08:21 Friday 16th May 2014
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire
[P]AUL STAINTON: Back to our story about Cambridge United heading to Wembley for the Conference play-off final against Gateshead this Sunday. We love our historical links here on the show with the clubs our Cambridgeshire side takes on. Last week we told you how Cambridge students were responsible for setting up Leyton Orient Football Club. Well today we’re at it again, because did you know there’s a Peterborough link with the U’s opponents Gateshead? Sit back, relax, and let Peter Swan tell you a story.
(JACKANORY MUSIC)
PETER SWAN: Good morning. Let me tell you a story. Once upon a time there was a super-cool football club. In its heyday it attracted over 20,000 fans, and it’s name was Gateshead FC. But then the luck started to fade. The days of FACup quarter final success and near promotion to the old Second Division became a distant memory. In 1960 the Club was in the last four of the Fourth Division, which meant it had to face re-election into the Division by fellow football clubs. Gateshead finished third bottom, and believed re-election would be a formality. After all, two other teams had finished below them, and rivals Southport were facing their third successive fight for survival. But it wasn’t to be. Gateshead were voted out, and replaced by Peterborough United. Quite simply, southern clubs just didn’t fancy making the long trips up to Tyne-side any more. Should they beat Cambridge United, the Tynesiders will find themselves back in the Football League after an absence of 54 years, a taste of sweet justice, because it would be Gateshead that held a Cambridgeshire team back from glory. Or it may well be they’re not that nasty. The End.
(JACKANORY MUSIC)
PAUL STAINTON: I think Peter Swan’s got a new career there. I can see him at five to five on BBC 1 reading Jackanory. I think he’d be good. See? If there’s a tenuous link to be made we’re all over it on this Bigger Breakfast Show.
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