Before Northern Star, there was Northam Star. It is believed Peterborough Northern Star has its roots in Eye village football, where the team played in the Peterborough and District Football League under three different names in four spells from 1905 to 1930, with a couple of breaks. Including one for the First World War. In 1931, Northam Star Sports Club was born, taking over from Eye United and combining works teams from the Northam and Dogsthorpe Star brick works. The team’s debut season in a reorganised Peterborough and District Football League saw them taking part in the new Division Three North and they opened their campaign with a 5-2 defeat away to Paston Athletic Reserves. Their first season saw Northam Star finish a respectable sixth in a league of ten teams. Northam Star had a long history in the PDFL, winning Division Three North twice, before the team disbanded and a change of name became necessary in 1959. The new club, under the name Eye United, was a dominant force in the PDFL, winning ten league titles between 1960 and 2003 which included a hat-trick of Premier Division titles at the turn of the 1980s. In the 2000/01 season, Eye United won all thirty league games and romped to the title by sixteen points. From 1973 to 2003, Eye United won five Senior Cups, which included another hat-trick from 2000/01 to 2002/03 and they also won the Jack Hogg Shield four times in a row from 2000 to 2003. It was time to move on and they took their place in the United Counties League Division One in 2003/04, moving from Lindisfarne Road to their current base in Dogsthorpe. After two seasons in UCL Division One, in which the team finished third and fourth, a decision was made to change name as there was some confusion caused by the move out of Eye, whilst retaining the Eye United name. Rather than change back to Northam Star, which would have kept the Eye connection alive, the club debuted as Peterborough Northern Star in 2005/06, finishing ninth. It did not take long for success to come to Chestnut Avenue, and Star won the UCL Div One in 2008/09. A second placed finish the following season was enough to see the club promoted to the Premier Division and the club won its first Hinchingbrooke Cup that year. In the UCL Premier Division, the club finished its debut season in a creditable ninth place and a couple of years later had a remarkable run to the quarter finals of the FA Vase, where it took eventual winners Dunston to stop Star with a 4-3 win in a thrilling match in front of over 600 spectators. Following the departure of manager Chris Plummer that team broke up, and the seasons since 2012 have seen frequent changes of manager and playing staff, which has led to an unsettled period for the club. Despite this, success continues to be achieved at all levels from juniors to youths and reserves in 2014/15, the Star first team secured its second Hinchingbrooke Cup with a victory over Deeping Rangers and reached the final again the following year, where we were defeated by Peterborough Sports. For the 2016/17 season, we welcomed Raff Mazzarella back to the club as first team manager, following a previous spell in charge of the club’s reserve side, which saw his team finish runners up in the league and win the Reserve KO Cup. A difficult campaign in many ways saw an improved league position of 15th on the previous year and in context can be regarded as successful. The 2017/18 season saw the club enter an exciting new period, with several changes on and off the field. Raff stepped down as first team manager and moved upstairs to become the club’s director of football, with a wide ranging brief. Our new first team manager was Rob Ward who joined the club after two seasons at Ketton in the PDFL, where he was joint manager of last season’s Daniels Cup winning side, but on 19 November Rob Ward was relieved of his position. Former First Team Assistant ManagerSteve Wilson who had left the club returned as First Team manager, and we secured our UCL Premier position with a 16th placed finish, as we look to continue to build and progress for the future.
