Ely City Football Club is a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

club based in

Ely Ely or ELY may refer to: Places Ireland * Éile, a medieval kingdom commonly anglicised Ely * Ely Place, Dublin, a street United Kingdom * Ely, Cambridgeshire, a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, England ** Ely Cathedral Ely Cathedral, formal ...

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and North ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. They are currently members of the and play at the Unwin Sports Ground.

History

Ely City was established in 1885 by members of Ely St. Etheldreda Football and Cricket Club and are the oldest senior football club in Cambridgeshire.History
Ely City They joined the

Cambridgeshire League The Cambridgeshire County Football League, currently styled as the Cambridgeshire Fire Places Cambridgeshire County League for sponsorship purposes, is a football competition covering Cambridgeshire and western parts of Suffolk, Norfolk and nort ...

in 1901, but withdrew during the 1902–03 season due to a dispute over fees. However, they rejoined the league the following season. The club absorbed Ely Albion in 1908.Trivia
Ely City F.C. Promoted to Division One in 1921–22, the club were Division One runners-up the following season.
Non-League Matters They finished as runners-up again in 1924–25. In 1928 the league was restructured with Ely placed in Division One A. They finished bottom of the division in 1928–29 and were relegated to Division One B. Further league restructuring in 1931 saw Ely promoted to the new Premier Division. They were relegated after finishing second-from-bottom in 1936–37, returning to the Premier Division in 1946. The club won both Cambridgeshire Senior Cups in 1948 and were Premier Division runners-up in 1949–50. In 1951 they left the Cambridgeshire League to join the Premier Division of the Peterborough & District League.Peterborough & District League 1949–1959
Non-League Matters They were league champions in 1955–56, and in 1956–57 the club reached the first round of the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

after winning five qualifying rounds. Drawn at home to

Torquay United Torquay United Football Club is a professional football club based in Torquay, Devon, England. The team currently compete in the , the fifth tier of English football. They have played their home matches at Plainmoor since 1921 and are nicknamed ...

, they lost 6–2 in front of a crowd of 4,223. The season also saw them finish as runners-up in the league, a feat they repeated the following season. In 1958 Ely joined Division One South of the

Central Alliance The Central Alliance was a football league in England, covering the East Midlands. History The league was established in 1911 with twelve clubs, most of which had previously been members of the Notts & Derbyshire League; Derby County Reserve ...

, where they played for two years before being elected to the Eastern Counties League. In 1967 former

Northern Irish Northern Irish people is a demonym for all people born in Northern Ireland or people who are entitled to reside in Northern Ireland without any restriction on their period of residence. Most Northern Irish people either identify as Northern ...

international

Hugh Barr Hubert Henry Barr, known as Hugh Barr, (born 17 May 1935) is a Northern Irish former footballer who played as a forward at both professional and international levels. Early and personal life Born in Ballymena, Barr studied at Queen's Universi ...

was appointed player-manager, leading the club to runners-up position in the league in 1968–69. They won the Cambridgeshire Invitation Cup in 1969–70 and the Eastern Counties League Cup in 1979–80, beating

Lowestoft Town Lowestoft Town Football Club is a semi-professional football club from Lowestoft, Suffolk, England. They are currently members of the and play at Crown Meadow. History The club was established in 1887 as Lowestoft F.C. by a merger of East Suf ...

4–2 on aggregate. When the league gained a second division in 1988, the club were placed in the Premier Division, but were relegated to Division One at the end of the 1988–89 season. They returned to the Premier Division after winning Division One in 1996–97 and were Premier Division runners-up the following season, but were relegated again at the end of the 1998–99 season, which had seen them finish bottom of the Premier Division. Ely made an immediate return to the Premier Division as Division One runners-up in 1999–2000, also winning the Division One Cup. In 2002 they won the Cambridgeshire Invitation Cup, beating Histon 1–0 at the Abbey Stadium in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

. At the end of the 2002–03 season they were relegated again after finishing bottom of the Premier Division. In 2007–08 the club won the Division One Cup and finished runners-up in Division One,Club Honours
Ely City F.C. earning promotion back to the Premier Division. In 2011–12 the club finished as runners-up in the Premier Division and won the Cambridgeshire Invitation Cup for a third time. They retained the Invitation Cup in 2012–13 with a 3–0 win over Cambridge City in the final. The club were relegated back to Division One in at the end of the 2014–15 season after finishing bottom of the Premier Division. The following season they set a club record by winning fourteen matches in a row as they finished second in Division One, earning promotion back to the Premier Division. The 2017–18 season saw Ely win the Cambridgeshire Invitation Cup for a fifth time, defeating Cambridge United Development in the final. They retained the trophy the following season, winning the final against Histon 2–1.

Ground

The club played at the Paradise Ground until 1986, when they moved to the Unwin Sports Ground; the final match at the Paradise Ground was a 3–2 loss to Felixstowe Town. The new ground was originally known as Downham Road until it was named after Doug Unwin, who was involved with the club from 1934 until his death in 1999. The first match at the new ground was a 4–1 loss to Tiptree United in the FA Cup first qualifying round. In 1994 a new 200-seat stand was built.Ely City
Pyramid Passion

Honours

*Eastern Counties League **League Cup winners 1979–80 **Division One champions 1996–97 **Division One Cup winners 1999–2000, 2004–05, 2007–08 *Peterborough & District League **Premier Division champions 1955–56 *Cambridgeshire Senior Cup **Winners 1947–8 *Cambridgeshire Invitation Cup **Winners 1969–70, 2001–02, 2011–12, 2012–13, 2017–18, 2018–19

Records

*Best

performance: First round, 1956–57 *Best

FA Vase The Football Association Challenge Vase, usually referred to as the FA Vase, is an annual football competition for teams playing in Steps 5 and 6 of the English National League System (or equivalently, tier 9 or 10 of the overall English footbal ...

performance: Fifth round, 2016–17 *Best

FA Trophy The Football Association Challenge Trophy, commonly known as the FA Trophy, is a men's football knockout cup competition run by and named after the English Football Association and competed for primarily by semi-professional teams. The compet ...

performance: Second qualifying round, 1973–74 *Record attendance: **At the Unwin Ground: 646 vs

Sporting Khalsa Sporting Khalsa Football Club are a football club, formed in 1991, members of the , who play their home games at Noose Lane in Willenhall, West Midlands. Being founded by the local Sikh community, they are the first British Asian club to own the ...

, FA Vase fifth round, 28 January 2017MATCH REPORT: Ely’s record-breaking Vase run ends
Bury Free Press, 28 January 2017 **At the Paradise Ground: 4,223 vs

, FA Cup first round, 1956–57

References

External links