Sutton United are sweet like amber and chocolate…

John Nicholson
Sutton-United

Sutton United are the focus of this week’s ‘What’s so good about…?” because we are all about the clicks…

 

Who’s this then?
Sutton United, a 123-year-old football club who have played at Gander Green Lane for over 100 of those years. Despite success lower down the pyramid winning the Isthmian league and Premier Division eight times and scooping up 15 Surrey Senior cups and 19 other trophies, they had never played in the Football League until now.

Last season they unexpectedly won the National League and now find themselves in the stupidly and inaccurately named League Two, not least because it is the fourth tier.

They’ve reached the fifth round of the FA Cup, losing 2-0 to Arsenal in 2016/17. Their record attendance is 14,000 for a famous cup game in 1970 against Leeds United. They have a record win of 11 -1 v Clapton and again v Leatherhead.

Remarkably they won the Anglo-Italian cup in 1979 by beating Chieti 2-1 ,the only English club to do so in the semi-professional era of 1976-86. They were also runners-up in 1981 and 1983, being beaten by Triestina and (funky cold) Modina.

The most appearances for the club is a record held by Larry Pritchard, who made an incredible 781. Paul McKinnon is their record scorer with 279 to his name.

Unusually they have a female mascot, Jenny the Giraffe. She’s got some neck. Also unusual is that they’ve always played with some brown/chocolate on their strip. First it was amber and chocolate stripes, then quarters, then numbers and trim and now amber body and chocolate sleeves and trim.

 

Why the love?
Clubs like Sutton United are where football’s heart resides. Far away from the corporate bullshit, the multi-millionaires and the stupid transfer fees which have done so much to alienate the game at the highest level from the people who made football so popular.

Clive Baxter, the kit man, has been working at the club as a volunteer since 1961. It’s that kind of dedication that is rewarded by their promotion into the fourth tier. This club, like all non-league clubs, only functions at all thanks to volunteers. There is no glory-hunting here. Their chairman has been in situ for 25 years, originally set up the club shop and has been going to see the team for over 50 years, man and boy. Their last manager did an 11-year stretch before Matt Gray took over and got them to the top of the league.

In a very real sense, football at this level is a different game and a game that has survived 123 years, pretty much unchanged in any way that really matters. It is governed without VAR, which makes it significantly different and significantly better than the Premier League. To watch Sutton United is, in all the best ways, like watching a club 20, 50 or 100 years ago. Not that they’re old-fashioned but there is a single golden thread which connects the club to the past and will sew the future.

Most of the million pounds that promotion garnered them has been spent on ground improvements, over half of which went on ripping up the 3G pitch.

I first heard of them in 1970 when they played Leeds United and lost 6-0. But as a boy, just the thought that this wee club might take on the mighty, mighty Leeds at all seemed thrilling and the very essence of cup football, an essence so strong and brilliant that the thought it might be diminished or even lost is a terrible thought indeed.

In 1989 they beat top-flight club Coventry, on what I remember as a classic cold and frosty January day of cold feet and warm hearts. This is axiomatic to the appeal of following a small club. The glory moments do not happen often and so are all the sweeter when they do. This is something fans of successful clubs can never really enjoy in the same way. There is none of the expectation or entitlement that comes with supporting a big club.

That they will have to make a well over 600-mile round trip to play Barrow and Carlisle this season makes the argument for a Third Division South reorganisation of the game at this level all the more pertinent. The costs incurred by a club of very limited means is onerous and it is money that could be better spent improving other aspects of the club.

If we forget for a moment that the Premier League exists (mmm, feels good, doesn’t it?), for it is an island of money and privilege adrift from normal life, clubs like Sutton United are that most vaunted but under-funded and under-appreciated by the supposed elite – the grassroots of the game.

And that means what it says. They are the roots from which the rest of the organism grows and without which all the exotic, expensive, sweet fruit cannot be produced.

In this instance it is Sutton United but it could be any one of the many hundreds if not thousands of clubs that stretch the length and breadth of these islands. All an important part of their local community, all pulling a few dozen, hundred or thousand souls to watch every week, all run on a shoestring and the goodwill of people who work for nothing.

Their squad is drawn from players who have plied their trade in non-league football or in the lower reaches of the EFL. There’s no Billy Big Bollocks stuff here.

 

What the people say
Obviously, the fortunes of the Amber and Chocolates are a niche interest, so I didn’t expect much response this mid-summer week. My great fear is that we have produced at least one, possibly two generations of people who have been encouraged to think football is largely the top flight and maybe the Championship. But without a deep and abiding appreciation of the likes of Sutton United, where football comes from and where its spirit and heart still resides, so much is lost.

‘Just really pleased for them. The National League is full of teams who have tried and failed to spend their way to promotion. The U’s meanwhile seem to have reaped the rewards of a long-term sensible plan, which is to be admired.’

‘Matthew Hanlan. With apologies to Coventry fans. There aren’t many non-league players’ names I could pick out but he is one.’

‘Ha! I remember them coming to play Leatherhead FC back in the 70s. Wycombe Wanderers too. Now they are both in the EFL and the Tanners are still in the Rothmans Isthmian League!’

‘It is amazing journey for a well known “Amateur” Club (pre 1974 categorisation) who competed in 2 Amateur Cup finals in the 60s still playing at the same ground; both Sutton and Harrogate last season NL champions both had to replace their artificial pitches on entry to the EFL’

 

Three great moments
Their epic win over Coventry in 1989, a time the Premier League would have us believe does not even exist. It looks brilliant. Crowds packed in but with flats and houses visible outside the ground, as they rightfully should be. Don’t be fooled by money and marketing, THIS is football. THIS is the beautiful game. By the people, for the people and from the people.

The game against Leeds in the cup in 1970, so long ago it was covered by Pathe News. Was Don Revie wearing his sheepskin car coat? Of course he was. He never took it off. Proper nets too.

But a better result this time. Some great shooting by ex-Arsenal schoolboy Roarie Deacon. Plus, Tony Gubba commentates, surely the only Gubba that ever was.

 

Future days
Who’s to say that promotion is out of the question at first go? Many clubs do well in their first season in the EFL. Promotion would mean they were one step from the Championship and while progress for a wee club from non-league to the top flight is now, if not outlawed, then very unlikely – though Bournemouth did it from the fourth tier – setting up base in the Championship for a few seasons is not beyond any club really. If Wycombe Wanderers, who come from similar humble origins, can do it, so can Sutton United.

At this level you need great scouting and recruitment, coupled with a coach who understands what is needed to be successful at each new level. A realistic plan and pathway to success needs to be in place. What money is available has to be spent in a consistently wise way, making the club stronger and always with an eye on the worst-case scenario, to protect the organisation against the rise and fall of on-pitch fortunes.

Kids who follow Sutton United will always remember this summer as they transition into being an EFL team. It will stay with them for their whole lives. When they are in their 80s, they’ll look back to summer, the first time (you can never get too many Bobby Goldsboro references into any piece). And in a very real and important way, that is what football is all about: memories. I’m sure they have a lot more to make yet and we should all support them in doing so.

Johnny Nic Everybody Loves