Cambridge United v Accrington Stanley

Memories Down
Afternoon everybody
and a warm
welcome to our
visitors from the
Hyndburn borough of
Lancashire. A friendly
club and a great pub
at the ground - what
more could an old
Coconutter want?
Ware going back to 19th
February 1983 in the Fifth
Round of the FA Cup for a
home tie against the might
of Sheffield Wednesday. I
was in my teens at the time
and I still remember the
build up to this one with
some fondness.
Whether it was the relative
mediocrity of the League
campaign, the 0-6 tonking
at Stamford Bridge a month
before still ringing in the
ears, or just a vague notion
that after two relatively
straightforward home ties
against Weymouth and
Barnsley, this could just be our
season. Teenage dreams, eh?
I can even remember the
night before as the weekend’s
proceedings kicked off with a
disco at my town ‘local’ back
in the day - the good old
Anchor in Silver Street – with
the DJ extraordinaire being
a former CUFC commercial
manager. Oh we boogied
away to the early 1983 hits of
the day. That year was a bit of
a vintage actually when you
consider the likes of Down
Under, Red Red Wine, Billie
Jean and Let’s Dance to name
but a few.
Anyway, a crowd of 10,834
was relatively shoe-horned
in to the Abbey for a tight
encounter.
To my mind, I don’t think
I’d have liked Gary Megson
after some of his latter day
antics in the world of football
management but boy he
destroyed my dreams that
day with a brace in the 37th
and 73rd minutes, which
even the mighty Chris Turner
pulling one back a couple of
minutes later couldn’t rescue
for the U’s.
Like a fortnight ago, it wasn’t
meant to be. Funnily enough
a week later we met the
Owls again at Hillsborough in
the League and were beaten
comfortably 3-1. Wednesday
made the semi-finals that
year but just missed out on
promotion which came the
following season.
They remained in the top tier
until 1989-90, one season out,
and then they were around
for the Premier League party
in 1992, along with their town
centre neighbours.
On this day in 2016 the US
author Harper Lee passed
away at the ripe old age of
89. I am sure we have all read
at least one of her novels.
Enjoy yourselves.
Harry
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