokes, Gibbons (Andrew 73), Stevenson, Ballard, Malone (Kachunga 65). Unused subs - Briggs, Hoddle, Longel
Charlton Athletic: Mannion; Ramsay, McIntyre, Gillesphey; Small (Watson 74), Berry (Anderson 58), Coventry, Docherty (c), Edwards; Campbell (Aneke 58), Godden (Mbick 88). Unused subs - Bouzanis, Watson, Gilbert, Ahadme
Saturday morning 7.30am, the sun was shining, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky and I was up and about, shaved, showered, suited, booted and raring to go. Bloody hell, that tranquil scenario sounds just like the opening verse on one of my mother's Carpenters records… doesn't it? Old Codger FM was playing ‘Lovely Daaaaaaaaay’ by Bill Withers on my smart-speaker and it seemed very apt on such a fine morning. I was in a proper chipper mood and couldn't imagine anything spoiling my blissful ambience. Alas, my phone sounded, the incoming message tone alerting me to an update from my train-ticket provider:
“Ha, ha, sucker! Your train home this evening is cancelled and any subsequent journey you might attempt to make, will be a logistical nightmare, fraught with chaos, unpleasantness and heaps of frustration. I’d stay at home today if I was you, dickhead!”, or words to that effect. Well, screw that, I've got a hot date with another League 1 fixture at the Abbey Stadium in Cambridge and I'm going regardless of any advice to the contrary. I usually find a way home somehow when these situations (frequently) occur.
Intrepid weekend travellers will be familiar with the security announcement that's heard regularly across the rail network: “Remember the three S’s. See it, say it, sorted!”. But us intrepid battle hardened travellers all know that those three S’s actually stand for. Shit, Saturday, service. So here we go, Cambridge and back again… or bust! At least those ‘park n’ride’ double deckers, that drop off near the football ground/railway station, are a bit more reliable than the railways.
I was always a big fan of Double Deckers. Ask me some time and I will recite the whole theme song, verbatim, word for word. Doughnut was my favourite character. And I had a similar hair and t-shirt combo (and shape?) thing going on in the eighties. Incidentally, hair doesn't interest me anymore.
Upon arriving in Cambridge, I bumped into a couple of Charlton fans I know who, like myself, were trying to work out which of the bus stops to use to get to the football ground. It's the number 3 service if you ever find yourself in a similar predicament, £4 return. We spotted a couple of Cambridge supporters waiting for a bus and decided to tag along (AKA stalk and pester) with them. It took around twenty minutes to reach our destination, by which time our new found Cantabrigian friends seemed more than happy to scurry away and leave us to our own devices.
I’ve been here loads of times before, arriving by numerous different methods. From experience, the route that I would recommend, if you don't like buggering about, is drive to the park n’ ride site on the bypass road and catch the PR2 service (also £4 return) and alight outside the ground, or stay on for a couple of stops if you want to visit a pub before the match. The Supporters Club bar at the ground itself is decent enough though and they serve food too.
The newest bit of the ground, a raised all-seater affair, sitting quite a distance away behind one of the goals, is now the family stand. Visiting supporters are allocated half of the terracing along the side of the pitch that backs onto the adjacent parkland (over a ditch), with a few seats provided on what looks like a temporary structure at one end.
Woo hoo! What have we got here then? An old-fashioned, tucked out of the way terracing, with a few pillars strategically placed to restrict the view of the whole pitch. It’s exactly what football grounds used to be like, before we all became spoilt with comforts and decent sight-lines, innit? To think, this is how I regularly used to view matches, during my formative years, when I fell in love with the ‘beautiful’ game of football. Bloomin' heck, I must have been a strange kid.
Without wanting to sound unduly disparaging, the nickname of the ‘Shabby Stadium’ suits this ramshackle ground to a tee, apart from actually using the word Stadium. It’s not a stadium, it’s a dilapidated eyesore of an enclosure. Some might say that it possesses bags of character and charm, but in my humble estimation; I’d advise anyone that hasn't been here before to visit ASAP, before the place falls down.
All that was needed to recreate that authentic retro-seventies experience, was a few big lumps, wearing denim jackets, half-mast bleached jeans, hobnail boots and sporting a scarf tied around each wrist, to ambush us and have a battle on the way back to the station… and the trip back in time would have been complete.
But, what we got instead, was a few pre-pubescent kids, in Prince of Wales check (Rupert Bear) scarves and black hoodies, shouting profanities from a safe-distance away, across the far side of the park. They might have been behind the adjacent segregation fencing next to the enclosure I was in, during the game. But it would have been difficult to see them properly through the obtrusive mish-mash of wire mesh.
I pondered… shall we give ‘em a bloody good-kicking? Y’know! Just for old times sake. Letting them know how much fun Saturday afternoon’s really used to be, before these no-mark imposters arrived on the scene and began infesting our national game, with their ‘all the gear but no idea’ posing antics and labels.
But, then I remembered; it’s my sixty-second birthday next week and the only reason that I stand my ground these days, is that I would be on my knees gasping for breath while frisking my pockets for my inhaler, if I ever had to run for more than 50 yards. Eh! By heck! Them gobby youngsters don't know how close they came to getting a bloody good slap, for a few nostalgic giddy with dizziness moments there.
I love traditional old grounds, with their unique quirks and olde world mystique. This one is like a haphazardly preserved time-capsule from back in a land that time forgot. The world needs places like the Abbey Stadium as a reminder of our football heritage, but I am at a loss as to how it ever got a sufficient ground-grading rating and safety certificate to stage league football.
In keeping with the surroundings, the game itself was fairly ramshackle too. Neil Harris’ hosts scrapping to maintain their (unlikely) League 1 status beyond the end of the current season, demonstrated why they are struggling and it wasn't pretty to watch. While Charlton ground out a single goal win, with what you could call ‘a gritty away performance’ that had ‘win ugly’ stamped all over it. The Solitary goal came in the fourteenth minute, when Tyreece Campbell continued his good run of form, picking up a forward pass from Josh Edwards before cutting inside from the left and slotting the ball past Jack Stevens.
James Gibbons was niggling away a Campbell, but he got his commupance for his ‘shit-housery’ in an off the ball clash, when he ended up on his backside after the Addicks number 7 decided to respond in kind. Fortunately for Campbell the referee James Durkin had been keeping up with play and missed anything untoward that might have occurred.
Having only just come back from injury, Campbell was understandably upset when he’d initially been dead-legged Gibbons and required attention as a consequence. What goes around, comes around and it’s never a bad thing when bullies get what's coming to them.
Young Tyreece was soon in the thick of it again, with another similar strike to the one that he’d scored from, but Stevens got down to claim the ball. But Campbell was obviously struggling obviously struggling and was eventually substituted just before the hour mark. In between times Campbell had set up a great chance for Matthew Godden, whose curling shot had beaten Stevens but hit the back post.
Josh Edwards headed clearance from James Brophy's cross, flew narrowly wide of his own upright… I’m sure that he had the situation under control really 🙈 The game ground to a virtual halt during an uninspiring second -half. As the visitors preserved their slender lead, while struggled to get going at all. In the closing stages, Tom McIntyre blocked a shot and Dominic Ballard lashed the ball over the bar from the rebound. With that it was time to go home.
Though it hasn't been mathematically confirmed (yet) Cambridge are going down. But as for Charlton, their season is still very much alive and Nathan Jones’ side have their destiny in their own hands. Three points is three points! Talking of which, I had a letter from the Nottinghamshire Constabulary waiting for me when I got home, pertaining to how I’d gotten back from last weekend’s game so quickly. D’oh!
The train journey home was ‘challenging’, but I will spare you the detail. What happens on trains, stays on trains… and I’ve had quite enough fines for one weekend, ta very much.