THERE’S not much room for sentiment in professional football, but John Vaughan doesn’t mind admitting he’s got a soft spot for Cambridge United.

That’s why a smile crosses his face at the prospect of returning there for next Saturday’s FA Cup first-round clash.

Now Town’s goalkeeping coach, the likeable Londoner spent five seasons as a player at the Abbey Stadium between 1988 and 1993.

And not only did he twice reach the FA Cup quarter-finals with the U’s, he also helped them win two promotions and come agonisingly close to going from the basement division to the top flight in successive seasons.

The dream of becoming a founder member of the Premier League in 1992 for a club now playing in the Conference was dashed by Leicester, who after a 1-1 draw in the play-off semi-final first leg, won the second game at Filbert Street 5-0.

That marked the start of the end of the infamous reign of John Beck, whose unorthodox approach to management and long-ball tactics have become the stuff of legend.

Vaughan was there for the whole of Beck’s stint in the hot seat, which lasted from January 1990 to October 1992 and brought success in the first-ever play-off final to be played at Wembley (against Chesterfield in 1990) and the original Third Division title the season after.

“They were memorable times, especially when you think that we also got to the FA Cup quarter-finals in both those seasons,” recalled Vaughan, 46 and now in his fifth year at Town.

“We played Crystal Palace at home in 1990 and Arsenal away the season after, and gave a good account of ourselves in both games, losing 1-0 and 2-1.

“The season we played Arsenal, we had a big fixture backlog, but came through strongly to win promotion as champions.

“That was a sign of our fitness, but also of the quality we had in the squad, and while we got a lot of stick for our direct style of play, I don’t think we got the credit we deserved for what we achieved.

“I was talking to Lee Clark about it the other day, and I said that while I wouldn’t advocate playing that way, we were very good at it – and it wasn’t as easy as people would have you believe.

“The players had to be very fit, but also had to be able to play a bit as well, and we had some top operators like John Taylor, Dion Dublin, Steve Claridge, Liam Daish, Phil Chapple and Alan Kimble, all of whom went on to play at a very respectable level.”

Having signed at the Abbey Stadium from Fulham when former Cambridge defender Chris Turner was in charge, Beck’s novel approach came as a surprise to Vaughan.

“John was a Cambridge player when I first arrived, and a good one at that. He was a creative, ball-playing midfielder who moved into coaching as assistant to Chris, who liked to play a passing game,” he explained.

“Then Chris, who had built the foundations of a good side, seemed to get the idea he wanted to move into more of an upstairs role, but the club weren’t keen and replaced him with John.

“John’s ideas were unusual, but they were also ahead of their time, and whatever others might say, I have a lot of respect for him.

“He was very much into his statistics and percentage play, but unlike now, when it’s done using cameras and laptops, John had a guy sitting in the stand with a notebook full of symbols only the two of them understood.

“On one occasion, we lost a game 1-0 on a Friday night, and John launched into us, but come the following Monday morning, when he’d had a chance to analyse his statistics, he’d decided we actually played magnificently!

“All the stories about him forcing us to have cold showers and pushing players into the canal during training runs are true, but what you forget is that he was meticulous in his approach to training and matches, and we were very well organised, which is something you appreciate more when you get into coaching yourself.

“Having said that, it could be a frustrating way to play, and a lot of the lads told John they wanted to have more freedom in the final third of the pitch, but he wasn’t having any of it.”

Vaughan, who later played for Beck at Preston and Lincoln, continued: “You have to say his methods were successful, and even the play-off defeat at Leicester wasn’t as bad as it sounds.

“They went two up, but we were still in the game and threatening, and John took the gamble to bring on attacking substitutes, only for it to backfire.”

Current Peterborough boss Gary Johnson, who had been Beck’s assistant, took over as manager a few months later, but couldn’t prevent relegation to what is now League I, with Vaughan moving to Charlton.

“Things change, but I still look back on my time at Cambridge happily, and it was disappointing when they dropped out of the Football League (in 2005),” said Vaughan, who enjoyed a reunion of the Beck side last year.

“We were punching above our weight when we reached the Championship, because at times we were getting crowds as low as 3,000 or so and when you played the big sides at home, you may as well have been away.

“But I still think the city could support a League club, and it would be good to think they could get back there at some stage.”