Cambridge City chairman Kevin Satchell hoping to welcome back former supporters to this weekend’s opening of the FWD-IP Community Stadium

Long-serving chairman Kevin Satchell is eager to see fans old and new attend Cambridge City’s historic encounter with Tilbury on Saturday (30 November).

The Isthmian League North Division fixture will mark the Lilywhites’ first ever outing at their brand new stadium in Sawston.

It has been far from a straightforward process for the club, who have been forced to groundshare with Histon and St Ives Town since leaving their previous base at Milton Road 11 years ago.

The fanbase has dwindled throughout those wilderness years, but Satchell is hoping that they will be convinced to return now that City have a permanent home once again.

“It’s such a massive thing for the club. Overall it’s been an extremely tough time for everyone connected with the club,” said Satchell, who has been chairman since 2006.

“We’ve gone down a level in terms of the leagues and that’s not blaming anyone because it’s also been tough on players and management.

“The finances that come with groundsharing also makes life very hard, as does losing our fanbase.

“I love the club, I support it and I was never going to walk away but not everyone felt the same and I understand that to a degree.

“It becomes easier for people to make excuses not to come to matches when you’re playing away all of the time, but hopefully they’ll start to come back now we have our own home and they can fall back in love with the club.

“Of course we also hope that there will be plenty of others that haven’t watched us before that come down to see what it’s all about – and it would be great if they keep coming back.”

Victory against the Dockers would be ‘the icing on the cake’ for Satchell, but this weekend is about more than the result.

He added: “A win would be fantastic, a real icing on the cake moment and if we play like we did last week (4-2 win at Witham) we’ll have a very good chance. But it’s probably not the most important thing this one time. We want people to enjoy the day and go away feeling like they want to come back again.”

City are also at home on Tuesday (3 December) against Waltham Abbey.