Sutton United - Gander Green Lane

Sutton United FC

Gander Green Lane

Sutton

Surrey

SM1 2EY

Sutton United's Official Website and Twitter 

Sutton Common Rovers' Official Website and Twitter 

Ground: 70

Date: Saturday 2nd February 2019

Sutton Common Rovers 1-4 Spelthorne Sports

Combined Counties League Premier Division
Attendance: 75 (official)

Sutton United FC - 10 Facts

1) Sutton United former in 1898 as a merger of Sutton Guild Rovers and Sutton Association. After spending their early years in junior leagues, the club moved up to senior football in 1910 by joining the Southern Suburban League and winning it at the first attempt.

2) In 1921, the club gained election to the Athenian League, but after finishing bottom in 1926 they had to be re-elected into the league. Despite this, the club won their first Athenian League title in 1928.

3) After World War 2, the club remained in the Athenian League, winning the title again in the 1945/46 and 1957/58 seasons. In 1963, the club then reached the final of the FA Amateur Cup for the first time, but lost 4-2 to Wimbledon.

4) In 1964, the club were elected to the Isthmian League, winning the league title three seasons later. Then, in 1969, the club reached the Amateur Cup final again, this time losing 2-1 to North Shields. The following season saw the club reach the 4th Round of the FA Cup and host Leeds United, losing 6-0.

5) In 1979, the club went on to win the Anglo-Italian Cup in an otherwise barren decade. In 1981, the club reached the FA Trophy final but lost to Bishop's Stortford. Also, the club finished as runners-up in the Anglo-Italian Cup in both 1980 and 1982, as well as finishing as runners-up in the Isthmian League in the 1981/82 season.

6) In 1985, the club won the Isthmian League for a second time but refused promotion to the Conference due to ground issues. However, after retaining the title the following season and receiving help in redevelopment from supporters, the club accepted promotion. After cementing their place at this level for a few seasons, the club went on another famous cup run in the 1988/89 season, beating 1st Division Coventry City 2-1 in the 3rd Round to become one of a small number of non-league teams to beat top-tier opposition in the competition.

7) In 1991, the club were relegated back to the Isthmian League and, despite generally competing at the top end of the league, the club weren't able to return to the Conference until they won the Isthmian League again in 1999. However, the return to the Conference only lasted a season as the club were relegated again in 2000.

8) In the 2004/05 season, a high finish in the Isthmian League saw the club placed in the Conference South as one of its founder members. In 2008, the club were relegated back into the Isthmian League and competed in the play-offs in their first two seasons back, losing to Staines Town and Kingstonian in the semi-finals. In the 2010/11 season, however, the club finished as champions to return to the Conference South.

9) In the 2011/12 season, the club finished 4th in the Conference South but lost to Welling United in the play-off semi-finals. A runners-up finish two seasons later saw the club embark on another play-off campaign, again losing in the semi-finals (this time to Dover Athletic). In the 2015/16 season, the club finished as champions to earn promotion to the National League.

10) In the 2016/17 season, the club embarked on a remarkable FA Cup run to reach the 5th Round, hosting Arsenal and losing 2-0 in front of a bumper crowd. The following season saw the club finish 3rd to earn a place in the play-offs. Once again though, the club lost in the semi-finals, losing 3-2 to Boreham Wood.

Sutton Common Rovers FC - 10 Facts

1) Sutton Common Rovers were founded in 1978 as Inrad, quickly changing name to Centre 21 before adopting the Sutton Common Rovers (SCR) name. For several years, this was followed by various names as part of different sponsorship deals: these included SCR Plough, SCR Grapes, SCR Litten Tree and SCR Kingfisher.

2) The club first entered Saturday football in the 2004/05 season under the name SCR and, in the 2006/07 season, the club played in the Surrey South Eastern Combination League and finished 3rd, but had an application to join the Combined Counties League rejected.

3) The following season saw the club join the Middlesex County League's Premier Division and finish 3rd, with their application to join the Combined Counties League accepted this time. Upon earning this promotion, the club changed its name to Mole Valley SCR.

4) In their first season in the Combined Counties League, the club finished 4th in Division 1 and missed out on promotion on goal difference, but the following season saw the club win the title to earn promotion to the Premier Division.

5) The club finished a respectable 8th place in their first season in the Premier Division, but the following season (the 2011/12 season) saw the club finish 21st to be relegated back to Division 1.

6) The 2012/13 season saw the club embark on a 20-game unbeaten run to finish 2nd and return to the Premier Division at the first time of asking.

7) Upon returning to the Premier Division, the club again struggled, finishing 18th for two seasons running before finishing 19th in the 2015/16 season. For the 2015/16 season, the club also changed to its current name.

8) At the beginning of the 2016/17 season, the club earned FA Charter Standard status and went on to finish the season in 12th. At the end of the season, the club defeated Camberley Town 4-1 to win the Southern Combination Challenge Cup for the first time.

9) In the 2017/18 season, the club finished 3rd in the Premier Division and narrowly missed out on promotion to the Isthmian League. This season, the club is once again competing at the top end of the Premier Division.

10) In the FA Cup, the club have only twice progressed as far as the Preliminary Round, most recently in the 2017/18 season when they beat Canterbury City before losing to Eastbourne Town. As for the FA Vase, the club's best run saw them reach the 4th Round in the 2015/16 season, beating Cobham, Worthing United, Beckenham Town and Eastbourne Town before losing to Bowers & Pitsea.

My Visit

After an eventful evening out on Monday, I was looking for something a little more relaxed yesterday. Initially, the plan was to stay as local as possible, but as early as Thursday evening that idea was put very much in doubt due to the snow. It initially wasn't a massive amount of snow and quickly cleared, but early on Friday more and more came down to put most of my options in doubt (in fact, by Friday evening, two of my four were already gone and a third looked doomed as well).

At this point, I started to have a rethink and, with much reluctance, added this game on the 3G to the list. My reluctance stemmed from two main factors: firstly, I'd already used up one 3G option this season, and didn't really want to burn through too many of them too quickly; secondly, compared to the local options I had initially drawn up, this was slightly more expensive (at just short of £8 on the train), meaning that if I went to this game I would have no chance of affording Yaxley's away game at Didcot next weekend.

On Saturday morning, one of my local options was still not yet announced as postponed, but by this point I had pretty much accepted that I'd be heading for the 3G once more. As such, when the confirmation that this game was definitely on (as 3G pitches can have games postponed when it snows) arrived, I didn't even bother looking to see if the Cobham game was going ahead, instead ordering my train tickets for this game (of course, that game did actually go ahead in the end, Cobham running out 3-2 winners against Redhill).

Once my train tickets were ordered, I had lunch before getting ready to head out, leaving the house for the train station at around 12:20pm. After changing at Woking and then Wimbledon, I arrived at West Sutton station at around 2:10pm, arriving at the ground a couple of minutes later. Upon arrival, I paid £4 for admission and £2 for the programme, also buying a scratch card for 50p.

After checking the scratch card and inevitably finding that it was a dud, I binned it and then did my usual circuit of photos while awaiting kick-off, before then trying to find a decent place to stand before kick-off.

Looking at the league table ahead of the game, I expected a win for the home side, but I also noticed that both teams were on excellent runs of form of late (SCR with four wins in a row and Spelthorne with four in their last five). As such, I was expecting that it would be a tight game, but also hopefully an entertaining one.

Here's my report on an entertaining game in which Sutton Common Rovers had much of the attacking play, but couldn't take their chances and were deservedly beaten by a clinical Spelthorne Sports side:

The opening stages of the first half set up the pattern that most of the game followed (barring a couple of significant delays for head injuries to Sutton players): Sutton went on all-out attack and placed significant pressure on the Spelthorne defence, while Spelthorne had to content themselves with the occasional breakaway. Most of these attempted breakaways from Spelthorne fell apart fairly easily due to Sutton's quicker decision-making, but despite this the away side took the lead on 19 minutes: Lewis Flatman received the ball on the left wing and was allowed to cut inside, getting a low shot away from 25 yards that crept into the bottom corner despite a touch from Sutton keeper Craig Bradshaw. The home side almost responded immediately, a quick counter-attack giving Phil Page room to shoot from the edge of the box, but his effort went just wide of the post.

In the 24th minute, Sutton deservedly equalised from a clever set-piece routine: this caught the Spelthorne defence out and, after they failed to clear, the ball fell to Tommy Smith to poke in from close range. At this point, the home side upped their intensity dramatically in an attempt to force the away defence to cave in, but despite attack after attack after attack from Sutton the Spelthorne defence held firm, albeit often having to get bodies in the way to keep out a goalbound shot. As the half progressed and Sutton still found themselves somehow unable to score, their frustration steadily grew and this fed perfectly into Spelthorne's hands, allowing them more and more attempts to counter-attack. While a lot of these still weren't leading to actual chances for the away side, one did in the first minute of stoppage time (out of 9 overall, courtesy of the previous head injuries and numerous other fouls) and they were sure to make it count: after a foul just outside the box broke up a counterattack, Spelthorne took a free kick and Jake Flatman stepped up and kicked it low into the bottom corner to make it 1-2.

As the second half got underway, it quickly became clear that Sutton were completely throwing caution to the wind and were just planning to relentlessly bombard the Spelthorne goal until something went into the net and that's more or less what happened for the vast majority of the second half. However, despite creating almost a chance a minute at times, nothing would go in for the home side: whether it was because they were flagged offside, or they just missed, or a defender (most notably Joe Dyett - a massively impressive performance from him in the Spelthorne defence) got his body in the way, Sutton simply could not score. This meant that their frustration once again grew (and started to be taken out on the officials on occasion, particularly the linesman who kept flagging them offside), while Spelthorne simply had to weather the storm and wait for an opportunity of their own. I say simply, but many other teams would have undoubtedly folded under a constant attacking barrage, so it was commendable that the away side held firm.

Then, on 76 minutes, they were able to increase their lead from the penalty spot. The penalty was earned after a goal kick came close to the edge of the Sutton box, forcing Bradshaw to attempt to clear. However, his clearance hit a defender and the ball bounced behind him into the box and, with a Spelthorne attacker chasing it down, he lunged towards the ball and took the attacker out. From the penalty spot, Lewis Flatman made no mistake and place his effort to Bradshaw's left. Then, after yet more pressure from Sutton - albeit a bit more half-hearted at this stage as time was running out - Spelthorne scored a fourth in stoppage time, with Flatman topping off a great performance by completing his hat-trick: he received the ball unmarked in the box, and calmly placed a shot into the bottom corner.

Overall, this game was thoroughly entertaining (at least when it flowed, as the referee was slightly over-eager to blow for a foul at times), but also very weird: while Spelthorne absolutely deserved to win, Sutton could and would have done so with ease instead had they been more accurate with their efforts on goal. Ultimately, with how many chances they missed (and, credit where it's due, how many the Spelthorne defence blocked), it felt like it simply wasn't the home side's day in the end: it felt like they could have kept playing well into the night and still wouldn't have scored.

So, while going to this game wasn't my plan and while it also ruins my plans for next week (now going to have to stay as local as possible and miss Yaxley's away game at Didcot Town), this was still a good groundhop on a bitterly cold day, and the entertainment on the pitch did somewhat make up for that fact. And speaking of next week, I do have a few local options noted (including Cobham, whose game I missed out on yesterday), but I imagine I'll leave it to a Twitter poll to determine where I'm going (so long as we don't get more snow again, at least).

The journey back took me an entirely different route (from West Sutton to Sutton, then Sutton to Epsom and then Epsom to Guildford) than the way there, but was easy enough despite that. After all was said and done, I got back into the house at around 6:30pm, a stark contrast to how late I got back on Monday evening.

The Ground

Gander Green Lane is a good non-league ground with plenty of character. There's cover on all four sides of the ground as well as areas of uncovered terracing in three corners of the ground. The most notable feature of the ground is the imposing main stand on the near side, which contains 765 seats. 

Directly across from this is a large covered terrace, on top of which sits a media gantry. Behind each goal are smaller covered terraces. In three of the four corners is the uncovered terracing, which is notable for its curved shape: a legacy from when the ground used to be used for athletics. Other than this, the rest of the ground is open hard standing, and I would imagine a lot would need to be done to get this ground up to Football League standards (and that's ignoring the 3G elephant in the room).

The ground has an overall capacity of 5,013 now, but the record attendance is 14,000 for the FA Cup game against Leeds United in the 1969/70 season.

Photos