How Low Can You Go

I haven't gone yet, this still counts :-). Having a flick through the League Paper and its chip-wrapper companion the Non-League Paper, I did see something that shocked me. I could date this properly with Google, but I'd rather do it from memory ; at some point in the early nineties, Cambridge United were very high up in what is now the Championship with a couple of months of the season to go. They had some good players : Dion Dublin and Steve Claridge off the top of my head, although I'm not sure whether they were in the same team. I saw them beat Sunderland 3-0 at home and Ipswich 2-1 away with my own eyes. In Claridge's book he relates how teams finally sussed out their long-ball game to the point where Guy Butters taunted him "Go on, go inside me. You're not allowed to are you ?", and then whacked him into the stand. Cambridge missed out on the play-offs and started a slow but steady slide down the leagues.

Two seasons ago they dropped out of the Football League. Now I read that not only are they bottom six in the Conference, but last week they played local neighbours Histon in the FA Trophy. When I was around Cambridge, Histon were a village team. A guy I knew used to play for them part-time, that kind of thing. We're not even talking St Albans or Enfield Town here. More like Baldock Town. If that. As Cambridge sank, they rose. And last week Histon beat Cambridge United 5-0 in the FA Trophy. I suppose Histon are to Cambridge as Vauxhall Motors are to QPR, although it must be 10 times worse with the local connection.

That's how far down you can go if you try hard enough. And maybe it's not over yet. Still, darkest just before the dawn and all that ...

Wikipedia update : Dublin and Claridge did play in the same team. Cambridge actually reached the playoffs but lost 5-0 to Leicester.