Cambridge United set to visit Cambridge City’s FWD-IP Community Stadium for the first time

Cambridge City are gearing up to host the ‘biggest game’ since the opening of their new stadium.

After more than a decade of ground-sharing following the closure of their previous Milton Road base, the Lilywhites finally ran out at somewhere that they can call their own home last November.

Almost 1,500 people packed into the FWD/IP Community Stadium in Sawston that afternoon to watch City take on Tilbury in an Isthmian League North Division fixture and crowds remained at a positive level throughout the remainder of the campaign.

However, the attendance record will almost certainly be broken on Saturday (5 July) when City welcome neighbouring Cambridge United for a pre-season friendly.

Speaking ahead of the first meeting between the city’s two clubs in seven years, City chairman Kevin Satchell said: “It’s a great opportunity for us to showcase our stadium again to people that might not have been before.

“I’m sure it will be a very entertaining game, but in some ways what happens on the pitch is secondary because it’s another important day for us as a club.

“We’ll be staging our biggest game at the stadium so far and we have to thank Cambridge United for agreeing to bring their first-team squad for the game.”

Satchell is also hopeful that the occasion could mark the start of an annual fixture.

He added: “We’d love that to happen. It would be great for it to become a regular thing.

“After we moved out of Milton Road we weren’t able to even stage home friendlies for a long time, so to have Cambridge United coming to us, it’s a big thing.

“Hopefully it can happen more and more now, although we don’t know what they think about that.

“Sometimes it may well depend on the level that Cambridge United find themselves at, but obviously we’d love to get closer to them in the future to make sure it can be seen as a competitive friendly.”

With the game being the first friendly of the summer for both clubs, supporters of each team will get an opportunity to catch a glimpse of the new signings on show with the respective managers having been busy on the recruitment front.