Why.......

[Andy K]

This has been one of the best threads i've read in ages - so here comes my addition to it.

I'd heard of Sutton since before I can remember, although my first ever live footy game I went to was the 1981 Cypriot Charity Shield (Omonia Nicosia and Apoel Nicosia drew 1-1 for those interested!), but it was only around the age of 13/14 that I had any pocket money to really call my own, and a primary schoolmate of mine was already going, and so in September 1987 we were at home to Boston United, and I remember walking in at the Colly Road end hearing Tony Dolbear annoucing one of subs had the surname of Pratt!

I think I got hooked at the right time - my 3rd ever game was Aldershot at home (2nd was Basingstoke in the previous round) - it was at that point I got hooked, for obvious reasons, and probably the only time I ever witness a police horse in the ground. The following season, I started going to away games too, and my 2nd away game was Walton and Hersham in the FA Cup - i then managed to see EVERY game in the Coventry cup run, and had a perfect home season too. Circumstance started taking me more away from Sutton and by 1992 I was an infrequent supporter, but then I kept coming back. The ironic thing is now, 22 years on from my first match, i'm probably a stronger and more loyal supporter than I've ever been before.

Highlights - well THAT cup run, winning the Ryman league in 99 and possibly the best ever Sutton (or any team) game I've seen - Trophy first leg against Wycombe in 93 and making lots of new friends who share my passion. I can hand on heart say that EVERY Sutton supporter is a great person.

Lowlights - Relegation (all 3 of them), Kingstonian Trophy

But the biggest highlight of all is knowing I've got many years of supporting Sutton to come.

Epilogue - The guy who first took me to a Sutton game came to the Notts C game, the first time i've seen him at a game for 15 years. Kind of brought everything full circle

[Rupert Scallywag]

When visiting my grandparents in Kent the journey would start with a train from St Helier to West Croydon. When the train came into West Sutton I used to stare out the window at this football club.

I vaguely remember a news report the evening before the 81 trophy final and realised they were the same club. Vowed with my mum to come along one day.

Jan 6th (I think) 1982 Tooting and Mitcham, won 2-1 with Micky Joyce and Peter Sharratt scoring.

Later that season I was able to come down for an evening game against Wycombe by myself. Mortified the following season when my dad would not let me come to an evening game by myself despite previous only to find we had put 11 past Leatherhead. In hindsight I was too young to go by myself but I will never admit that to my dad who mentions it to this day.

[oohaah]

Interesting... Sixteen posts and one player mentioned four times - Could he turn out to be the most influentual player of the last four decades???

[taz]

I think the 'Why we bother' feature on Gandermonium needs to move to a new home.....

[holmes]

I first heard of Sutton via that cup run in '89. It was on the back of that publicity that the club sent some of the players around the local schools handing out free tickets. I remember Tony Rains and Micky Stevens being in our morning assembly and thinking 'they just look like normal blokes'.

If I remember rightly, my first home game was Weymouth, the game directly after the Coventry victory, which we won, 3-1 I think. I can still remember beating Barnet 5-1 at home on the last game of the season (can't remember the scorers though). My Dad and I went to all home games after that. In the early 90's when we were playing in the isthmian league, we started going to away games, mainly as they were closer to us and easier to get to. Enfield and Chesham were easier for us to get to than Runcorn or Barrow.

I remember the cup game at Marlow, where the supporters on the coach refused to leave until Alan Gane had spoken to them. Give the man his due, he came out and apologized to us for the defeat. It was plain from then that he was on his way out.

By the time Shepheard & Pritchard had left and we entered the Rains era we were fully loyal supporters and have been going to every game we could make since. Memories of that time are mixed. We enjoyed successes such as Surrey Senior cups and league cups, plus winning the Ryman League!! However, there were the down times, throwing the league away to the K's, missing out on the FA cup for ten years, losing 6-0 to the K's in the Trophey semi-final, relegation. But through all this, the club has stayed with us, and now we are probably the strongest supporters of the U's we have ever been.

There's something about the club that you can't let go of. Football at this level is far more personal than the pro game, and the people at Sutton are fantastic. Just look at the support that SUST has. There's something special about being involved in a club where everyone cares and chips in however they can.

After 20 years supporting the U's, I think my blood is turning amber, or that may just be the beer.

[jencor]

Absolutely brill thread, most non league footie is off today but I've enjoyed reading all the posts. If this carries on I think we could publish a book, as I've yet to read anything bordering on dull as to why 'U' lot started supporting Sutton.

My dad took me in the early 60's (we only lived down the road in Hilldale Rd) and I was hooked straight away. Stood by the players tunnel (still do) except then my dad used to lift me over the fence. I could bang my head on the metal rail of the fencing, so it was safer!! I had (still do) a rattle that was so heavy you needed 2 hands to use it. A choccy and amber rosette! (remember those!) and a hand knitted bobble hat and scarf. Used to run on the pitch at the end and get autographs! Had loads of favourites over the years, Osborne, Howard, Powell, Gradi, Pritchard and Mellows to name but a few. Cried when we lost at Wembley in 63. I'd made a special top hat for the occasion. Got interviewed for local radio under the twin towers in '81 cos I'd travelled over from Germany just for the match.
Apart from the match V Coventry, I have to say our match V Leeds United will live long in my memory. Probably the greatest Leeds side in their history gracing our ground. And 14,000 inside!! Remember the running track being used for extra seating? Yes we were thumped 6-0 but it was an amazing day. Always wanted to be a mascot and wrote to Sid Cann pleading to be one. Still have his reply saying that they don't have mascots! How times have changed. Stood outside the ground selling programmes for many a season, and occasionally took money at the Collingwood road entrance gate. And although I could go on for hours about Sutton, I too want us to win at Wembley, then I can die happy. Thank you Sutton United for having the best non league supporters down through the years and whose stickability with the team is second to none. Supporting Sutton is not a matter of life and death, it's more important than that. (To borrow a quote from someone ;D)

[popinjay]

My next door neighbour was a ball boy and he snuck me into a reserve match for free. Would have been late 80's I think, my memory is a bit rubbish. We were losing 1-0 to a team in light blue at half time but tonked them in the second half. I remember he sent me inside to get us each a chocolate bar at half-time and I brought us each back a Snickers but he complained that he didn't like peanuts so I ate both - result!

[Millsy]

Isn't this a re-run of the 'why we bother'? Taz must have that on Gandermonium still, an excellent read.

[bh]

Sounds like it to me, now that was a thread!!

[bottleonthehead]

Supported U's really since I learned to crawl. Lived in Cheam and vaguely remember walking down GGL aged 3 with my Nan to watch the crowds going in for the Leeds match. My dad took me to my first game in the early 70's - I remember it was against Ilford and we won 1-0. From then on I was hooked.
Spent time as a ball boy in the Dario Gradi era and helped with the raffle in the club shop but it was only in the early 80's that I was allowed to travel away.
Significant memories - obviously the cup runs, Wembley 81, beating Aylesbury in the quarter final reply the same year and pleading with my fellow coach travellers not to tell my folks I'd been hit on the head with a bottle thrown by an Aylesbury fan in case they stopped me coming to any more games, booing John Rains when he scored number 8 against Leatherhead (Joycey had got the first 7), turning up at Bognor Regis and (worse) Darlington to find the matches were off, seemingly boring my work colleagues senseless about Sutton's exploits (although one of them is now an ardent fan so it couldn't have been that bad), returning Norwich's chant of 'we want nine' with our own chant of 'we want one',and above all meeting some great people along the way.
Am now living in Devon with four Exeter City loving kids (sorry - I tried), but look forward to my infrequent visits back to GGL. Hopefully it won't be too long before Sutton are back in the Conference South and I can get to more games.

[os]

Jan 10, 2009 19:28:40 GMT bottleonthehead said:

Significant memories - obviously the cup runs, Wembley 81, beating Aylesbury in the quarter final reply the same year and pleading with my fellow coach travellers not to tell my folks I'd been hit on the head with a bottle thrown by an Aylesbury fan in case they stopped me coming to any more games

I remember that it looked painful from inside the coach, you should of run quicker

[sallycat]

Ah, yes. This again

When I was 13, my entire family disliked football. All of my friends either hated football or simply had no interest in it. Suddenly, for no reason I have ever been able to comprehend, I realised that football was, in fact, the dog's bollocks. I hadn't really heard of non-league football- I knew Sutton had a team of sorts, but had never been allowed to go and watch them, because my mum didn't like the idea of me being "alone with all those men," seemingly being under the impression that all Sutton fans were gang-rapists. I bought Match magazine and talked constantly about league tables and the FA Cup and the transfer market until Sutton had a "big" game - Kidderminster Harriers in an FA Cup 1st Round replay- and my parents got my football-hating* brother to take me, just to get me out of the house.

Well, it was an amazing experience. Remember that game- it went to extra time and penalties, and Gary McCann's superior goalkeeping skills saved the day, although we went out to Hereford in the next round. From then on, I was totally hooked. I would go without lunch and walk 3 miles home from school every day just to save enough of my lunch money and bus fare to get into Saturday's game. I'd tell my parents that I was going with friends (which was sort of true as I'd made friends at the club already) or that I had to stay in and study at a friend's house (if it was midweek) or that I was going shopping (I've always hated shopping, so I lost nothing). Apart from two first day of the season Saturdays when my family was still on holiday in '96 and '97, and a handful of midweeks between 2000 and 2003 when I was at uni, couldn't even afford to eat and was in very poor health, I haven't missed a home game since 1996 or an away game since about 1997-98 (not including one game I missed due to work commitments). It seemed as if most of my life revolved around Sutton United. Suddenly, I realised that nearly all of my very large network of friends were either Sutton fans or supporters of other non-league clubs.

Nothing's really changed for me, except that my non-league friendship network is ridiculously large now and I don't have to ask my mum if I can go to away games any more. Not that I ever paid any attention if she said no! ;D



*He had previously supported Tottenham, so you can't really blame him.

[Gareth]

Why? Why not?!!

My first game was home to either Chorley or Barrow in the Conference in 1988ish, having been given a free ticket by my primary school so went along with my mum - not that she particularly wanted to go but I'd just started playing football for a team and I think she felt compelled to take me along.

My previous two trips to football matches had been Celtic v Morton at Parkhead which was a dreadful game and finished 1-0 to the good guys thanks to a 90th minute Roy Aitken penalty, and Kilmarnock v Montrose at Rugby Park which was the dullest 0-0 you could ever imagine, memorable only for the old guy sitting in front of me and my dad constantly muttering "Nae luck son, nae luck" every time a Killie player wellied the ball high in the air to nobody in particular.

I remember not really knowing what to expect from GGL - I knew the atmosphere would be nothing like it was at Parkhead but was thrilled to bits I saw a decent game that ended 3-0 I think.

I drifted back to GGL whenever someone would take me - sadly I missed the Coventry game as neither my mum or dad could be bothered to take their darling 8-year-old son and I still haven't forgiven them for it!!

My first away game was Notts County in '94, and that was that. Tony Henderson-Smith, whose son I went to school with, picked me up for the away games after Saturday morning footie and I went to pretty much every game until the need to earn money took over when I turned 16 and I had to work on Saturday afternooons (unless I was "ill" which strangely coincided with local derbies and big games!!).

I got to as many games as I could when I was at Portsmouth Uni for 3 years but this unfortunately coincided with our Conference season when 99% of the teams at that level were oop norff, so I was restricted to the odd trip to GGL and games down south that year.

Since returning from a year's backpacking following uni at the end of September 2002 - cutting the 12 months away short by a few days to ensure I got back in time for that miserable FA Cup replay at home to Heybridge - I've only missed one competitive game which was due to illness...Histon away, 0-3 defeat.

Getting further and further involved with the club and of course SUST has been really enjoyable in the last few years and I'm really optimistic about the future of the Club as a whole at the moment.

[taz]

'Why We Bother' is indeed still on the old site. I think I might move it over here though and make it a sticky. Make it a bit more 'interactive'......

[johnc]

Although I am a Fulham supporter and season ticket holder I still consider myself a Sutton fan. I now live on the South coast and with my Fulham and family commitments rarely get to games.However my best mate Frakey keeps me fully briefed on progress and until relegation i was a regular at the bognor away game.

Frakey is mainly responsible for my love of the U's. I had seen some great games even before i knew him. Marine in the Amateur cup,North Shields at Wembley and the Hillingdon replay. It was in the early 70's when I got to know Mark that I really got the Sutton bug. I never really followed Fulham away so there were plenty of opportunities to watch Sutton. Mark's Uncle Wally drove us to away games and later we were regulars on the supporters coach.

From then until 1991 when I moved south I saw as many games as I could. Fortunately this period was a halcyon one. Special memories include three trips to Italy including Chieti by train and Trieste by coach. Cup trips to Peterborough and Middlesbrough and of course beating Coventry. Laying the Tooting bogey in the Surrey Senior Cup final of 1980. Norman Milne's wonder goal at Bishops stortford. I could go on and on.

What makes Sutton special is its intimacy and the camaraderie of the fans.My mum still lives in Sunningdale Road so I still consider myself a Sutton boy ( if you can be considered as such at 46).Whenever I go back to GGL I still see many of the same old faces from years gone by and always feel like I'm coming home.Whatever the fortunes of the team Sutton United is a constant in our lives that enriches so many people. It is run by people who care deeply about the club rather than by some of the fly by nights who come into the game for the wrong reasons.

Long may Sutton continue to represent what is good about the game. Oh and a good run to the play offs and promotion would be nice as well. Up the U's!