Cambridge City’s defeat to Tilbury was much more than just a football match as FWD-IP Community Stadium in Sawston finally opens

As the old saying goes, football is very much a results business.

And yet, at the newly-opened FWD/IP Community Stadium on Saturday afternoon, it felt very much like the final outcome was not the be all and end all.

It was on 27 April, 2013, that Cambridge City last hosted a fixture in their own ground. Make no bones about it, the 4,235 days that followed the closure of Milton Road were plagued by setbacks.

The implications of groundsharing with Histon and St Ives Town over an 11-year period have pushed the club to its very limits – and fans have walked away in large numbers. It has taken its toll on the pitch as well, with City suffering relegation in 2017 and they only retained their Step 4 status last term by virtue of having a superior goal difference.

All the while, rising costs and what felt like never-ending reels of red tape forced the club to continually push back a potential opening date for their new home in Sawston. From the outside looking in, it appeared that a proud club like City was drifting aimlessly.

But those that have stuck around never lost faith – even during the trickiest of times – and that determination was rewarded at the weekend as City ran out at their new base for the very first time.

Yes there is still plenty of work to be carried out internally within the main stand and the temporary facilities are not ideal, but this is home to City and after so long in the wilderness, that is all that matters.

Visiting Tilbury ended up playing the role of party poopers to perfection with a couple of second-half goals that overturned a half-time deficit to win 2-1. But with a crowd of 1,459 people – comfortably the largest at Step 4 anywhere in the country at the weekend – there were far bigger things for the club to savour other than the destination of three Isthmian League North Division points.

The focus will of course soon switch to winning games of football, but Saturday was about much more.

“The whole day definitely exceeded expectations,” said Kevin Satchell, who has been City chairman since 2006.

“If you go back only a month or so, we were probably thinking that we might get 750 people or so through the gate so to get almost double that is amazing.

“I actually didn’t see too much of the game because there was so many people wanting to have a chat.

“Of course we wanted to win the game, but the football was only part of the whole event.

“For the people who have given so much to Cambridge City it was a great day and I think some people were emotional to see it all come together.

“This is just the start and we’re looking forward to building on from here.”

Speaking to the Independent last week, Satchell urged the supporters that had drifted away in recent years to mark the start of a new era by returning. And he was delighted to see a large number of familiar faces, as well as those that had travelled from much further afield.

He added: “That was a big part of the reason why I didn’t see too much of the game – it was great catching up with so many old faces.

“A lot of people haven’t come to games much in recent years for various reasons and I understand that, but hopefully now some of them will become regulars again.

“And it wasn’t just locals because we had people coming from all over the country and some from outside of the UK as well.

“To see so many people make such a big effort to attend our first match in the new stadium made it extra special.

“We want to build a bigger fanbase and get more and more people involved, whether that’s volunteers, sponsors or fans.

“Hopefully plenty of people went away on Saturday with the intention of returning again very soon.”

While the result ultimately went against City, they did at least score the stadium’s first goal.

Shane Temple is the player who will go into the history books after his turn and shot from close range got the better of Tilbury goalkeeper David Hughes.

But Tilbury are in the higher echelons of the division and they showed why in the second half when Alex Hernandez’s penalty in the 67th minute was followed by Sam Bantick’s winner three minutes from time.

It was a comeback that prevented it from being the perfect day for City, but as the fans streamed out after the final whistle, they will have done so knowing that they had been part of a momentous day in the club’s long history.