Hello and welcome to another episode of Sutton United Talk Time on Podcast! I'm your host, Mike Dowling, and I’m joined today by two great friends of the show, Neil and Finlay, for all the post-match discussion in association with Lucky Star Gin.
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 Gin. If you're a regular listener, as usual, thank you so, so much. I really do genuinely appreciate it.
Mike Dowling
And if you're new, you're very welcome. And hopefully, you'll come back and join us again. I'm your host, Mike. And with me today, we have got Neil and Finlay.
Mike Dowling
Don't forget, we love hearing from you. Join in the conversations, stay connected, like, share, retweet, thumbs up, I love the thumbs up. All the social media platforms, it's at sun podcast and all those like shares does get the podcast in front of our eyes as well and it really helps us grow as well and gives me an ego boost. We always need an ego boost.
Mike Dowling
Finlay, thank you for joining me. I know you had other plans which got changed today, but thank you for joining me.
Finlay
How have you
Mike Dowling
been since last week?
Finlay
I've been good. I'm a bit cold, but I've got a fire going, so that's keeping me nice and warm. But I'm just absolutely speechless after yesterday. But second podcast and two positive results to talk about, so no complaints.
Mike Dowling
Perfect. Yeah, I'm sure someone must have told you, you need to be taking layers and layers and layers up to that country. I do. Joe found out the bad way, because he didn't.
Mike Dowling
He was freezing. Neil, you couldn't do last week, and then last minute, well, not last minute, last few hours, you stepped in to do this week. How have you been? I've
Neil
been fine, thank you, Mike. I was much happier digging on my allotment after a sudden win than I was after last time, which was a sudden loss. Well,
Mike Dowling
and you saw the, well, I'm going to say it's outdated back to the future, because they came forward to 2015, didn't they? That was 10 years ago, so it's not really relevant anymore. But you saw the theatre show, how was that?
Neil
It was a fantastic appearance, I mean a fantastic experience. So we had prime seats, virtually sitting in the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and Back to the Future, one of my favourite films. On the 40th anniversary of the date that they travelled to, or travel, which was the 26th of October 1985. So they go back from that.
Mike Dowling
Yeah. Yeah. Did either of you notice the question on the invite, the free invites? So if you did, I will play the amazing jingle.
Mike Dowling
Don't worry, Finlay, I'll read it out now just in case. It's basically, if you could design a pre-match event or halftime for fans, what would it look like and how do you think it would enhance the matchday experience? So especially thinking it's getting a bit colder now, so some of the outside stuff might not cut it anymore. But if you could design something to encourage fans to get in early, what would it be?
Mike Dowling
And we're going to do this song.
Speaker 5
All
Mike Dowling
right. So, Neil, what would you design if you could design a pre-match event? There is no pre-match event planned. I have no power to do anything.
Mike Dowling
I'm just making content.
Neil
So, I think this could take place across a season on Saturdays, which is to have teams of three fans And this could be for charity. And they take two penalties each against the reserve goalkeeper who's down on the team for that. And then you have a knockout competition between those teams. And then a final to take place on the last match of the season.
Neil
And you could have, say, teams of five to allow a substitute for non-availability or that sort of thing. So you could have knockout competition. something that might get a bit of interest, get some fans involved, and it will be a proper competition because we are a proper goalkeeper.
Mike Dowling
We haven't because goalkeepers like David would just let mine in because they love me.
Neil
Yeah, that's assuming yours would be anywhere near the goal. Yeah, that's true.
Mike Dowling
So there's a lot... It'd be so slow that he'd be looking at it going, there's no way I can let this in, fall asleep and still save it. But yeah, great idea. Finlay, put you on the spot, but go
Finlay
on. I'm frustrated I didn't see it because the hat's been out the bag that I used to chat GBT for my commentary and show. So I want to put this question into chat GBT. One way, because of the cold weather, a couple of laps around the pitch might warm everyone up.
Finlay
But on a serious note, probably similar to Neil's, you kind of see loads of teams do those kind of halftime competitions in the Premier League and the Championship. But maybe to make it a bit harder, take penalties against Jenny the Giraffe.
Mike Dowling
That very much depends who's being Jenny that day. Because if Jenny's being Jenny, she'll be very competitive and not let in.
Neil
Jenny was telling me she thought Jenny had been renamed Jimmy. the giraffe. It's a Jimmy
Mike Dowling
Dac. No, that's the new, there's a, there's a teddy bear in the club shop, which doesn't look like Jenny, but it's still a giraffe, so I think they've named it Jimmy.
Neil
Oh, right.
Mike Dowling
Some people might have got the wrong end of the stick that we're selling a Jimmy the giraffe. I think we do have a Jimmy the Giraffe one as well because I think I remember on Valentine's Day there have been two and one being Jenny and one being Jimmy but yeah I think it's the teddy bear in the shop that's Jimmy not Jenny being Jimmy. I don't know. But anyway, let us know your thoughts and give us what you think we could do as a pre-match halftime thing just to keep people engaged, keep people in early maybe as well.
Mike Dowling
Club news. Thanks to Finlay for the reminder. Lucy has been nominated as Manager of the Month for a absolutely brilliant October. And she has then, well, not her, but her team has then decided to try and extend that into November because they played an extremely strong Dartford side who, for some reason, I think they taunted us last season at home.
Mike Dowling
I'd have a fee, I can't remember, it might have been the away game, but I've got a feeling they really battered us and we were lucky to keep the score down. And we won today against 100% Dartford and won 1-0. a good goal. And they apparently weren't providing an awful lot of pressure until we scored.
Mike Dowling
And then it was a very, according to Sarah, a very defensive, brilliant defensive action. But we won against Dartford. So that's 200% teams gone in the last two weeks. And fantastic result and another impressive performance.
Mike Dowling
And yeah, another, I can't remember how many games it is now, seven or eight games. that they've been winning or not lost. So fantastic, fantastic from them. And I hope that's more than the 90 seconds that Lucy keeps complaining I only give her.
Mike Dowling
Send me the content and I'll put it in. Podcast news, I've had mixed conversations about the interview with Chris, not the quantity of it, the quality of the audio. It wasn't, awful when I was speaking to him. I could hear everything.
Mike Dowling
I then downloaded it and couldn't hear everything. Tried to tidy up as much as possible with AI, with everything, and I've had some people say, no, it was fine, I was able to hear it, it was a bit of a struggle, but I heard it. Other people said they had to give up. And Neil just said, I could not believe this, but if Neil said you follow the transcript on YouTube, which I don't understand how the transcript can pick it up if you can't hear it but hey-ho whatever it is but yeah he was really generous with his time and
Mike Dowling
thank you so much Chris and I will definitely get him on again I'm absolutely sure. Also, did the hospitality again yesterday with Rob. Had my questions all worked out, lovely, it was great. In fact, I was in hospitality yesterday as well, and the food was absolutely gorgeous.
Mike Dowling
Didn't eat the fish, because I don't like fish. So Jenny had that for me, and then she wouldn't give me the beef. She was like, no, no, no, there was no deal there that I gave you the second one back. But yeah, absolutely amazing beef, and I was still taking a mouthful when Bruce said, oh, I might interview Rob now.
Speaker 5
But
Mike Dowling
yeah, Rob was brilliant and the food was amazing. So if you haven't done it yet, I know some people kind of look at it and go, oh, that's really expensive. It's worth it. The food is really, really good.
Mike Dowling
I'm not just saying that. Rob hasn't given me any money to do that yet. But no, the food is amazing. Let's get on to yesterday.
Mike Dowling
Very, very quickly, and we'll say match. Two-nil win, two-nil lead, sorry. And Neil, you were there when I told someone off who said, gosh, we're playing really well defensively, we're really solid, and we're doing really well. And I was like, would you ever shut up?
Mike Dowling
He was like, no, no, give credit. And I was like, don't do that. And then we did exactly. what he was worried about.
Mike Dowling
So, Neil, I know you were there, but if you sum that game up very, very quickly, I know it's disappointing, but how was that match for you?
Neil
Incredibly disappointing, and I couldn't see why we let in four goals until the thing that was picked up from Chris's post-match was that we'd gone back into our We'd gone back into our old habits of just kicking the ball away, not being brave in possession. And we just went 10 yards further back in the pitch. And when somebody who understands football explains it, and it's a little bit more obvious seeing it on the television on a highlights package, more readily, easily than you can see it live. And looking back at the highlights, you could see exactly why we let in four goals.
Neil
Disappointing as it was, because we played so well for that first 25 minutes or so.
Mike Dowling
Absolutely. And you said it as well. Oh, he scored most of the goals down into that left-hand corner. We need to defend that, keep it tight for the first, I think you said 10 minutes and we got to eight.
Mike Dowling
But Finlay, did you get a chance to watch that back here or not?
Finlay
I did, I had quite an embarrassing moment because I was on the zone and it looked like it was advertised to be on TV. I was all excited, thinking brilliant, three o'clock on a Saturday, away game, I can watch it. And I was at my grandparents' house, so I quickly got on the train, ran all the way home. three o'clock, it wasn't even there.
Finlay
I watched the highlights, positives to take, Jennings getting a goal in his debut, really lovely composed finish. And the four goals, yeah, it's just, it's frustrating being two and up, but we've backed it up with two really positive results.
Mike Dowling
Yep, absolutely. Yeah, the three o'clock kickoffs are blacked out everywhere.
Finlay
I get it,
Mike Dowling
I understand it, it's frustrating because I'm like, there's a lot of people who won't go to other games nowadays, so I just won't go to another game because I can't watch a game as a neutral anymore. Finlay, before the match, what were your expectations? What did you think the line-up, were there any changes in the line-up that you thought it might be? But what were you kind of thinking beforehand?
Mike Dowling
What were you going for?
Finlay
I felt quite optimistic. I felt positive. Obviously, we played Guildford on the Wednesday. I was there and With all due respect to Guildford, we expected to go there and win comfortably, which we did.
Finlay
5-0, clean sheet. And as Chris said, to kind of build as much momentum as possible, we need to play as many games as possible. And going to Guildford, putting out a strong team, and winning comfortably, all of a sudden going into the Telford game, it's not, we're coming back, we're coming in off a 4-2 defeat. We're coming in off a 5-0 win.
Finlay
So definitely, like you said, it was a positive mood in the camp. Line-up-wise, six changes after Simpa getting a break mid-week. Good to see him. I'm not sure about you two, but I was star-struck to see Ogbonna starting after Chris had obviously downplayed the whole Ogbonna saying, we've got such a great medical team and we don't want to rush him back.
Finlay
But honestly, what a player he was. The headache about Nadesan or Nduku, I was shocked to see Nadesan start, albeit I know Nduku played 90 minutes mid-week. But then from Madison's perspective, it's probably, you know, Chris has said, right, you know what, FA Cup first round, a big tie, despite Njuku being the top goal scorer, you start and go and make a name for yourself. And he did just that.
Finlay
But yeah, positive going into the game and a strong lineup.
Mike Dowling
And Neil, what was your thoughts, expectations and any surprises in the lineup for you?
Neil
I was confident we were going to win, but I had to put a loss on the prediction league because every time I predict we win, we lose. So that was my superstition coming to the fore. So I was prepared to take one for the team there. And it was exactly the team I expected him to win.
Neil
to play, except I didn't expect Junior to start. That was the only, I thought Noah and not
Mike Dowling
Junior. Yeah, I was surprised he sort of left back. I was like, oh, OK, it's interesting. But I was more surprised that we didn't start Woody, only because if you've got someone come back from injury, if you put them on from the start and they last only 30 minutes, you still got your sub, whereas bringing him on at half time, if that had gone
Mike Dowling
to extra time, he suddenly wouldn't have been playing 45, he could have been playing well over an hour. He probably would have been fine and he seemed all right, but that was the only kind of thing I thought, or maybe you should, I would possibly have started him, but obviously, as I've said many times, I pay to watch football, so my opinion means boggle. But Do you think, obviously we know the money situation at the club, Neil, do you think there was more financial pressure to win this or do you think it was Aggie pressure
Speaker 1
to
Mike Dowling
win this because of the momentum thing and he was like, no, we are not going to lose. We're going to win this game and the money's a bonus. Neil.
Neil
Yeah, I think the money is not a consideration. It's winning games because you just need to keep on winning because winning is contagious or infectious or whatever, just as losing is. So I think it was very important. I thought the Guildford was quite unique.
Neil
I don't think that has ever happened in Doz's time, or Matt Gray's time, or Steve Morrison's time, to send out such a strong side against very weak opposition. So I thought that that was, it was something that could have gone terribly wrong if they'd won 1-0, or gone to penalty, or whatever. It would have been, you know, mega egg on face, but it had the desired effect. So I think from that is great.
Mike Dowling
I'm going to just quickly go on to that. I don't often mention the Surrey Senior Cup because I've got a 15-20 year grudge against Surrey County FA. But I think the reason we didn't necessarily put strong teams out in the past is because it doesn't count as a first team fixture. So if players are doing a suspension, for example, Surrey Senior doesn't count.
Mike Dowling
towards it. And does did put out a strong side in a few finals after we got to them. And I remember one and funny enough, someone mentioned it on the forum earlier this week, it's the program for I think it was 2010, they said, or 15, I can't remember now. And it was, we had reached the final and it was in Skodoming, I think.
Mike Dowling
And I was like, oh, I don't know if I want
Speaker 1
to go. And it was, oh, it's a
Mike Dowling
final, I should go. And I went and we got absolutely pumped. And that just made me even more furious. I'm not
Speaker 1
going to one of these again, ever
Mike Dowling
again. I'm not giving Surrey County any money. So if you see me at a Surrey County match, you can assume that I've somehow wangled my way in for free, because I'm not giving them any money. But it was a great performance, but what do you think?
Mike Dowling
Do you think it was more Aggie pressure or is it the Cup pressure or is it neither or both?
Finlay
I think similar to Neil, the money means nothing. That's just a bonus to the club, depending on how well we do. That's just an added bonus. I think it was definitely pressure on Aggie.
Finlay
You know, as Neil said, he's kind of really picked up this momentum and needing to win games and winning yesterday in such a big game, going into Eastleigh now on Wednesday is almost like brilliant. You know, we've got more momentum, more confidence. So definitely it was pressure on Aggie and he handled it perfectly.
Mike Dowling
Yep. So, first controversial, the minute silence. Now, at first glance, you look at that and the Telford fans, absolutely outrageous. It was a minute silence and they kept on chanting and singing the way through it.
Mike Dowling
I won't excuse the smoke bomb, but I will excuse why. Their team is in the FA Cup first round. I don't think they've done it for a while. I'm not 100% sure on that.
Mike Dowling
But all the players are lining up with their backs to the curver, which is fine. But if you think of that view from the Curve O'Neill, all you would see is the players' backs. You wouldn't have seen the flags and all the rest of it going on. And the Tannoy announcement over on that side is just, well, unless it's been dramatically fixed, which I don't think so.
Mike Dowling
you can't hear anything, and they wouldn't have known. So they're all excited, they're getting all worked up for their team coming out and chanting, and then slowly you could hear it slowly dawning on them off like, hang on, why is everyone else quiet? So whilst it looks and sounds horrendous, I personally feel that it was just a mistake and it's where they didn't realise what was going on, because he's quite
Speaker 1
far
Mike Dowling
ahead of that Sunday, so they perhaps just didn't realise. Finlay, you were in the country, did you feel that at the time or were you kind of like, whoa, what are they doing? You didn't say anything, unless you got cut out.
Finlay
Well I was more worried for my life because that gantry was absolutely bouncing because the Telfer fans were, understandably, like you said Mike, they haven't got to the second round since 2014 and it's only I think their second or third time getting to the first round. So it's a fantastic occasion for them. You know, the smoke bombs obviously aren't great, but then as much as maybe they didn't hear the tannoy, surely seeing a massive Union Jack flag and the trumpets blowing, you surely must be able to kind of anticipate that.
Mike Dowling
From their view, I think they would have only seen the players.
Finlay
From your
Mike Dowling
view, you're way higher, so you'll see it. But I think from their view... Neil, we've stood there while they were doing, like, inductees to the Hall of Fame, and we're just like, what's the main kickoff? What's going on?
Mike Dowling
So are you a bit generous or am I being way too generous?
Neil
No, I'm being generous that, you know, as La Corva devotees for many years, we know that even the Sutton fans, it's even if you want to hear what's going on, it's impossible to hear. The flags have been lowered for the last post being played. So therefore, the flags were below the players. And if you see from the highlights playing back there, AJ turns round to go as much to look and say what that.
Neil
you do looking out of disgust and that's probably from that point of view I suspect probably the stewards sort of may have got involved in that sort of state and then from that point of view as soon as it they were as quiet as anything and I suspect they were probably as embarrassed as yeah I've seen a few of their comments on Twitter, and I was like,
Mike Dowling
yeah, massive apologies. He didn't know what was going on. And again, I'm not, there's no blame attached. It's just one of those things that, oh, in hindsight, this could have been dealt with slightly differently.
Mike Dowling
But no one's going to think, oh, they're not going to know what's going on. So yeah, it's just one of those bizarre things.
Neil
And it was a very short silence. So that made me think that the referee was going to have trouble with timekeeping in the match.
Mike Dowling
We'll talk about the ref in a bit, but it was one of the few things he got slightly wrong, in my opinion. So first half hour, Neil, how were you feeling? I thought Telford were playing quite well, but again, that might be, as a subject we'll come on to later, that might be just the Sutton fingers over my eyes, pessimistic. But I thought Telford were knocking it around really, really well.
Mike Dowling
And I wasn't worried per se, but they had some chances in that first half hour.
Neil
So I was standing next to Jenny, so I said, this is looking, unfortunately, a bit like Spennymoor Mark 2. Because. Sorry? How's the bruise?
Neil
She didn't hit me, which does make it. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, surprisingly, no, she managed to keep her elbows to herself. And I thought that leading up to the goal, the goal was so against the run of play.
Neil
It was so unlike something for us to be sort of on the back foot, struggling to get the foot on the ball. The passes were going awry. We weren't trying to hang on to the ball. We were sort of looking a bit desperate.
Neil
Reed has already, Tommy had already had to make a very good save from their number nine, who, that was a very good shot. Actually, again, the save looked even better on the highlights and it actually looked live. So I was not optimistic after the first 25, 30 minutes. And Finlay, yourself for the first
Mike Dowling
half hour or so?
Finlay
I remember Chris saying before the game, Telford are going to be like Farnham. They're going to want to play counter-attacking football. They're dangerous with and without the ball. In the first half an hour, it was just one-way traffic.
Finlay
Telford were knocking it around. Every time we got the ball, we would just launch it clear. And as Neil said, their number nine, Stenson, already four goals in the competition. It's a fantastic shot.
Finlay
And the crowd almost went silent because it was one of those shots where you thought, despite Tommy saving it, it might still trickle in. But it was a fantastic save and we kind of, we weathered the storm definitely in that first half an hour.
Mike Dowling
Well, you get to talk about the goal. From my point of view, as I was saying, that Aggie ball, I was kind of like criticising as Jack was charging into their half. And I'm like, I know it's what he wants to do, but I'm having heart attacks here with our centre back going forward. He could lose the ball here.
Mike Dowling
And then two, three passes later, it's in the back of the net. But how was the goal from your point of view?
Finlay
It was magical, a magical build-up, a magical finish. As you said, my heart was pounding seeing Jack Taylor kind of playing that Harry Phipps role as he has been in the past few weeks. But lovely build-up play and Jadon Harris getting it on the left and just a moment of brilliance from Ogbonna. And yeah, it wasn't quite the same.
Finlay
I was expecting another forward role or another Bicycle kick celebration, but he didn't do it this time, but no, lovely finish. And yeah, that definitely silenced the Telford fans for a
Mike Dowling
minute. somersault flip or whatever it was, and landed this time, which I've shown Rosie. I did tell him I'll be showing Rosie and she was, she was like, good landing, but he should have had his arms straight. He's a footballer, he's not a gymnast.
Mike Dowling
But yeah, the back, I didn't realise, I knew he'd scored, but obviously I'm blinding down the other end. I did not realise until watching the highlights that how good and well he took that goal with a little back heel. But Neil, how was your view of the goal? It was,
Neil
it looked to be a beautiful goal, because it seemed to be the first time that we'd actually sort of properly pressed and tried to get the ball off them, because Ogbonna and Muller sort of between them doubled up, got the ball back. And then we played it all the way backwards. And then it was Simpah, Harris, Eccleston, Jennings, Eccles, Taylor, Harris, Eccleston, Harris, and then Ogbonna. So I wrote all the names down here.
Neil
you know, Junior was involved three times and so was Jayden. So it was a proper team goal. It was a beautiful, beautiful goal. And really, it just cut them apart.
Neil
We did then what other teams seem to have been doing, you know, liberally to us for
Mike Dowling
months. And then the only thing of note for halftime then, Neil, was I think Tommy Reid had a bit of an injury just almost straight after we scored. So thoughts and prayers to him there. That's happened against Wildstone as well, just after we scored as well.
Mike Dowling
But halftime, how are you feeling? And then shortly after? I don't know how long after actually, it seemed quite shortly after, another beautiful goal, Neil. How do you feel about that one, the Nader's goal in front of us?
Neil
So the, yeah, Sims disease, which is obviously what Tommy Reid... I mean, he goes down halfway through the half, but he
Mike Dowling
can't
Neil
play
Mike Dowling
more than 22 minutes.
Neil
Yeah, but it's obviously it's a tactic. We're very good at conceding a goal after we score a goal. So it's obviously chance to collective refactoring. You know, it is tactical.
Neil
I hate you suggest such a thing. I think it is. A poor man could hardly stand up. All the physio did was pull his sock up,
Mike Dowling
you know, so. You don't know how dangerous that sock was, OK? Couldn't do it himself with those gloves. Come on.
Neil
they were chatting, they were exchanging phone numbers, they looked as if they were setting up a date, you know, essentially there was very little medical going on and I could see how, so there were certain fans around getting peed off by it, let alone what the Telford guys felt. But yeah, so it seems to be a definite tactical
Mike Dowling
injury. Yeah. Someone on the forum did say they're not keen on it and that's for other teams to do against us and us shout at them. But Finlay, Well, talk about Nader's goal.
Mike Dowling
You didn't even talk, you concentrated all that time, Neil, on the goalkeeper.
Neil
Talk about Nader's goal. We got to the Nader's goal. Can we do that in a minute? We'll do the goalkeeper bit, then we'll go to the...
Neil
Do Nader's goal now and then we can do both. Nader's goal was a thing of beauty. So I see social media has just posted, because I had to keep watching it so many times to count the passes, and now social media have done it. It was 13 passes and it was...
Neil
It was beautiful. Jennings involved three times and again Harrison who sends the lollipop, he lollips around, he doesn't run, he lollips but he's just that the pass from Ogbonna was, as it said on the floor, it was slide rule. It was an inch either side, it wouldn't have been a goal. And for once, Ashley committed and had confidence that the ball was actually going to get to him where he wanted
Speaker 5
it.
Neil
I think it's one of the best goals that I've seen for a long, long time. You know, it's a proper football goal. Anybody can slash and score from 40 yards, but that's a proper goal where, you know, that's a footballing goal. So it is a thing of beauty.
Mike Dowling
What are your thoughts on Nadder's goal? Nadder's
Finlay
goal, I felt like a proud father. I'm so pleased for him. I think it's his first goal since Brighton in the National League Cup. Just for him getting that goal, it would be such a relief just to be on the score sheet, that dreadful run ending.
Finlay
And as Neil said, the build-up play was lovely. Quite a similar goal to what we scored against West Ham. I think Noah Bootton's was 13, 14 passes. Brilliant goal and Nadesan's normally been the one crossing it in.
Finlay
So for him, as Neil said, just to commit and be that number nine, be that poacher. As Agi said, as soon as we get one, we need to build on that and kill the game. Even though we didn't kill it entirely, at that point we had the second and we had breathing space. Probably the most relaxed I felt in the gantry all afternoon.
Mike Dowling
Both of those goals, you both mentioned the amount of passing. but i've got to talk about simp's sublime pass to brandon sort of 60 yards one pass absolutely just split them open brandon's running onto it and again didn't have to break pace got the ball and it was like Not everyone agrees with him, but Glenn Hoddle said back in the day, there's
Speaker 1
no
Mike Dowling
short ball or long ball. It's the right ball or the wrong ball. And he's like, if it's the right ball, you send it forward. And that was absolutely brilliant.
Mike Dowling
So that gave Brandon a chance. And no, hang on, was that the day, was that the one for?
Finlay
Kai
Mike Dowling
Jennings. Kai Jennings had the, yeah, Kai. Come on, man. Yeah.
Mike Dowling
We also had a chance, another chance for Nadas towards the end. Junior had a chance. I mean, all in all, and forgive me for this, everyone, we could have had six, seven, anyway, five. Sorry, Finlay.
Mike Dowling
So, Were you feeling we needed that extra goal, Finlay, or were you... No, we're comfortable at 2-1. Obviously, I'm sitting there watching this going, we need another two to be comfortable here. But what were you feeling, Finlay?
Finlay
uh... well my legs are shaking the country either from being absolutely freezing or probably just that this the she knows that as you said it's just a school and it was great to see you know seems to be schooled we just wanted more and more and more uh... madison's first since he got his second you could see the shift in confidence it's a pretty cool by tommy reid uh... love you talk to me equal access to the country course absolutely beautifully but it's a clear pretty safe by josh gracy And Juku, brilliant, as you said, a fantastic pass from Simpa.
Finlay
And Juku, just the awareness to see Kai Jennings running onto it and the cheeky flick and fantastic defending again. But no, we had chances galore and on another day, we should have been out of sight.
Mike Dowling
Yeah, I did have watched it, and obviously it's a brilliant pass to Kai, but I am kind of thinking, you know, what Brandon's done here is he's realized he can't do anything with it, and that's why
Speaker 1
he's
Mike Dowling
passing it to someone else, because if he had a chance to shoot, that pass would not have happened. But Neil, what do you think of those late chances? Again, I know they had a chance, but what did you think of those late chances that we were having? Do you think we needed it at the time?
Neil
Oh come on, this is Sutton. You and I, Mike, remember when we were 4-0 up against Walsall and we thought we... were safe. Because we scored four but had about nine chances that they'd failed to convert.
Neil
So now Sutton always needs another goal. We still wouldn't have been safe had we been, you know, Nader's goal gone in added time at the end. You know, we could let in two goals in a minute. We are that vulnerable, so I never feel, I'm not even sure we've won when the final whistle's gone, you know, I'm that unconfident at the moment.
Mike Dowling
Well actually I'm going to skip the next one I had written down because that brings me on to something that I wanted to bring up anyway. It's about how we see the game as fans and others see the game. Now obviously Sutton fans are going, because of the run we've been on, oh my god, that's awful, we could have done this, we should have,
Speaker 1
we
Mike Dowling
were lucky to get through. Telford fans are like, oh, we were a better team, and if you try and watch it back with unbiased eyes, which is really difficult to do, you can sit and go, actually, you know what, we played really well. I agree with Chris that there's times we could have played better. But actually, we didn't When you watch it back, obviously, you know the score.
Mike Dowling
But you watch it and think, no, we're more likely to score here. Yes, they could have scored, but we were more likely to score, in my opinion. So Neil, do you think that's a problem we have in general, just because of the last two years that we watch it? And as I said, every time the ball goes into our half, the hands kind of go up.
Mike Dowling
And I'm like, oh, god, I can't watch this. Or are you just like, you're being a bit of a dramatic queen there, Mike?
Neil
We don't. look at things through amber colored spectacles. We do always look and see the worst. Walking out round the Collingwood end as the Telford fans came out, you could hear them saying, oh, you can see, oh, they were piss poor.
Neil
You can see why they're bottom of the league, which I thought was very disingenuous because that wasn't a team that is bottom of the National League performance.
Mike Dowling
It always makes me laugh when a team that's just lost describe the other team as piss poor. What does that make you? Finlay, obviously you've come to the Sutton family more recently. Do you especially with the job and the role you have do you always get to watch it with absolute dispassionate or do you get sucked into the oh my god what's happening?
Finlay
I definitely get sucked in because in the Farnham replay I actually got cramp in extra time and I was literally on the bars and I'm stretching my leg out and I remember the The social media guy saying, thank God we don't have a commentary cam today, because it would just be me. The microphone would be on the floor, and I'd just be doing stretches. But no, as much as you try to be impartial, it's very difficult.
Finlay
But I'd say the score down yesterday did not reflect our performance. We were creating so many chances. And as Neil said, that performance was not from a team that was bottom of the National League. So yeah.
Mike Dowling
I've had people who, a Carlisle reporter who didn't support Carlisle until he started covering them and he said, you can't help but get attached to the team. He said it always happens when you're covering them, whether it's shortly or a long time, you're going to get attached to the team, even when they're playing your own team, you're like, oh hang on, I'm kind of torn here, but you always end up being attached. The ref, apart from the minute's silence, which was 30 seconds or so. He seemed to let a lot go, Finlay.
Mike Dowling
He seemed to be quite happy for the game to be a bit physical. A couple of things he missed because of that, like the, I think, definite penalty on Brandon in the second half. But what did you think of the ref's performance? I mean, it wasn't anything dramatic.
Mike Dowling
You're like, oh my God, he's made a howler here. There were a few yellows for who knows what. But overall, I think he let the game flow. But what was your thought on the ref?
Finlay
Like you said Mike, I always like a referee that lets the game go. You don't want this stop-start kind of pattern. I didn't agree with him booking Tommy Reid for time wasting only 40 minutes into the game. That was definitely harsh.
Finlay
The yellows he gave were spot on. I think there was one on, I think it was the first half, there was one yellow in the first half that was just absolute cynical. And then there were a few that were, I think it was Aaron, there were a few that were quite soft. So yeah, he let the game go, but there were definitely some yellows that maybe weren't quite on the money.
Mike Dowling
Okay. Neil was shaking
Neil
his head quite a lot on that.
Finlay
I
Neil
disagree. The card Junior got was ridiculous because the guy, Junior tackles the guy, the guy pushes Junior in sort of retaliation. That was the book of an offence. Junior and getting up, The guy falls over Junior's leg, because Junior slipped.
Neil
And the guy falls over Junior. Junior wasn't trying to go near. Junior was just literally getting up to take the throw in or whatever. And he books Junior.
Neil
And of course, Chris goes to the fourth official, which is ridiculous. And even the Telford management sort of said, what a stupid decision. Even they thought it was a stupid decision. And then the other thing they had done, the number of added minutes, only two minutes added on for the added time.
Neil
That was at least four minutes with serious sock-induced injury. And the Telfer guys had to go at the fourth official for that. about how...
Mike Dowling
I had to agree. Sometimes, I don't think that junior one was on the highlights, but sometimes it's worth trying to see where the ref was looking, because if he sees only out of the corner of his eye, the two players and one getting up and the other one then going straight down, he's going to know, well, something happened there. Yeah, you should say, well, hang on, he should be 100%.
Mike Dowling
But if you're kind of just caught out the corner of your eye, you might think something more happened. There's been times I've said that, and then you watch it back, and it's like the referee's looking dead at it. And you're like, nope, nope. What did you see?
Mike Dowling
It's right in front of the fourth official. They're not supposed to intervene at all. I know they do, and we've had times where they've given a penalty against us.
Neil
And the liner was very close as well, because the liner got up to the halfway line. So he was looking down the line, and it was on the touchline.
Mike Dowling
It's all right. If Junior picks up cards and hasn't scored a goal yet, I can keep teasing him that he's got more cards than goals. All right? So it's fine.
Mike Dowling
Don't worry. His goal is coming, by the way. He's a big guy. I wouldn't cross him, Mike.
Mike Dowling
He's a nice guy. He's going to look and go, I could squash you, but I'm not
Neil
going
Mike Dowling
to. Attendance, 15.75, which always seems disappointing. But it is the first round of the cup. It is an all-pay, where a lot of people on season tickets will be like, I'm not going to bother.
Mike Dowling
The weather did say it was going to rain. so yeah you can kind of go oh that's a bit disappointing we only got like 1100 or something um actually paying through the door for us um but I think in the FA cup I'm not going to go back and check it but I think it does build up as you as you go through the rounds um but 444 Telford fans um they were absolutely brilliant um obviously we've said not so disparaging, not big day out, but they're in the FA Cup for the Furbis for a while, they're going to enjoy it, and they made an awful lot of noise, and then we very kindly put them under the terrace to make the noise even more.
Mike Dowling
It's like, great, we didn't have to do that. You have to do that because it was peeing with rain, because we're nice, but yeah, it did help them a little bit. But yeah, overall, I know we beat them, But I think they played quite well. I think they knocked it about well.
Mike Dowling
And I think they're 14th in the North, which seems a bit of a surprise for how well they played. But yeah, any final words on the actual game, guys? Finlay?
Finlay
Um, well, I think on Telford, as you said, Mike, I thought, I think they were fantastic yesterday, especially when they, they got the goal back and it was one way traffic, another couple of minutes. I think they could have potentially nicked an equaliser. Um, and yet they were, the atmosphere was incredible. You know, the gantry was shaking.
Finlay
I think they said, the cameraman said to me, I need to start shouting because they weren't hearing me on the cameras. Um, but no, it's, um, like you said there, they only lost, I think one in five. They promoted last year. So, yeah, a big day out for them.
Finlay
And it's a shame they're out of the cup because I quite enjoyed watching them through the rounds. But obviously, it's more important that Sutton got through.
Mike Dowling
All we need is a mic at our end. So when you're talking, it's our noise. Neil, any words on Telford or in general on the match?
Neil
I agree with Finlay. I thought they accredited themselves really well and they looked a difficult, difficult team. they should probably be higher, but it just shows you National League North, it's a strong, it's a strong, well, both North and South are strong divisions. There's not, they're not minnow teams.
Neil
So any of those that we get in the, when it comes to the trophy, we need to be aware of, as we know from spending more last year, getting all the way to the final, it's no mean,
Mike Dowling
yeah. So who or what kind of team would you hope for? Obviously, the draw is tomorrow, Monday, and we've got no influence over it, but what kind of team would you be looking for, Neil?
Neil
I've already put this on the forum. Do we want home tie to a non-league team because better odds of winning and getting through to one of the big boys in the third round? Or do we want the best team that's left in, which is actually Stockport, to come to us. And potentially, that's the tie that TNT will pick for the telly.
Neil
And I don't know which. We're going to feel gutted if we go out to a non-league team thinking, oh, we could have won that.
Mike Dowling
I want, and this is a purely, it's not OCD, but just purely nice pattern, I want a National League side, because we've gone from the lower tier, the National North, if we go National League, third round we get League Two, then we'll get League One, then we'll get Championship. Going all the way. Finlay, what kind of team would you like?
Finlay
I think similar to Neil, it depends if you want one of the big boys or you want to respectfully play it safe and have a better chance of getting through. There were quite a few upsets. Brackley knocked out Notts County on penalties. Carlisle knocked out Reading.
Finlay
Obviously, Forest Green Rovers nearly did it to Luton. I'd like a home time for sure. Yeah, I'd probably lean more towards maybe Chelmsford, but definitely a National League or a National League North or South side.
Neil
What I don't want is Carlisle, Barrow or Gateshead away. Yeah, well
Mike Dowling
there's no replays, so it would be a Saturday. Or no, if that gets moved then that would be like a Monday night or something. That would, oh my God, people would be fuming about that. Anyway, I'm sorry for putting that out there in the universe and manifesting that.
Mike Dowling
We're going to look ahead to the next match. We have got Eastleigh on Wednesday, not Tuesday. So how do you feel that's going to go, Finlay? I will tell you the AI and my predictions afterwards.
Mike Dowling
But what do you think is going to happen against Eastleigh and a prediction for the score?
Finlay
An
Mike Dowling
early prediction. The off can obviously change it.
Finlay
I'm looking forward to it, another night on the Gander Green Lane. As Chris said, we're going into it with two wins in a row, positive result. Eastleigh did lose today, 3-0 to Walsall, so you can look at it as we've got an extra couple of hours of recovery. Eastleigh, they've had a decent start to the season, I think they're 12th in the National League, but I think we're in good spirits and I think we'll nick it 2-1.
Mike Dowling
Excellent,
Neil
excellent. Neil? I'm slightly concerned Wednesday. Partly, I thought a lot of the players looked knackered at the end, particularly Kai Jennings and Sims.
Neil
They looked out on their feet because they had completely run themselves into the ground. So I hope that the players recover because I think this high intensity, high running style could take its toll. I feel that the way we're playing, you know, we should have the expectation to win. And it would be, you know, we're desperate for another league win.
Neil
We can't just keep on getting draws. I suspect, I hope it's a win. I suspect it might end up a a scoring draw, but it certainly is not going to be as a 0-0, because I don't think I don't think we're ever going to see a 0-0 again. We've had the break tree one.
Neil
That was Agatha's first game. I think no more 0-0, you know, it's more likely to be a 3-3 than a 0-0. Okay. You're going to
Mike Dowling
put a score
Neil
or not
Mike Dowling
yet.
Neil
This isn't your entry, which we will come back to, don't you worry. I don't know what I'm going to do, but I suspect it could probably end up being, you know, possibly a two run to us.
Mike Dowling
Okay. So AI has gone with 3-2, which is what you were saying, it's going to be a high scoring game, and they've gone with Dave to score. And I'm going to go with 2-0, because I'm going to keep a clean sheet, and I've gone with Sims to score, assuming obviously he starts. And the reason I'm saying all this and saying you guys can change it is I was subject to an unfair ad hoc rule today.
Mike Dowling
Neil was the only one who backed me up. I because I didn't do a podcast last week and I was doing a Chris one I didn't actually put my prediction out into the world even though I entered it and I went oh actually should I count my prediction because I haven't put it out there. I put my prediction
Speaker 1
in early I
Mike Dowling
don't change it as the lineups are announced and it was a quick vote and I said oh only an hour and three to one against me allowing to be entering my draw. I mean I hadn't I hadn't actually got many points to be fair, but I just didn't want to tell them my prediction before them deciding. But yeah, I suspect if I look at the league table, many of those people who voted no will be in and around where I am in the league. So my own league, I got an ad hoc rule voted against me, which
Neil
is shameless. But we didn't understand the question, Mike, because I actually were disallowing you. I wasn't allowing you. So you were far more genuine, generous to me.
Neil
I was actually going against you.
Mike Dowling
Does
Neil
my entry count? Yes or no? How can that be confusing? No, the question was erring on a double negative.
Neil
And the other guys, you know, the other guys were actually going for you and I was going against you. You read it the other way around.
Mike Dowling
Right. Well, it doesn't matter. I only got one point anyway, so I'm not going to cry about that. I am. I'm going about that more than the curve, I'm going to be honest with you. Right, we are going to wrap up in a second.
Just wanted to say that Frances put a little message up on the Facebook group earlier and she is in hospital. She seems to be okay and a bit irritated that they're not letting her out yet and they want to keep her from monitoring. But I have to say, what she has said is the Sutton family have really rallied around and so many people are offering to drop things up, talk to her. If she needs anything, let them know.
And she's like, actually, my nephew's here, my brother's here, it's fine. But she said it's been so nice, people have been really nice and offered support. So, but yeah, get very well soon, Frances. She's worried she might not make Wednesday, but she has an excuse.
Okay, let's just say she is excused. But we will wrap up this episode of Sutton Podcast. As always, we appreciate everyone's attention and feedback. Get involved in Know Me, Know You segment.
What pre-match or halftime activity would you do for fans to try and get people in? Follow, like, share this episode, give us a thumbs up, and subscribe, and give us a review. I don't know if I've had a review for ages. But as always, thank you to our sponsors, Lucky Star Gin, Thank you to today's guests. And that's Finlay and Neil, obviously. And thanks to everyone for listening. Hope you've enjoyed this podcast. And take care. We will catch up soon. Bye-bye.
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