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Post by simonhk on Jan 12, 2009 13:16:14 GMT
Strangely enough, I wasn't that interested in football as a young kid, but I was fairly mad about trains and through a then-quite-famous transport bookshop called Lens of Sutton (how many people still remember that?), I got to know a guy called Alan who worked in the booking office at West Sutton Station - that was in the days when it actually had a proper concourse and ticket office! On Saturday afternoons he used to let me visit him in the booking office and help issue the tickets to passengers, which was a big thrill for a young lad. And of course every so often, I used to hear a huge cheer go up when a goal was scored at the football ground next door and started to get curious about it. My friend's shift finished at 4.00 pm and I quickly discovered that if I went along then, I could get into the rest of the match free. That was in 1962/3 season, so I soon became caught up in the excitement of the Amateur Cup run and got hooked. By the late 1960s I was going to all the away matches too, and for some 20 years before I moved to Hong Kong in 1988, I scarcely missed a Sutton game of any sort.
In the early days our match programme was very basic, so when Peter Molloy took over as Chairman in 1973 I wrote to him and said it was something that needed improvement and I might be able to help. That's how I became Programme Editor and Press Secretary for the next 15 years.
The happy memories are far too many to recall, but games that stand out in my mind include the Leeds match (of course), the Anglo-Italian Cup Final at Chieti where we prevailed in the face of a very hostile crowd, and the FA Cup match at Middlesbrough's old Ayresome Park ground when we outplayed a top division side on their own pitch and Paul Rogers was the best player on the park. The big downer was the 1981 Trophy final when I fulfilled my ambition of sitting in the Directors Box at Wembley, but ultimately finished the day in tears.
Stories I could tell you about Bruce, Frakey, CoSec and others could fill a book, but that's for another day....
By the time the Coventry match came along I was working 8,000 miles away, and still am, but I still come back once or twice a year to watch my first and only football club.
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frakey
1st team Player
Posts: 1,757
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Post by frakey on Jan 12, 2009 18:45:07 GMT
Simon, a trainspotter? I really don't believe it, LOL!!
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foxtrot
Youth Team Player
Red Oxide rules
Posts: 208
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Post by foxtrot on Jan 12, 2009 20:36:45 GMT
I’d been a dedicated Palace fan, doing volunteer work at Palace’s NAAFI training ground (now Tooting & Mitcham’s ground). Malcolm Allison’s ‘team for the eighties’. By the time the eighties actually came around, I found my self very disillusioned with league football. I also found my self newly married and moving to a bed-sitter in Sutton.
Whilst I could not afford to go to as many Palace games as I used to, I kept up with the team by buying the Sutton Advertiser. The coverage was reduced as space was given to some local team, the headlines for which, all seemed to be about somebody called Joyce (it’s that man again).
I thought I’d see what the fuss was all about as they were at home to Poole Town in an FA cup qualifier. I eventually found where the ground was and to my surprise, it wasn’t just a pitch with a rope round it. Yes I was a typical league supporter with no idea of what non league entailed. I vaguely recall Sutton winning 4-1 but I do remember being impressed by everything I saw. The ground, the programme, the half time tea, the standard of football and the friendliness of everybody. One thing that did confuse me was that I had bought a programme, taken down all the team changes and thought I had all the player’s names so why did someone in the stand keep shouting ‘come on Hughes’ ?
The next game was a dodgy 0-0 draw with Tooting but by then I had suffered the same fate as everyone else on this thread, I was hooked. Incredibly my first away game was at Wembley for the trophy final. I was naive enough to think it was no big problem to get to Wembley, I soon learned. Most of the supporters I know have been supporting Sutton since they were kids, so I’ve always felt a bit of a Johnny come lately but after 28 years I’ve probably done my apprenticeship by now.
The lowest point has to be the Kingstonian semi final. The only time I have ever left before the final whistle, I thought I’d got away with seeing the Ks fans gloat only to be stuck in a traffic jam next to their supporters’ coach, on the way up to Runcorn the following week. There have been so many high lights that I’m spoilt for choice, Aylesbury away, FA cup at Colchester and Peterborough, Joycey’s nine goal haul etc etc. What a great club.
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Post by Amber Aleman on Jan 12, 2009 21:29:16 GMT
I'm another one who wasn't into football at school, but I got interested in my later student days. My first Sutton match was the FA Cup 1st Round match against Aldershot in November 1987. I actually went to the game as a neutral, as I had an interest in both sides - Aldershot were my local club as a youngster and I had family connections with Sutton. In the event Sutton deservedly won 3-0 and from that day they were my club. A couple of weeks later I saw us beat Lincoln City 4-1 in the league, then I went up to Peterborough for the FA Cup 2nd round victory. Not a bad trio of games to start off with!
I saw several more home matches that season (including Middlesbrough in the 3rd Round of the Cup) and the Surrey Senior Cup final triumph against Whyteleafe. The following season I started to follow the team regularly home and away, and have continued ever since (usually armed with the Good Beer Guide on away trips).
I generally get to about 90% of the first team matches each season, though occasionally I deliberately miss one of our games in order to take in a new ground somehwere (I'm now up to 200 in England and Wales).
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Post by sallycat on Jan 12, 2009 21:38:24 GMT
Sutton deservedly won 3-0 and from that day they were my club. Glory hunter!  |
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oldman
Youth Team Player
Posts: 221
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Post by oldman on Jan 13, 2009 15:25:18 GMT
i was about five years old we played against hen don i think in about 1963 dad used to take me i never seemed to be cold in them days .instill go to most games home and away i started taking my eldest when he was about 8 hes now 29 but does not go anymore and now i take my youngest who is 8 he does not watch the game much but likes to run around have seem well over 1000 games some good some bad but keep turning up
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Post by jw on Jan 13, 2009 17:54:23 GMT
I seem very young to most on here but being born in the early 90s led me to start supporting Man Utd AND Chelsea like my brothers did as Medibot supported Man Utd and Gareth supported Chelsea but around 97/98 i think it was Gareth and Nick started going to Sutton United and eventually got season tickets as i was only 5/6 i rarely got to go but the 1st game i remember was a derby game i think against Carshalton and we won 3-1 (?), not sure of the players or scorers but i think i remember Steve Watson (if he was even playing for us that season) bombing down the wing and producing some brilliance but like i said my memory is very poor. It wasn't until the tailend of 02/03 and 03/04 season i started going regularly at home and the derby away games. Whilst i was a part time supporter of sutton the Surrey Senior Cup final was a fond memory of mine where we won 2-1 against Kscum at Imber Court and running onto the pitch (I thought that was the coolest thing ever at the time and even bragged about it in school.) congratulating Mark Watson for his 100th goal. Without a doubt 03/04 was my favourite season as a Sutton supporter when i started going regularly and we finished 2nd! but highlight of the season was the 6-0 trouncing of local rivals Carshalton with Andy Iga running up to join in the celebration and even Matty Fowler missing a penalty on his hattrick and still scoring another! From then on i was hooked completly and got a season ticket the following season, I've even started going to away games now when i have a bit of money! No matter how much i get the mickey taking out of me (i quite enjoy it!) i still love Sutton United  |
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Post by Andy K on Jan 13, 2009 23:11:08 GMT
Medibot supported Man Utd Now some pseudo welshman has some explaining to do - I bet its something to do with Giggs....  |
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medibot
1st team Player
Posts: 1,341
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Post by medibot on Jan 13, 2009 23:53:47 GMT
Cantona, actually |
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Post by amberfc on Jan 14, 2009 19:31:39 GMT
I'm even younger than Jon! only just though  Anyway, it all started with my next door neighbour knocking on my door with a SUFC shirt. It was at the same time i got an Arsenal shirt. Which one did i prefere? It was the Sutton one! i must have been about 9/10 at the time. I was then asked along to a game, and i decided to go along. I remember it well, we were playing aldershot, and i remember we won 3-2 with a Scott Corbett overhead kick winner from the edge of the box. From then on i was at addicted. from the season 01/02 onwards! Here i am still! I'm in my GCSE at school (i'm 16), and i've been voted loyalist suporter in the school! Result! |
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Amber
Youth Team Player
Davaj Levski
Posts: 175
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Post by Amber on Jan 15, 2009 11:15:26 GMT
and i've been voted loyalist suporter in the school! Result! Just for AB and Gareth this one..... |
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ab
1st team Player
Posts: 1,214
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Post by ab on Jan 15, 2009 21:06:45 GMT
Some of you may remember that for five or six seasons I used to write a piece in the programme. My very first article was entitled "Why we watch"and I dug it out again having read this thread. Here's an excerpt:
"My Dad took me to watch Sutton when I was 7 (v St Albans) and from there it just got into the blood. I live in Sutton, went away several times but always came back; all the way along, Sutton was, and will always be, my team - I just feel part of the whole thing.
I now know a number of people who have become good friends who also experience voluntarily the agony and ecstacy of watching SUFC - all part of the "sharing" process, I guess. It's always easier to fret when you know other like-minded folk are going through the same distress!
I kick every ball and go in for every tackle and dream the dream that we will return to the top echelon of Non-League Football. It's irrational maybe but I 'm proud when the team performs well, achieves national recognition or lives up to its hard earned and deserved traditions. I remember Hillingdon Borough (or at least my envy at my brother and Dad going to it and then queuing for hours for Leeds tickets), Ricky Kidd's vital winner against Hitchin in the dark mid '70s, that desperately tense night at Walthamstow Avenue on the dustbowl, Lenny on the fence at Peterborough, the bewildering day against Coventry, Awaritefe at Kettering, McKinnon against everyone, Nassim at Aylesbury......
I also remember Enfield's six at GGL, Dulwich's five in the last twenty minutes, that 0-0 draw with Epsom, Yeading, Wycombe in the second leg, two (now three!) relegations and loads,loads more besides.The important thing is that it all really mattered then and still does matter now.
And that's the whole point - this club has supplied many highs (as well as a number of lows) and without getting Brechtian about it, provides me and many others like me with a theatre at which we, the fans, feel a very real part. That is why I watch Sutton United."
Valid at the time of writing (Mar 2003) and just as valid now....
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bh
1st team Player
Come on you Us
Posts: 1,580
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Post by bh on Jan 27, 2009 23:46:36 GMT
Feeling part of something. Making a lot of friends, from the young to the not so young. Giving me the opportunity to meet so many fantastic people, from all walks of life.
Knowing that everyone from the Honorable Chairman to the newest supporter really love the club.
All the things mentioned in the posts above, FA Cup runs, Championships, the Surrey Cup winning run!! The Youth Team under Phil Dunne winning away at Plymouth and Cardiff and being there to see it!!
Why? Really to many reasons to mention. Maybe the people, ..............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
YES YOU LOT!!!!!!
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Post by sallycat on Feb 1, 2009 20:33:04 GMT
Aww!!!  |
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Post by Stewart on Mar 3, 2009 11:01:56 GMT
I started this thread with the hope that my eldest son would come to a match with my grandson. Well this came to fruition on Saturday when three generations of my family attended the Harrow match Hopefully it won’t be the last |
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