What makes a first game of the season special? Is it the fresh optimism, the roar of the crowd, or that satisfying buzz when you sneak a point in the dying minutes? In this week’s Sutton United Talk Time on Podcast, George and Rory joined me to unpack Sutton’s 2–2 draw at York — a game full of drama, resilience, and plenty of noise from the away end.
Mike Dowling
Hello and welcome to another episode of Sutton United Talk Time on podcast. It's the Sutton podcast in association with Lucky Star Gym. If you're a regular listener, thank you and welcome back. I really do appreciate it.
Mike Dowling
If you're a new listener, you're very, very welcome. I'm your host, Mike, and joining me today, I have got for the first match of the season, I've got George and Rory. We do love hearing from everyone so join the conversation, stay connected, share your thoughts, your opinions, what you think of the episodes and so on
Rory
on
Mike Dowling
social medias at Sutton Podcast and share, like the episodes because it actually really does help us grow and gets more eyes on the show and therefore more eyes on Sutton United. We're going to start off with some intros and Rory we'll start with you. How's life treated you since you were last on?
Rory
Yeah, all good I think, Mike. Yeah, it's been a nice summer. It seems to have come around really fast as well, first game of the season in a way. Yeah, it doesn't seem like five minutes since the end of the last season.
Mike Dowling
No, I do remember ending last season thinking, right, I've got a long time, lots of plans to put into practice, and I know exactly what I'll do in the summer. And next thing it's like, oh, we're starting again. OK, I didn't do any of that stuff. So who knows what will happen throughout the season.
Mike Dowling
But thank you for joining us. George, the TikTok-like machine, how are you? And probably most importantly that people are waiting to know, how have the burgers been?
George
I haven't actually tried the burgers. I've had the chicken, though, and that was very good.
Mike Dowling
We need to know George's opinion on the burgers. Has George complained about the burgers? But how have you been, mate?
George
Yeah, I've been good. I've differed slightly, though. I thought the summer was really long.
Mike Dowling
I suspect this might be an age thing. Might be. What are you trying to say? We might be like, oh, thank God for that.
Mike Dowling
We're off for a few weeks. And you're like, oh, where's it all gone? What we're going to do is, I didn't prep you for this one, so I'm putting you on the spot. We're going to do a knowing me, knowing you question.
Mike Dowling
And it's going to be, have you ever, outside of a match, have you ever met a Sun United player by chance? And what was it like? What was the situation? So you've got a couple of seconds while the music's going.
Mike Dowling
George is still rolling his eyes and thinking, so Rory, it's on you. Have you ever met a certain United player or ex-player, let's go with, away from the football side and what was the situation?
Rory
That's a great question. I'm sure once I was walking down South High Street and Tony Reigns was on the other side of the High Street. I didn't say hello. I was too shy.
Rory
But I'm sure it was him. I'm sorry, that probably isn't a great answer to your
Mike Dowling
question. This doesn't make sense. I saw Tony, it was within football, but it was a completely different context. So it was at a women's game and they were being shown around and then suddenly it twigged on me that, hang on, I know that person.
Mike Dowling
In fact, no, it wasn't. I'd said to his daughter, have you been to the club before? And she kind of went, yeah, once or twice. Dad used to play.
Mike Dowling
And then it was like, I know who you are now. George, what about yourself?
George
that this
Mike Dowling
I also had the entire squad, Arsenal squad, suddenly appear in the reception at my work while I'm sort of seeing things, dealing with big customers and stuff and I looked up and I saw them all asking, what are you doing here? And they were here to meet various people at the council and I was fuming because I don't think there was many Sutton City United supporters working at the council and I didn't get an invite. I don't think Andy did either. But yeah, OK.
Mike Dowling
Anyone else got any stories? Hopefully talk to someone. Let us know if you've met a Sutton player outside of football. This will probably be a few of the older ones telling drinking stories with various players as well.
Mike Dowling
But let us know. A bit of news, the ladies side had I think their last friendly today and it was a very dominant win at the seaside. They won 5-0. We should hopefully be soon be able to get some actual thoughts on women's games because obviously with them back in the borough, I can go to the games and actually say what happened.
Mike Dowling
There was a brilliant fans event the other night. George, were you at it? I couldn't make it, it was my nan's birthday. Oh man, bloody hell.
Mike Dowling
Yeah, great event, players were there, obviously Rory, it's a bit far for you, but the people who were there, players, first they kind of huddled together, but then after a little while they were spread out all over the place talking to different people. So yeah, very well done to Clare, the sports club as well, and they sold loads of the lovely new black shirts. Um, so, uh, if you haven't got yours yet, they're in the club shop. I don't think they're online yet, Rory, but they're definitely in the club shop.
Mike Dowling
Yeah. If you join the supporters club, which I did, you get a little, I can't do this because my mirror is backwards. That badge. You get a nice little badge, which you can't see.
Mike Dowling
Didn't do the paper ticket anymore. You get a nice little badge this time as well. On to the match. Let's go.
Mike Dowling
George, what were your thoughts ahead of the game? Did you have any thoughts on the lineup? And did you have any expectations going into the game before kickoff?
George
Well, on the way up there, I was quite pessimistic, I would say. I wasn't expecting, I would have been happy with the draw. Like, I wasn't expecting much. And I was expecting us to like, to sit back a lot and soak up a lot of pressure and try and hit them on the counter, which is what we've done, to be honest.
George
But yeah, I wasn't expecting much.
Mike Dowling
And did you, did anyone in the lineup surprise you or was it, okay, so I've generally got no idea.
George
I didn't really know because obviously it's the first game of the season. I was surprised that Jadon White wasn't in the squad.
Mike Dowling
This is going to be a difficult one for Steve because it's not just people not in the 11, it's going to be people not in the squad
Rory
and it's going to make
Mike Dowling
people unhappy. But it's going to be a trick to keep everyone happy, which is what we're going to do in the National League Cup again. Rory, how about yourself? Did you go into it with any expectations?
Mike Dowling
Were there any surprises or people that you thought you expected to be included?
Rory
It was really similar to George actually. I was surprised. Toby, my son, was a big fan of Jadon White after that goal in pre-season. I thought he'd be starting, if not on the bench.
Rory
So yeah, surprised about that. Yeah, my expectations were quite low as well. I think York are a really good team. Last season, when we beat them 2-1 there, I think we outplayed them last season or soaked up a lot of pressure and kind of hit them on the break, just as George said.
Rory
So I think I was expecting a similar kind of game yesterday and would have been delighted with the point, to be honest. They're a home, big team, spent a lot of money. this sunny day you'd expect them to kind of go for it which i think they kind of did well certainly in the first 20 minutes or so
Mike Dowling
absolutely and but i mean we've steve kind of went oh it didn't really matter but history's on our side they've never beaten us i know it's only four or five it was four games up to yesterday and five games now but they've never actually beaten us so um history was on our side but you i'll stick with you rory you mentioned the first 20 um it was 22 minutes And Mike Nicholson had tweeted out going, so far this season, we've conceded a penalty every 11 minutes. So how are you feeling at the moment of that second penalty? I know, I mean, you can also talk us through their first one, if you want the penalty there.
Mike Dowling
Was Jack a little bit naive or was he really unlucky? Was he just done by the way? But how are you feeling at sort of the point of we're 1-0 down and they've just got a second penalty?
Rory
Yeah, it was a bit of an odd feeling, wasn't it? Because you kind of got all that excitement, first game of the season, everyone's up for it, really good atmosphere. I felt, you know, 199 at York is an amazing, amazing effort, I think. So yeah, everyone was really up for it.
Rory
And then 20 minutes in, and we've conceded two penalties that rather took the shine off the kind of first game of the season. But yeah, first penalty was a, yeah, it was a stone cold penalty, I think you could argue with that. I think he just, yeah, the bloke put it through Jack's legs. Jack got a bit tangled up and kind of fell over him and yeah, can re-argue that.
Rory
Second penalty, I'm not sure. I heard Steve's post-match interview and I think he's right. I think he just goes to kind of block the shot and it's naturally there. I don't think it was any intention at all.
Rory
and that the second one we couldn't quite see from where we were because it was kind of around the around the corner of it but yeah i don't think you
Mike Dowling
can quite see on the replay either really you can't but it's i know they sort of changed and clarified the rule that it's not intent or anything anymore but it's like how can you do a block like that without your hands.
Rory
You
Mike Dowling
can't go, that's it, put my hands in my pockets. But you mentioned the good mood, I mean, were people getting frustrated at that second penalty or were they just kind of like, oh god, here we go?
Rory
Yeah, a bit of that. Actually, I thought we started the game really well. First five minutes, we were playing some nice football. We looked really up for it.
Rory
I think the penalty then took a bit of wind out of our sails. And then the second one, you thought, oh God, this could be really bad. This could be a horrendous start to the season. Yeah, definitely.
Rory
I
Mike Dowling
was
Rory
going to say, when the same bloke stepped up to take the penalty, I don't know, he just got this feeling that he was going to go exactly the same way and I think Jack would have saved it. I know he hit the post and I think Jack would have got there.
Mike Dowling
I think Jack knew which way he was going on that one. What about yourself, George? How are you sort of feeling at the first penalty? What were your thoughts of it?
Mike Dowling
And how are you feeling at that second penalty?
George
Well, the first penalty, I was standing right behind the foul. And it was one of the ones, like, you could see the penalty was coming as soon as he went past Jack. And I think it just, like, showed his almost lack of experience. And then the penalty, by the way, was an amazing penalty.
George
And then the second one, The people in front of me were saying it was definitely a penalty, but I couldn't really see it. And then, like when it was the same person, I just thought it was one of the ones where if he misses, I think we could get back in it. But if he scores, it could be three or four.
Mike Dowling
Yeah.
George
And luckily he hit the post.
Mike Dowling
Yeah, I mean it was definitely a penalty because the ref said it was a penalty but if we just accepted that there'd be no shows to talk about. I've watched Jack's one and again it's one of those that I'm like, am I being overly generous or am I being overly harsh? I don't think there's anything he could do. I think he was just absolutely undone by a great bit of work, and he had no real option, and there was nothing else he could do.
Mike Dowling
I suppose we're quite lucky he didn't get anything
Rory
worse,
Mike Dowling
but yeah. Maybe I'm being too generous or, as you say, maybe it's just an inexperience, but I'm putting it down to that that was some good play and we got undone. But as you say, he did miss the penalty. will be generous to Jack as well and say he definitely would have saved it.
Mike Dowling
But talking of Jack, he had a brilliant game. Throughout
Rory
the
Mike Dowling
whole game, there were loads of saves. Obviously, you guys were there. How did you feel about Sims? I think he got voted man of the match on the club's poll thing.
Mike Dowling
But what did you think, George?
George
Well, where we were soaking up pressure, obviously he had a lot to do and he handled it really well. Their second goal, he was just never going to save. No one was going to stop it. But yeah, I thought he handled it really well and he made a lot of good saves.
Mike Dowling
There's a good double save as well at one
George
point.
Mike Dowling
Yeah. What do you think of him, Roy?
Rory
Yeah, I totally agree. Particularly with his feet actually. He's always good at coming out quickly. I thought he was excellent at that.
Rory
He was quick off his line. When we were in danger a couple of times as well as the point blank saves. He definitely kept us in it a few times. and they meant to give you
Mike Dowling
opportunities,
Rory
yeah. There
Mike Dowling
was one particular where he came rushing out where I was being generous to Jack Taylor a minute ago where he very much underplayed a pass and Nemo had to come running out. I think he made a point to Jack. You might have a little comment or two there. But Roy, we'll stick with you.
Mike Dowling
I do mock some of his assists, but this one, Jesus, the man who paced for absolute days. I think he was having a little nap. got up and still ran past the defender. What do you think of the assist?
Mike Dowling
And did it feel like a goal? Because I've watched that replay, and although well done to David, I'm still like, did that actually go over the line? I don't know. But how was that goal from your point of view at the time, just before, well, shortly before halftime?
Rory
I was exactly yeah, exactly the same play. We couldn't quite see because it was down the other end. You just saw kind of Ashley Yeah, setting off so quick going down that left hand side. I think it was a ball over the top races onto it.
Rory
And a lovely kind of Yeah, unselfish pass across like he could have he could have shot there. I think quite easily and played a lovely ball through. I thought you were brave in mentioning Nada's assists in your interview with Steve Morrison, by the way. I'm not sure I would have been quite as brave.
Rory
But yeah, you couldn't quite tell if it had gone in. There was this kind of momentary pause where at one point we thought maybe he was offside or something because the players kind of went that way. The York players kind of stopped. No one was quite sure what was going on for a split second and then everyone realised it must have gone in.
Rory
But from the yeah from watching the highlights back i'm still i'm still not sure i think when the goalkeeper kind of scoops it back that tells you it must have gone over the line a bit the fifth
George
And Nadal has been, I don't think it was his fault, but he'd been a bit quiet for the first 15 minutes or whatever. And he was just away. He was so fast and he was just four on goal. And then he put it across the box and I couldn't tell if it had gone in until they all ran off celebrating.
George
But now I see it, it looks like he put it in with his bum.
Mike Dowling
Still
George
count.
Mike Dowling
I can't see if it
George
went over the line or not, but it'll count. No,
Mike Dowling
you
George
absolutely will count.
Mike Dowling
Yeah, Roy, you mentioned unselfish play. most people would, once they're away past there, they've got their eyes on goal, they're a striker, they know it's all on them, they're going to shoot. But the intelligence to go, yeah, everyone expects me to shoot here, so I'm just going to play it in, because everyone was lined up ready. If he'd shot, I think the keeper was in a fairly decent position, but for it to go across, that was really intelligent.
Mike Dowling
Hopefully Nades isn't listening to this one. But I mean, well done to David. We're not taking anything away from your goal. That's your first goal in your debut.
Mike Dowling
So yeah, don't think we're taking that away from you. But I think, George, you mentioned they had lots of the ball. And did it seem to you that that's what we let them have? We say, OK, you have it, and we're going to hit you on the counter, and we'll just soak it up.
Mike Dowling
Did it seem intentional while you were in the ground? Or did it feel a bit like, oh, God, do something?
George
It kind of felt a bit like, oh God, do something because we were all like so excited for the first game and things like that. But then also it probably was intentional because we were away at such a good side and it worked, I guess, to get a point. Yeah,
Mike Dowling
absolutely. Rory, what do you think? Do you feel at the time that this is exactly how we were going to play it, we set up to soak it up?
Rory
I think so, yeah. I think that was part of the game plan, wasn't it, to do that. I think if you listen back to what Moro said after the match, I think except the first half an hour of the first game back is always going to be really difficult and really hard. players haven't played a competitive match for a few months it's going to be really difficult particularly away from home it's such a good side and you can tell they were quality actually particularly when they start pinging some passes around all these little flicks and things um which i
Rory
think maybe they yeah maybe they got a bit overconfident when they were two and up second half it felt like they were showboating a little bit um Yeah, I think it was definitely part of the game plan. Particularly Jadon Harris, I thought the first half was really good actually in kind of closing people down, playing some nice passes. I thought he played that kind of Eastmond role really well, first half in particular.
Mike Dowling
We really missed that last season. You saw we had to change a lot to take away the fact that he wasn't there to do it. But coming up to the end of the match, were you thinking, oh, here we go, a loss? I mean, they're a good side.
Mike Dowling
It's away from home. not the end of the world if we lose, but were you thinking, yeah, we've lost this now, and how were you feeling at that point? Were you feeling it's okay to lose it, or did you still have that little bit of hope? Because I didn't, watching it on TV, I'm going to be honest.
Rory
Yeah, I definitely did. I think Asera kept telling me that we always drew draw too well with York, so I still had that in the back of my mind. I don't know. I think when they scored, it felt like we still got time here.
Rory
There's still going to be a few chances because we've made lots of chances. Like talking of Jadon, there was one, maybe two opportunities where he could have shot and he didn't. And he was probably not right in being unselfish at that point where he could have come on and gone on and shot. I think Nades had an opportunity too as well.
Rory
It felt like we were creating chances, not quite. putting it, yeah, getting on the end of them. And so I felt like we, yeah, there's still a few opportunities. I thought York were a bit overconfident in the last 20 minutes with all the showboating stuff.
Rory
So I thought, I thought we were still in this.
Mike Dowling
We've done that ourselves at home. I remember a game we were, I can't remember who it was against, but we were absolutely smacking them. And next thing they broke and were attacking us, they looked up and went, Oh my God, hang on. It is only one nil.
Mike Dowling
What are we doing? Panic. But what about yourself, George? Were you thinking, great, it's a nice long journey, we've had a lovely day out and we've got to go home now with a loss under our belt, or were you thinking, actually we've shown what we can do, but did you think we had a chance coming into the
Mike Dowling
last few?
George
Well, I thought we started the second half really well, ended up until they scored, and then when they scored I thought, they got better, but like we, we still had, um, still had a lot of like, maybe not a lot, but like a few chances. We just had no like cutting edge. And then I'm quite a negative person. So I was thinking we're going to go with a loss, but I wouldn't, I wouldn't have been too bothered.
George
Obviously I would have been bothered, but like, uh, we played well and I thought we showed what we could do. And then, Yeah, I didn't think we were going to get anything, but then when that ball went in the box, I was happy.
Mike Dowling
I don't know if you'll know what the phrase Fox in the box is all about, but what did you think of Brandon's, or Brad Zinio, his contribution? He's just come on, he was alive to it, he knew what was going on and he just slid it home. Talk us through that, your view of that goal, George.
George
Well, I love long throw-ins. I was really happy that we were doing long throw-ins, and I saw the long throw-in, and it hadn't worked. But we all stayed up, which Steve said in his interview, which I thought was good. And then Simpa's always going to put a good ball in the box.
George
And I don't know who got... Was it Jack Taylor with the flick on? Yeah. Jack Taylor got the flick on.
George
and Joku was just there. Good finish. I think he's a proper handful.
Mike Dowling
Yeah, I think what I like is our two strikers give us something slightly different. So you've got one of them doing one thing, getting the defense switched on one way, and then suddenly they have to rethink it for the last 20 or half an hour or whatever time Steve wants to do it. But what about yourself, Rory? How are you feeling with that just snatch of a half chance equalizer?
Rory
Oh, it was amazing. I thought Lewis had been quite quiet for most of the match. It probably wasn't one of his best games, but that ball in was lovely, that kind of curled left foot. And yeah, he was so quick, wasn't he, Brandon, just to kind of get onto it.
Rory
That came kind of from note. We'd had a couple of chances. I think the fact that we didn't kind of roll over that kind of resilience that we showed never say die attitude shows about what a good group of players and how they all seem to kind of work together. So yeah, when that ball went in, that was, yeah, that was amazing.
Rory
We've only three or four minutes to go. At the back of your mind, you're always thinking, oh God, we've still got five, six minutes or whatever. We're going to do a set and then concede another one. But yeah, it was an amazing feeling to have that goal winning right next to where we were.
Mike Dowling
Well, I had resilience to talk about in a minute, but we'll go now. What do you think? I mean, there was a spell last year where we clearly didn't have it because teams were scoring. We've got late goals against us.
Mike Dowling
And then once that habit started, teams were like,
Rory
oh,
Mike Dowling
they're vulnerable. And then they just attacked and we started panicking. It's just a never ending thing. But so far, obviously it's only one game, but so far, we're the ones getting the late goal.
Mike Dowling
How important do you think this resilience is that they didn't roll over like the Millwall game? I know
Rory
it
Mike Dowling
was the most flattering scoreline in the world, but it could have been a lot worse. The players could have absolutely collapsed and just conceded a couple of figures in that game, but they didn't. And this game as well, as George said in the start, the second penalty, if that How do you feel about their mental attitude and the fact we scored a late
Rory
goal? I think you can see that improvement from last year. I think it's probably down to, as well as I remember Steve saying this in the interview he did with him about the players being a year older and having more of that experience, but also having some of those more experienced heads there, like Connor Jonesy and Which I thought was quite good actually, first time.
Rory
It's probably one of the better games they've had for us. We've not seen him in any of the friendlies. No, only in the Highlands.
Mike Dowling
Yeah, he has worked over the summer. He has worked and he's come back a completely different person. What was it like, obviously it was great for me watching on TV, but it's nothing like being there. What was it like in there with the 200 Sutton fans getting a point away from home?
Rory
I think the drum really helped as well. I think that the atmosphere. At first I wasn't sure. It was quite loud and I'm getting quite old.
Rory
But yeah, it did really help. It helps people, it helps with the singing, helps the atmosphere. And we were all kind of crammed into, I think last year at York, we were down the side. This time we were kind of behind the goal, which really helped, I think, in a kind of small space.
Rory
Everyone was in a good mood. First game of the season, everyone was really up for it. The atmosphere, I thought, was fab. I thought we out-sang.
Rory
York for most of it to be fair. So yeah it was great and to get a point on the road which yeah just as George says I wasn't really expecting us to get that. I don't think I would have definitely taken a point. So yeah I think it was a yeah it was a fab game.
Rory
It felt a bit like we'd nicked a point at the end which is always a nice feeling as well isn't it.
Mike Dowling
Oh, I've got that to talk about as well. So, George, how do you feel about the resilience that they showed, the mental attitude and the late goal? And also, was it you on the drum? I saw you carrying it, but was it you playing?
George
Well, it's Seb's drum, but I brought it up there because he was getting a train. But I think the resilience comes with the experienced players we've got now and also all our younger players that we brought last season, a year older, and they've had a year playing in this league. But yeah, I thought it was really good coming back twice.
Mike Dowling
And how was the celebrations from your point of view for that late, late equalising and the final whistle?
George
Yeah, it was amazing. I was standing right behind the drum, so it was really, really loud. It was really good. if the
Mike Dowling
I mean, I kind of, I'm not thinking it's a battling point or a grunt thing, I think we got a point, we got away with it. It would be annoying if it happened to us, but I don't think it was a robbery as such. We weren't, I kind of put the term robbery when you're playing absolutely awful and you somehow get away with a result. But do you feel, I mean, you said we nicked it, but do you feel it was a robbery?
Mike Dowling
Because York fans, they seem to be blaming themselves rather than
Rory
yeah
Mike Dowling
which is quite unusual to be fair but um how did you sum it up was it a daylight robbery or just a good point
Rory
I think at the time it felt a little bit like daylight robbery, but looking back at it and looking at the highlights and listening to what Steve said, I think it was a really kind of well-executed game plan where we sit back, soak up pressure, hit them on the break, particularly that first goal. I think if you take away the first 20 minutes, half an hour of the game, which is always going to be difficult, isn't it? First game back, away from home, the hot favourites to win the league.
Rory
I think if you take away that first half an hour of madness, I think we played really well. I think it was definitely a good point. I think we deserved it in the end. I think that resilience that we showed.
Rory
We played some nice football in points as well. I felt even Jack Taylor made a couple of mistakes early doors but then he made up for it second half with some some really good challenges and some really good headers as well. I think a lot of players were like that. I think it was just it took them a bit of time to get into the game to to start.
Rory
So if you leave aside that first bit I think it was a well executed game plan. I think we definitely deserved a point.
Mike Dowling
Excellent. George, do you think we robbed them?
George
I don't
Mike Dowling
know.
George
I think The way we played like our game plan made it look like that almost because we were like sitting back so much It made it look like york with a much better team So
Rory
it
George
made it look like we got the point, but I think that's how we wanted to do it So I think it actually it works and we actually deserve the point
Mike Dowling
A quick word, because I've seen different people mention the referee. Nothing jumped out at me, but I obviously don't watch the game the same as everyone else, but there seemed to be some frustrations with the referee. George, did you feel that? I mean, we've already talked about the goal he gave for us was a bit like, OK, what's our goal?
Mike Dowling
But did you think anything, the referee's performance needed any discussion?
George
He might have been a little bit soft, but I didn't actually think he was too bad. One of the better
Rory
ones. I'm not sure, and I always say this, I don't like to slag off referees and then I always end up slagging off referees. Yeah, I felt there was a number of kind of 50-50 challenges, which I didn't even think were fouls that were given against us. Particularly, yeah, second half, I think Lewis and a couple of other people where it didn't even look like a foul and he gave it to York.
Rory
I don't know if it was the pressure of the crowd first game, all of that. So nothing major, no big decisions that we got wrong or anything.
Mike Dowling
I think they said on the commentary it was York's biggest opening day home crowd for something like 50 years. So
Rory
there
Mike Dowling
must have been a little bit of pressure there. You've mentioned Steve's interview quite a lot, Rory. I have to say one part of it just made me giggle because, I mean, stating the obvious, what did you think of the game? Toughest game of the season.
Mike Dowling
Well, yeah, it's game one. I assume he means it's going to be the toughest game of the season. But, I mean, he seemed happy enough, as you've alluded to a few times. He definitely seems happy enough.
Mike Dowling
I mean, George, have you had a chance to listen to it yet?
George
Yeah, I listened to it on the way back.
Mike Dowling
Yeah, and how did you feel?
George
He sums it up. I mean, saying it's the toughest game of the season, I think is a very Steve Morrison thing to say. But I agree with him. It probably is one of, if not the toughest game of the season.
George
And like him, I'm very happy with the point. I'll take that all day.
Mike Dowling
Perfect. Well, we've just got a couple of quick comments that came in when I asked for the points of use. And you know there's a song.
Rory
It's time to have your say What's good, bad, okay On the pitch or not We'll talk about the lie Your thoughts, your views On the latest news It's your points of views
Mike Dowling
I probably could have just started with these and cut out the last 20 minutes. Ozzie said it was a very good away point and great start with something to build on. And Justin, who's in the States, I can't remember how or why he started following us, sorry, Justin, but tickled to death for taking a point off a team like York, especially away, huge. And it made the half spending the match, the second, spending half the match explains to my fellow American buddy what a promotion and relegations were in English football, a lot more bearable.
Mike Dowling
uh so yeah and while I've sort of mentioned someone in USA um shout out to Nick over for one of the friendlies and also to um a guy I've known for years Freddy who's living in Australia and he listens from Australia every episode apparently on Bondi Beach sometimes so hello Freddy I promise I'd say hello um did you guys remember I didn't remind you but did you remember we have got the good the bad and the funny as well which we will whip through So George, we'll start with you. First of all, what was good about the whole day slash weekend? I don't know when you went up,
George
stayed. I'm going to say the atmosphere. I think the atmosphere was really good.
Rory
Excellent.
Mike Dowling
Rory?
Rory
Totally. Yeah, atmosphere was great. Alice Bay scoring that goal, feeling when that went in. Yeah.
Mike Dowling
Perfect. Rory, what was bad?
Rory
What was bad? Hmm. I don't know really. It's an alright ground to go to, not as good as Booth and Crescent where you can kind of walk from the train station, the old ground.
Rory
It's one of those kind of identikit grounds on the out of town, which I don't really like. Yeah, it's one of those kind of slightly soulless places, so maybe that's the rad.
Mike Dowling
Fair enough. George, what's bad for you?
George
I'm going to say... when they got given the first penalty because like we were all so excited and it like immediately dropped the mood after like
Mike Dowling
nine
George
minutes or whatever.
Mike Dowling
It obviously came back because the atmosphere was your good point as well. What was funny for you George?
George
I'm not sure. I think The pink hats I find quite funny.
Mike Dowling
They get mentioned. They got mentioned by the stadium announcer apparently. I know. It's like a big thing.
Mike Dowling
Rory, what about
Rory
yourself? At one point, I think in the second half, some of the stewards wheeled a shopping trolley past us very, very slowly in front of the pitch behind the goal and then wheeled it back the other way, which is just slightly strange. That made us laugh.
Mike Dowling
your attention away from the football. Excellent. Well, we're going to quickly, quickly do a double looking ahead. So, we've got Fulham babies on Tuesday night.
Mike Dowling
So, either of you know anything about the Fulham Under-21s? Do you have any views of the cup competition? How do you think we're going to do against the Fulham kids, Rory? We'll start with
Rory
you. I think it's a good opportunity to give some of the players a bit of a run out, like Jade and White, etc, etc. See what other people are capable of. Like you say, I'm not really sure of the level of Bull and Babies, but a good opportunity, yeah, to give other people a bit of a run around.
George
Yeah.
Mike Dowling
George?
George
I mean, I think it's a good opportunity to give other players minutes, but I don't know anything about Fulham under-21s.
Mike Dowling
competition that obviously some clubs do like, some lots of fans don't like. We're certainly united, we're always going to enter these competitions because that's just the right thing to do. But I get it, I get why people don't like it and I'm not dismissing anyone's views at all. But it does help forge relationships with these clubs as well, which can be quite handy sort of longer term.
Mike Dowling
But to either one of you, I'm going to be counting these in the prediction leagues to anyone. So if anyone's joined yet, which I'll go into in a minute, you'll get an email. So these will count towards them. So a bit of a wild card for some points there, George.
Mike Dowling
I can see your face already dropped. But do you want to give any kind of prediction now? You can obviously change your mind at any time up to kick off.
George
I don't know, I'm gonna go 2-0 to Sutton.
Mike Dowling
2-0 Sutton, go on. Don't forget you can change your mind, don't worry. Rory?
Rory
Yeah, I'll go 3-1, I reckon. And the money's always good, isn't it? Yeah, money's always good from the cup, like you always say, mate.
Mike Dowling
Yeah, we made a good... One of the few clubs to take it seriously attendance-wise, and we made a good amount from it last year, so definitely worth it. But then the more important stuff on Saturday, Dolly Hill Moors. got a weird soft spot for Solihull Moors because for years when we weren't in the conference and the football manager only turned to the National League, a football manager didn't go to that low down.
Mike Dowling
I had to pick a different side and I wasn't picking Solihull Moors because they were like the lowest possible rating in the game. So I had this weird, weird, weird affiliation with them. I don't know why. But what do you feel against Solihull Rory?
Rory
I think they might be a tricky team to break down, I think. I think they might try and do what we did at York, I imagine, come and sit back and soak up some pressure. So I think it might be a tricky game. I know we've got a really hard start, and this is on paper, I suppose, one of the easier games.
Rory
But I think we might find it tricky. So I think we might scrape it, kind of 1-0, 2-1, that kind of
Mike Dowling
thing. George, what do you think about the Solihull game?
George
Again, I don't know much about them, but going off last season, I think it'll be quite tight and like quite scrappy again, like 1-0, something like that.
Mike Dowling
Yeah. I think it's going to give us a really good insight to our season. I think they're probably going to try and soak us up a little bit. Although they're going to be one of the teams that expect to be up there.
Mike Dowling
But I think the management have targeted home games and they want more results from home games than we got last year. So I think we will probably have quite an attacking lineup. and go for it. I don't know whether that go for it will be on 60 minutes or from minute one, but I think they're definitely trying to put on a show, I think, try and make it that you want to come to these home games and be excited.
Mike Dowling
So I'm excited to see them. But you both play the Prediction League, thank you very much. But if anyone else hasn't joined in, it's a long way to go. I've had one message taken, or is it too late to join?
Mike Dowling
It's like, no, you can join literally up until the last game, you just might not get as many points. But the link goes out all the time on the socials. And literally, you get a point for entering and then points for the right um outcome the right something goals the right opposition goals the right goal scorer and or the fight first goal scorer sorry and then the overall outcome the overall result as well so lots of points to play for um so yeah joining is a bit of fun is you get a cup i didn't put the picture of charles charles won a cup and so did last year he's put his cup up somewhere But yeah, thank you both so much, gents.
Mike Dowling
I am going to wrap it up. It's been great chatting to you. It's been great to actually have football to talk about and just other things. So we're going to wrap up this episode of Sutton Podcast.
Mike Dowling
As always, we appreciate everyone's attention and feedback. Make sure you share the episode and I look forward to all the extra likes, George, on TikTok when your little army gets involved. Get involved in the Knowing Me, Knowing You segment. Have you ever met a Sutton player outside of match days and what was that about?
Mike Dowling
Follow, like and share on Sutton podcasts, on Sutton social medias. Subscribe, let us know what you think on the reviews. Join in with the Lucky Star Lounge. It's a little new thing I'm doing.
Mike Dowling
It's kind of a place outside the forum, outside of social medias. It's kind of like social media but a private type thing. I think I've got it right, but join it and let me know and see. As always, thank you to our sponsors, Lucky Star Gin.
Mike Dowling
A big thank you to both of you, Rory and George, on the panel. Thanks to you listeners. I hope you've enjoyed this episode of Sutton Podcast. Take care and we will catch up soon.
Mike Dowling
Thank you.
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