U's 1-2 Grimsby: 21st April 2026
Beware the game in hand
Beware the game in hand.
In the Great Escape year under Mark Bonner. Cambridge United went into the final midweek of the season with two games to play, a trip to Burton in midweek giving them the chance to climb out of the bottom four ahead of the final day. They lost.
In the Lockdown Legends promotion season that secured their spot in League One in the first place, conventional wisdom was that the U’s were well placed because they had got their games played and their points on the board, while others were bogged down by postponements. It was proved correct, teams below them didn’t use their games in hand to catch up and United were promoted.
Tuesday night’s game at the Abbey against Grimsby came as 20 of the division’s 24 teams had already played their 44th match of the campaign. A win would move them to the brink of promotion. Excitement was high, even with the acknowledgement that the opposition had much to play for; an away win would lift the Mariners into the final playoff position.
Roll forward a few hours and the game in hand had been played without the points tally being improved upon. It had taken until the 22nd game for Cambridge United to fall to a second home defeat of their league season.
