End of an era

[davep]

So tomorrow will be the first match of what I'm sure most of us hope will be a long association with the EFL - until we reach the Premier League, Champions League, European Super League etc. I've been a Sutton United supporter for over 55 years. I still remember the pain of losing to North Shields in the Amateur Cup Final in 1969 - made all the worse by the fact that despite growing up in Epsom, my best friend at the time was from the North East - and was a North Shields supporter. Of course, many better days were to follow with cup triumphs in competitions like the Surrey Senior Cup and Anglo Italian Cup, promotions, league championships - and victory over Coventry City in the FA Cup. I do find all the changes happening at the club at the moment a bit frightening - but clearly they are necessary. In truth, the club has been changing and evolving over many years - the old stand that I used to sometimes sit in as a boy is long gone - as is the steep terracing that used to be at the Collingwood Road end and the little club shop that also used to be at that end of the ground. Football clubs can't stand still though - and if they don't move forward they will move backwards. I can remember York City and Hereford United playing in what is now the Championship - while tomorrow's opponents Forrest Green are arguably from more humble roots than we are. So my very best wishes to the players that will represent the club tomorrow and for the rest of the season - and I hope that they bring as much joy to the youngsters who support Sutton United today as the likes of Larry Pritchard, Trevor Bladon, Chris Kelly, Ricky Kidd and Graham Dennis brought to me. 

[oohaah]

A lot of love in that post, davep.

[davef]

You beat me by a couple of years DaveP, but I echo those sentiments.

[toothman]

I first attended a match at GGL in 1965 - travelling from Horley with my dad ( a ball boy in the 1930s at GGL) on the back of his Bantam motorbike ( different times boys and girls) as a five year old. I didn’t really understand much of what was going on but I loved being with my dad. Over the years I remember witnessing more of the lows than the highs - losing both Amateur Cup/ Trophy finals ; the FA trophy second leg semi final thrashing after doing the impossible and winning at Wycombe. I also remember watching us being 2-0 up in a league match with 15 minutes to go and losing 6-2 I think, but I could be way of the mark ? Dulwich . Generally when I’ve watched live I have jinked the team - however I was there with my dad for the Coventry game ( “we were going to lose”) so I wouldn’t affect the result , I did see us beat Ebsfleet to effectively win the Nat. South, so I’m not always a negative influence, so I will be there tomorrow at FGR, as much for my late dad Dennis who passed in 2003. Consequently he’s not witnessed the meteoric last decade or so . He was always a dreamer but no one could have dreamt, even him, that tomorrow we embark on the biggest adventure yet . We’ve be written off so many times in the past as “little old Sutton” . Tomorrow we become one of the new big boys .

[davep]

Just wanted to add one thing to what I said earlier. What Matt and Jason achieved last year was incredible - and Matt is always the first to acknowledge the fantastic support he receives from the very special volunteers that run the club - and rightly so. I just wanted to give a special thank you to Paul Doswell for helping to lay the foundations for what was achieved last season over the preceding decade with the club. Paul is - and always will be - a true Sutton United legend.

[Andy K]

That's a wonderful post Dave!

I'm a newbie in comparison, only 34 years under my belt from my first game v Boston United in 1987, but that's long enough of course to remember all the years when things were not so great from our first ever relegation in 91 to the mid naughties and to me, the lowest point of my supporting life, the 2007/8 season. But all of that makes tomorrow even sweeter. Out of the ashes, roses can grow and even as recently as 20 months ago many looked at us and thought we were going to drop out of the National League. And tomorrow, we start life as a league club.

I was convinced this would never happen in my lifetime, and my word I'm glad I was wrong. This is a whole new adventure, hopefully making new friends along the way, seeing more familiar ones and taking this season with a sense of pride. We're in the league on merit, and even without my amber tinted specs on, if you look at teams that have gone up since automatic promotion started in 1987, surely we are one of the least expected. We didn't buy our way up, or have a significantly big fanbase, or even be a club that was returning to former glory. If anything we've been exactly the thing the non league game needed. If little Sutton can go up, then anyone has a chance.

This is football history in the making, not just for us, but for the entire English game. I'm very proud to be a Sutton fan, and proud to be associated with those wonderful players, officials and supporters throughout those years who all contributed in one way or another for us to be where we will be tomorrow.

[terrier]

Of course I can’t compete with the above posts concerning Sutton United since I’ve only lived in the Epsom area since 1984. My true football love, of course, is Huddersfield Town, and always will be, having supported them since 1965, and regularly seeing them 25 times a season or so, despite the 450 miles round trip for home games. However, I’ve not lived local to Huddersfield (I’m actually from Birstall, between Huddersfield and Leeds) since going to Uni in 1973, and have always gone to games not involving HT as a “neutral” ever since.

I’ve typically watched Sutton maybe half a dozen times a season on average over the years in the Ryman, NLS and NL. I have chosen to get a season ticket for Sutton this season and will be going to FGR to witness this historic occasion. Whilst SUFC may not be “in my blood”, they are a club (and I include the supporters in that) that I’ve always respected for the standards they adhere to and have enjoyed watching. Going down to GGL is always a pleasure, and I think they will be the ideal club to introduce my two young grandsons to the game in the future.

I wish SUFC nothing but the best, and I will be there regularly to watch them on their journey. As a proud Yorkshireman I predict that SUFC will do “alright” and we’ll be able to say “that’ll do” come the end of the season.

[Del]

8 years old watching Athenian league games ! I have a friend to thank for encouraging me to go to the ground. What a fantastic journey the club has been on since then.

[amberfc]

Aug 6, 2021 11:31:39 GMT Del said:

8 years old watching Athenian league games ! I have a friend to thank for encouraging me to go to the ground. What a fantastic journey the club has been on since then.

And I have you to thank for taking me to my first game - Aldershot away on 26 December 2002, the season where Aldershot finished as Champions (and we finished 6th). I knew after that game that I wanted a Sutton shirt (with those rather interesting chocolate & amber squares) rather than the Arsenal shirt I had recently received for my birthday! Can't thank you enough.

Tomorrow is going to be a special afternoon after a tough 18 months or so. Looking forward to having a beer with ya'll!

Then we go to Cardiff City in the league cup... ridiculous.

[davethegrave]

My first game was the Aldershot FA Cup tie in 1963 (or was it 1964?) Anyway I was young and bored stiff. We first started going regularly after England won the World Cup in 1966 and the first season we were Isthmian League Champions. I drifted away a bit from about the mid 70s to the mid 80s although I went to the Trophy Final and I'd also seen the North Shields Amateur Cup Final.

I've seen many giant killing games at GGL. I never thought they'd get into the league. The next thing of course is to see us win at Wembley.

[markf]

It's four months short of 52 years since my grandfather first took me to GGL and I was immedialtely hooked. Back then I was ribbed constantly by my fellow primary school mates most of whom, boringly to me, supported Chelsea. Even one of them who came down from Hull ended up supporting Chelsea. All because I supported Sutton.

I have always been a proud follower of Sutton and amateur/non-league football in general. This season will be somewhat of a departure from what many of us have grown up with. Being in the EFL was never really on the agenda let alone a reachable objective; as the club has often said just being competitive in the top-flight of nl football was ambition enough.

All that changed thanks to the incredible performances of the squad and of course the management team, an achievement that I am probably still coming to terms with.

A part of me laments the loss of our non-league label but another looks forward to a new challenge (even if we have to start at FGR - I don't enjoy one man's principles being shoved down the rest of us's throat just because he has made a fair bit of dosh out of those principles and therefore can own a football club). But I suppose for a couple of hours I can suspend those dislikes if it means I get to see an historic day for my football club.

I wish all the best to the players, Matt G & co for this season. I know they will wear the shirt with pride and give there all for each other, the club and us the fans. That has never been in doubt.

I wave goodbye to non-league football with a smile and a thank you but hope SUFC can become a long term member of the EFL.

[billy]

All the best to the players,staff and supporters tomorrow.Have a great day.

[pinewalker]

A flash of inspiration recalled the argument with my mother and enables me to say my first U's game was in 1959. She had bought me a big (26") wheel bike to cycle the 4 miles from Pine Walk to Wallington CGS. Her always-negative response to me wanting to go anywhere on my own was defeated by pointing out GGL was nearer than the school and on less-trafficked roads.

I have no idea who we played in that Athenian League match. I remember choosing to watch, without thinking why, at the same
part of the ground my parents had occupied when watching me running in the Junior School athletics meeting held on the cinder track in 1958.

I can account for half of the 123 years it has taken United to reach the EFL, but I never thought I'd live to see the day.  Good luck to all tomorrow.

[hobart]

Good luck guys from deepest Tasmania.

And Davep - you also reminded me of Peter Drabwell, Dario Gradi, Ted Powell and Micky Mellows (4th minute - Wembley 1969).

[dontpanic]

Good luck today to all the team, staff, and supporters.
So proud of you, with so many memories since my first game down the lane in 1966.