Ely City Football Club is a football club based in Ely, Cambridgeshire, England. They are currently members of the Eastern Counties League Premier Division 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. They joined the Cambridgeshire League 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. Promoted to Division One in 1921–22, the club were Division One runners-up the following season. 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. They were league champions in 1955–56, and in 1956–57 the club reached the first round of the FA Cup after winning five qualifying rounds. Drawn at home to Torquay United, 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, where they played for two years before being elected to the Eastern Counties League. In 1967 former Northern Irish international Hugh Barr 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 4–2 on