The good news is that Saturday’s game with Maidenhead gave me the opportunity to see Sutton in action for the first time this season. The International break meant there was no chance of my first love Fulham getting in the way, although recently they’ve been proving a very pleasant distraction. Past experience suggests this happy state of affairs is unlikely to last so to get back on topic you may be wondering what the bad news is? If you’ve got this far then the answer is literally staring you in the face as I offer you this literary masterpiece on the day’s events.
My last trip to GGL was back in February when we were drinking in the last chance saloon against Colchester and a late Harry Smith penalty miss seemed to have sealed the U’s fate. The team did rally after that and managed to take the survival battle to the last day of the season with a mathematical chance of catching Colchester. Sod’s Law dictated that had Smith’s penalty gone in the mathematical chance would have improved into realistic possibility and who knows how that day would have turned out had that been the case. Having said all that if my aunt had balls she’d be my uncle although on reflection that’s not necessarily true these days? The point I’m trying to make (albeit in a slow and laborious manner) is that a crazy 4-4 draw at Milton Keynes was not enough and Sutton’s three-year sojourn in the Football League was over.
Having first watched Sutton as a boy growing up in the 1970’s to even imagine they would one day be a Football League club would have had the men in white coats making their presence felt. Having said that their first two seasons in the EFL were pretty comfortable, although a poor ending to the second term suggested Matt Gray had work to do. Unfortunately, the third campaign started poorly and after Matt paid the price with his job Steve Morison couldn’t quite pull off a great escape. It meant we were back in the National League; although this was far from the disaster more established EFL clubs consider it to be. I was also hopeful that with the way last season ended the team would have a reasonable chance of mounting a realistic tilt at promotion.
Fast forward through the summer and I wasn’t quite so sure. I knew relegation would lead to some departures but what ensued was almost a complete exodus of experienced players and an influx of younger models. It reminded me of Alan Hansen’s infamous quote ‘you’ll win nothing with kids’ and although I was sceptical, I hoped Morison’s recruits could succeed in the way Fergie’s fledglings did for Manchester United. The club’s PR department certainly seemed to think so, posting regular updates on social media about ‘a club’s journey back to the EFL’. I thought at the time this was pointless and presumptuous and would only serve to motivate opponents and come back to bite us on the arse. A decent unbeaten run at the start of the season suggested I might be unduly pessimistic but since then it’s invariably been a case of one step forward and two steps back and the U’s currently find themselves very much mired in mid table mediocrity.
Saturday started early as my chauffeur was none other than my long-time friend and club historian Mark Frake. In addition to his contributions to the club programme Frakey is also chief car park steward (who said men can’t multitask?) which necessitated a departure soon after 9. I could have spent the journey picking Mark’s brains about Sutton’s new squad and picking up some pointers for the afternoon’s match. This might have made my offering on the game a more attractive and nuanced proposition with yours truly having a better-informed view of Sutton’s tactical approach. I swiftly recalled that nobody comes on Gandermonium for that sort of bollocks though so instead our conversation descended into the usual low rent stuff that blokes of our age are so adept at. As Confuscius probably didn’t say, ‘there’s no point getting older if you don’t get wiser’.
We rolled into the promised land around half ten and I then nipped round my sisters for a cuppa and catch up before heading to the Gander to meet some old mates at midday. Darryl and Pete were teammates of Frakey and me back in the days when we were tearing up the Morden and District Sunday League and they had come up from the East Sussex coast for the game. In fairness I must confess to some journalistic licence here as bumbling around between the 6th and 9th Divisions of the Morden & District League might not strictly be termed ‘tearing up’, but hey why let truth get in the way of happy memories?
Some more old friends joined us and we spent a very convivial couple of hours reminiscing before heading off to the ground. Opponents Maidenhead United are one of non league’s most historic clubs and are now in their eighth season at National League level. They’ve punched above their weight over this time and despite being regularly mentioned as contenders for the drop have invariably survived with some comfort. The Magpies started the day in the relegation zone but with the experienced Alan Devonshire at the helm will have no sense of panic and with Sutton just six points above them knew a win would propel them towards a more comfortable mid table position. From Sutton’s viewpoint they could look nervously down at that six-point gap to the drop zone or more optimistically up with a similar 6 point gap to Yeovil in the last play off spot. The game could therefore be a pivotal one for how the campaign maps out and with beer goggles now on I was in glass half full mode at 3 pm.
Sims, Kirk, Waller, French, Barbrook, Odelusi, Coley, Wadham, Davies, Nadesan, Sivi. SUBS: Muller, Boateng, Okoli, Ransom, Rush, Vaz, Arnold
If Sutton had a hangover from last week’s last gasp heartbreak at Rochdale it didn’t show as they were on top from the start. Some slick passing kept the visitors penned back and it was only a lack of accuracy with the final ball that was keeping the score sheet blank. This state of affairs only lasted until half an hour had gone when a picture perfect move broke the deadlock. Jeremy Sivi made ground down the left and his pullback found Will Davies who swiftly sized up his options. He spotted Finley Barbrook lurking just outside the box and teed the ball up perfectly for the Ipswich loanee to stroke home with precision as much as power.
It was no more than the U’s deserved and the only criticism that could be levelled at them was that they probably should have had a bigger lead at the interval. The most noteworthy Maidenhead contribution in the first half came from off the pitch when a penalty appeal for the Magpies triggered some very vocal contributions from a section of the away support. Whatever was said so offended the assistant referee that the game was stopped and stewards were called to identify the culprits. Without knowing the details of the incident it’s difficult to pass judgment but knowing the way Frakey and me used to rant and rave on the terraces we were reluctant to take the moral high ground.
The second half was a much more even affair but although Sutton seldom looked like adding to their advantage they were able to keep the visitors at bay quite comfortably. The slender lead meant the U’s had to stay focused to the very end but when the referee finally called time on proceedings there could be few who’d dispute the merits of their victory.
The result lifted Sutton to within 4 points of Halifax in the final playoff position which sets up next week’s visit there very nicely. Mark poo pooed our chances there in his usual cheery fashion on the way home but otherwise the Frakemobile was positively sailing home to West Sussex after a very pleasurable afternoon out.
John Clarke