only appearance at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. The U's were easily beaten, losing 4–1. Taylor was also unable to prevent relegation to Division Three. He remained in charge until March 2004, with Cambridge United struggling in the bottom half of Division Three, when the club's board terminated his contract and named Frenchman Claude Le Roy as his successor. Le Roy won four of the remaining eight matches and kept United in the league by a comfortable margin. The following season he made way for assistant Hervé Renard, who in turn lasted just five months before being sacked and replaced by Steve Thompson. The two brightest prospects, Dave Kitson and John Ruddy were sold in 2004 and 2005 respectively, but the club's debts remained at over £500,000. Relegation to the Conference Thompson was unable to save Cambridge United from relegation and their demotion to the Football Conference – after 35 years in the Football League – was confirmed on 23 April 2005. This downfall comes just 14 years after the club won the old Third Division title, and just 13 years after they almost gained promotion to the inaugural season of the Premier League. With no prospect of repaying its debts of nearly £1 million, the Club filed for administration on 29 April. As part of a cost-cutting exercise, Thompson and four other backroom staff were sacked by the administrators. Coach Rob Newman took over as team manager. Financial plight On 22 July 2005 the club came out of administration with a deal being struck with HM Revenue and Customs at the eleventh hour, after the intervention of then sports minister Richard Caborn, and had no worries about starting the 2005–06 Conference National campaign. Rob Newman was unable to bring anything greater than a 12th-place finish in the 2005–06 Conference National final table. Financial troubles remained, although with the burden of huge debts now lifted, and in December 2005 it was revealed that the club were in talks with their city neighbours Cambridge City F.C. about a possible merger. It was suggested by both parties that Cambridge, with a population of only 140,000, was not big enough to support two professional football clubs and a merger would be beneficial for both teams and guarantee the future of at least one team in the city. However, both sets of fans reacted badly to the news citing their club's individual identities as