Welcome to the “Tour Of The 72” series, where I attempt to visit every EFL ground to find the greatest football experience there is to offer and rate each ground on five different factors: Pricing, Atmosphere & Quality of the game, Food, Facilities and overall experience of the matchday.
This edition took me an hour up the A14 to The Cledara Abbey Stadium, home of Cambridge United for their Friday night League Two fixture under the floodlights against Accrington on the 19th of December 2025.
Pricing – 6.5/10
My adult matchday ticket for this chilly evening of festive football set me back £22, for access to the Mead Plant & Grab stand, formerly the away end, however nowadays home to the family stand.
Strangely, I’d originally planned to be a part of the away end, although was eventually denied entry due to “not having a northern accent”, hence why I’d ended up apart of the family stand!
Analysing the pricing throughout the stadium, it fluctuates depending on which stand you choose, being a couple of pounds cheaper within the slightly more restricted view areas with partially blocked views due to pillars, alongside the standing terraces behind the goal where most of the atmosphere was created.
Comparing these prices to their League Two rivals, Cambridge find themselves more or less middle of the road, not being overly expensive, whilst certainly not being the cheapest, although conveniently offer a wide variety of concession tickets for younger and older demographic of supporters.
Unlike a significant proportion of fourth tier clubs, the U’s continue to produce a solid matchday programme, at the expense of four pounds per copy. Slightly on the steeper side, but plenty of kudos for continuing to produce a physical copy.
Atmosphere 7/10
Things seem on the up for Cambridge at the minute, with their impressive home record propelling them into playoff contention.
Furthermore, it was evident before kick-off spirits seemed high (perhaps due to the festive season being in full swing), with the Newmarket Road End Terrace bouncing prior to the game getting underway, with the help of a drum on the right-hand side firing the U’s up.
Perhaps a tad excessive, but there was even a drum in the family stand, albeit lacking creativity with their chant selections!
The noise generated by the home supporters was noticeably stronger during the second half, potentially due to the disruptive nature of the first half, with plenty of little injuries and stoppages killing any momentum either side had.
A few less so pleasant chants about local rivals Peterborough and the classic chants were sung at respectable volume once Cambridge took the lead, slowly mounting in decibels as the final whilst approached.
Nonetheless, I must give credit to the ninety-nine Accrington Stanley supporters that made the long trip down from Lancashire, that’s some serious dedication on a Friday night, and hats off to the eight or so lads surrounding the drum in the away end, fully got behind their team for the full ninety minutes.
As always, I enjoy commenting on the pre-match playlist utilised, but the sheer volume of the speakers ruined a few decent songs, I reckon my chances of needing a hearing aid in the near future has increased significantly!
Food – 3.5/10
Unfortunately for Cambridge, this category is where things begin to go downhill, as regrettably, the food certainly wasn’t up to scratch in my opinion.
Outside the ground, the selections were respectable, with a pie & mash stand and kebab van parked on the outskirts of the ground, but I’m always basing a large percentage of my score on what’s inside.
Maybe I should have taken the pie and mash van as a sign that the pies on offer inside were rubbish, yet I rolled the dice and was left extremely underwhelmed.
The overall description of the classic steak pie sounded promising, being “beef brisket” rather than something standard, and it looked classy, with an edible logo of the Cambridge badge slapped on the centre, however the filling wasn’t up my alley, being way too watery and astonishingly sweet for my liking.
Fortunately, my companions for the trip didn’t quite have the same distaste for the food, as their feedback on the beef burger and the sausage roll were completely positive, and alongside the food being relatively cheap compared to other League Two grounds (as well as being freshly made as oppose to mass-produced pre-packaged nonsense).
I’ve visited, these factors have single-handedly saved the rating from being much lower!
Facilities – 6/10
One of League Two’s more historic grounds, The Abbey combines rustic terraces with a couple of modern seating areas and my main takeaway from my visit was that it’s rooted deeply into the community, juxtaposing some of League Two’s recently developed stadiums that feel detached.
Although I didn’t experience it for myself, some anecdotal experiences mentioned local cows grazing in the grass next to the pathway leading to the away end, and if that doesn’t scream classic British football culture, I’m not sure what does!
Traditional “concourse areas” weren’t particularly present, with all congregation areas being located outside in the fresh air (not particularly enjoyable on a cold Friday evening in December), with a handful of wooden benches scattered around, next to a food truck catering facility with plenty of people operating, to avoid queues building up.
Surrounding the ground, there’s a plethora of food chains on offer, including a densely populated McDonald’s that undoubtably does great business on a matchdays, a variety of pubs to get a pre-match beer as well as a satisfactory amount of parking spaces, although a few dodgy drivers were parked in interesting places on my walk back to the park & ride!
Now onto a few negative aspects, mostly revolving around the exit of the ground, which was quite a struggle and not one for if you have claustrophobia! Pathways swiftly became filled, congesting many passers-by’s journey, clogging up even further once arriving onto Newmarket Road. An occasional rebellious figure even sprinted into the traffic in full flow to get across!
Overall, I have to say that my time at Cambridge United exceeded my expectations, providing a thoroughly enjoyable Friday evening of football, being able to watch some proper League Two action with low stress about the result. The game itself was fairly one-sided,
Accrington didn’t really pressurise the Cambridge goal at all, forcing Cambridge goalkeeper Jake Eastwood into his first save in second-half injury time!
Each sides performance seemed to reflect their position in the league, Cambridge impressed despite many key players missing through injury against an Accrington side with only four outfield substitutes, due to a mixture of illness and injury hitting their ranks.
As the game progressed, you could really sense a dramatic increase in ambition as the minutes passed by, Cambridge really feeling that they could push for an immediate return to League One this season, Neil Harris is clearly getting his squad to click together.
Obviously, it wasn’t ideal to sit in the family stand, but my view was perfect, no complaints whatsoever, with an abundance of empty seats to move to if someone pissed me off, but it didn’t give school playground vibes, it felt more like one big football family.
Final Score
Cambridge United 2-0 Accringotn Stanley
Goalscorers
Gibbons (45), Kaikai (60)
Lineups
Cambridge – J. Eastwood, J. Gibbons, K. Watts (Z. Ibsen Rossi 39’), M. Jobe, L. Bennett, A. Mayor, G. Hoddle, P. Ruddock-Mpanzu, J. Brophy (S. McLoughlin 80’), S. Kaikai (B. Knight 86’), L. Appere (S. Lavery 80’)
Accrington – O. Wright, B. Ward, S. Conneely (C. Brown 79’), D. Love, C. O’Brien, C. Grant, J. Bauress (D. Martin 45’), I. Heath (J. Woods 79’), S. Whalley, C. Caton, I. Sinclair (A. Henderson 64’)
Attendance
5,788 (99)
