How do you feel after a performance that was brilliant, dominant, and yet still ended in defeat?
Welcome back to Sutton United Talk Time on Podcast! This week, host Mike Dowling is joined by our fantastic regular guests, Claire and Carl, to dissect the dramatic FA Cup Second Round tie against Shrewsbury Town. We skip the pre-match buzz to dive straight into the action, breaking down the U's impressive display that ultimately saw them lose 2-1 after extra time. Claire and Carl bring their passionate fan perspectives - Claire as the self-confessed Sutton United pessimist, and Carl with his tactical insights and experience following the team. They discuss the thrilling 90 minutes, the controversial refereeing decisions, and the one quote that sums up the feeling among the Sutton United faithful.
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 are a regular listener, thank you very much for returning. And I'm so sorry about all the other episodes.
Mike Dowling
This is going to be great, though. And if you're a new listener, you're going to be listening to one of the greatest shows ever. You're very welcome. I'm your host, Mike.
Mike Dowling
And with me today, we have, I want to give a joke about the C&C Music Factory, but I don't know, it's a bit too niche. It's Claire and Carl. We love hearing from everyone. Join the conversation, stay connected, share your thoughts on all the episodes and chat with other fans.
Mike Dowling
Let us know what you think and what you would like to hear. We're on all the major social medias at Sutton Podcasts. Give me all the likes, shares and thumbs up and all the rest of it because it boosts my ego and I don't have an ego. Anyway, Claire, how are you if you can stop laughing for just a moment?
Mike Dowling
No
Claire
ego, lies. I am okay. Yeah, good Monday. Sorry, something weird just happened on my screen.
Mike Dowling
Yeah, mine too. I think you press those happy thumbs up buttons or something. And Carl, a couple of days after the birthday, just let everyone know he had to put his jumper on because he was feeling the chill.
Carl
It's a bit cold in here.
Mike Dowling
It's a bit
Carl
cold in here. But how are you,
Mike Dowling
Carl?
Carl
Saving the pennies. I can't put a heat on just yet. All good. All good.
Mike Dowling
Excellent. Excellent. We're recording on Monday so I'm all out of sync but the ladies won yesterday 4-0 and I've been doing family stuff so I haven't really paid attention to anything else that's happened.
Carl
Has any
Mike Dowling
other news been chucked out in the last couple of days apart from the cup match which we're going to talk about? Oh, just pushed out a fairly decent price for the hospitality on Boxing Day. So if you haven't booked up anything for Boxing Day yet, do that. I think it's like 34 quid or something.
Mike Dowling
I can't remember exactly.
Claire
That's pretty good going. If you haven't got bubble and squeak at home, why not have hospitality at the football club? Or both. I don't think I could manage both, not
Mike Dowling
the day after Christmas. Yeah, definitely. Karl, we'll start with you. What were your thoughts going into the match?
Mike Dowling
Were you hopeful? And what did you feel about the
Carl
lineup? 100% hopeful. I mentioned to you before the game, it's definitely a winnable tie, you know? Yeah, they are lead 2 opposition, but they've struggled.
Carl
They've been struggling. I think it was JR actually mentioned that they're their away form is woeful. So definitely hopeful, a hundred percent. Um, with regards to the lineup, surprised to see Ashley back in, um, from the beginning, but I think that was an accommodation of some knocks and some fitness tests, et cetera.
Carl
Um, which he, he done a rapid to get through 60 minutes, but apart from that, yeah, it was pretty, pretty, pretty much how you would predict it really.
Mike Dowling
Excellent. And yeah, he let slip the other day. We had no strikers. We had no one fit.
Mike Dowling
But Claire, any surprises for you in the lineup? And what were your hopes for the match ahead of
Claire
it? Oh no, I think high quality. I think it was pretty much what you would have expected, probably, other than the nadders. But yeah, like reasonably hopeful going into it.
Claire
As you say, their form has been pretty poor and it felt like it was very much a win of all time. So yeah, I mean, you know me, I'm quite often the pessimist in the room, but I did feel quite optimistic. And I think the kind of going into the day, the build up around the place had been quite significant. So that always makes you feel a little bit more like, oh, we've got this about things.
Claire
Yeah, it was quite, quite hopeful going into it. it was a
Mike Dowling
bit all a bit odd because with the late kickoff and because I kept kind of looking at the time thinking oh my god I've got to get out there oh no hang on I've still got an hour hour to go. It throws you doesn't it it really
Carl
does.
Mike Dowling
It really does and yet the players and everyone says no it's fine it's just another game I'm like that can't be right but obviously they know more than me about playing I don't know. I interviewed Jamie Collins in the hospitality, that went down really well. A hundred odd people in the room. It was like, okay, I'm not scared, I'm fine, I can do this.
Mike Dowling
One other thing I did forget to say is, Osmond and Foyo, you left us due to the FA I'm just going to call it cocking up, because how can you say someone's good to play and then go, actually, you know what, we've changed their mind. But one thing I didn't particularly like is a lot of the comments from our fans saying things
Carl
like, oh, who would
Mike Dowling
have bet on that, and all that kind of stuff. He's fucked up. He knows he is. He's not going to do it again, I'm sure.
Mike Dowling
But this isn't a new thing he's done. This is something that the FA decided the ban wasn't long enough, and they wanted to extend it. So he hasn't messed up our club at all. But first thing I want to start off with, Claire, is there's lots that happened in the game, obviously, but I got it on camera.
Mike Dowling
Kai's miss here, I mean, Kai's excellent shot where he scored. What did you, what was your view of that corner? And what were you feeling at that point? Because it was quite sort of late on, it was 70ish minutes.
Mike Dowling
How were you feeling at that point?
Claire
So this is where I fess up and say I didn't see it happen live, because we were queuing to get food. I was trying to concentrate on putting some, you know, like, like what was going on. And myself and a few others, maybe Kyle's wife, we ran into the, oh is she with us? She was with me.
Carl
No, she
Claire
was with you. It was Kirsty
Carl
and
Claire
Victoria. We ran inside to watch it back on the screen because we missed it live. So I can't possibly tell you what I was really feeling at that moment, other than really hungry because I'd only had a slice of toast in the morning. And it was a late kickoff.
Claire
It's really
Carl
bad, isn't
Claire
it? Yeah.
Carl
I
Claire
haven't had a habit of missing goals of late, to
Carl
be honest.
Claire
It's
Carl
not always that,
Claire
though. I missed two goals because I was in the club shop working the other weekend when Vicky wasn't there. So, you know, it's... Maybe that's my thing this season, missing goals.
Claire
Yeah, you get
Mike Dowling
going and we'll score. Kyle, hopefully you scored the goal or you were checking your phone or I don't know what you were doing. I didn't score the goal. I
Carl
wish I could score I saw it live. I saw it live from a great advantage point up in my seat. Yeah, and to be fair, sitting up in the seats, you can tell how windy it was. It was definitely a cross.
Carl
If Kyle wants to come out and says he intentionally tried to put it in the back of the net, I will call him. I'll call him out on it. But yeah, I think I think there was a couple of people were saying that it was a foul on the goalkeeper and stuff from Junior. But I think the key would just got under it under the ball.
Carl
And it was, you know, you put it in the mix and you have a dangerous whip on it. You're gonna you're gonna get lucky in here. It's not the first goal that's ever been scored from directly from a corner. It does happen more often than people like to think.
Carl
But no, fair play to the guy. He had a a great game? Definitely would like to hear his thoughts on whether he meant it or not, but... Right.
Mike Dowling
I'm going to say something now. I reckon his thoughts will be agreeing with whatever you say.
Carl
Because he's
Mike Dowling
always... Every time I've ever spoken to him, he's really quiet. And if you go, that was a cross and you got lucky. OK.
Mike Dowling
If someone said, you meant that? OK. I reckon he'll just go along with it and
Carl
go,
Mike Dowling
yeah, just leave me alone. I'm going to run away now. I mean, he's nice. Don't get me wrong.
Mike Dowling
He's really nice. I just reckon he's very, very agreeable. I thought he meant it. I'll be honest.
Mike Dowling
I was joking a minute ago. I literally thought he had a look and just went, you know what, I'm going to chuck this in. Chris seemed like he thought he definitely meant something because Chris afterwards was saying, I did tell him, don't cross it in because they'll eat up all the crosses. next thing he's caught scored Derek from a corner.
Mike Dowling
So I thought it was great and excellent. Everyone went absolutely mental. Claire, you wouldn't have seen that part. I saw people going
Claire
crazy. I saw the firework that came from somewhere behind me, from the car park, which was wild. I think it must have come from like one of the houses. It was just perfectly timed, wasn't it?
Claire
Like as if they were waiting for it to happen. I was like, oh, this is a bit odd. But no, I saw everyone celebrating like I but I just missed what we were celebrating. I've forgotten about it.
Claire
I mean, I've got the gist.
Mike Dowling
Yeah, and there's no way they're going to lit the firework at the time he scored for it to go off at the time it did. It must have been lit beforehand. That was quite random, but it worked beautifully. Absolutely.
Mike Dowling
Well, that puts 1-0 up, but we should have been way more than 1-0 up at that point, Gail. Aggies had hit the crossbar 10 times, was it? But how were you feeling about these missed chances? Were you worried it would come back and bite us, or were you still thinking, we're still comfortable in this match?
Mike Dowling
I mean, Jadon had another chance. It's loads of chances you could rattle them all off. But what were you thinking at the point when we're not scoring them,
Carl
Carl? On the edge of your seat, really, you know, because Aggie's come out and said he wants to play a tag team football. I've actually seen, I recorded the BBC Two programme and we watched to build up the 15 minutes where Aggie was talking to the presenters, and he said he likes to play attacking football. And that's great.
Carl
We scored lots of goals, but we've also conceded a lot of goals. 3-3, 3-2, you know, et cetera. So always going to be, when it's 1-0, always going to be mindful of our defense not holding strong because clean sheets have not been easy to come by. But overall, For 90 minutes, we did look really comfortable.
Carl
I felt their keeper wasn't as strong as he may have looked at times. He made an outstanding save from his own player in the first half. We hit the bar twice, I think it was. Had a couple of other chances, half-chances, chances.
Carl
But, yeah, you I don't know whether Claire would agree, but you definitely don't feel comfortable at 1-0, sometimes not even at 2-0 around Saturn. But we could have been 2-3 and up at half-time. That's not being exaggerated either. I think the chances that we created were definitely good ones.
Carl
But when you get lucky with the corner goal, I suppose, you might think luck's on our side, we'll get the 1-0 win. we didn't hold out long enough.
Mike Dowling
And what do you think that when we're missing them all off, you kind of told them up in your head thinking, oh, we're going to regret
Claire
it. Yeah,
Mike Dowling
I think
Claire
there were so many moments when we were just like, oh, and it just you kind of expected something else to happen. And there were so many. missed chances and it's really frustrating because you think like, oh we should be sitting really comfortably at this point. I never feel comfortable at one nil, not as any slight to anyone, I think that's just how my brain works.
Claire
I just think it's so easy for somebody to come in and still take it from you at that point. And you kind of want that cushion of a couple just to make you feel a little bit like, actually, we've got this and it's safe. So yeah, I think as kind of the minutes were ticking down, I was just starting to feel more and more nauseous that something terrible might happen. And to be fair, like I had someone message me and was like, you guys have got this.
Claire
And I was like, you need to shut up because I feel sick. And yeah. Well,
Mike Dowling
there was a save from Jack a little while after we scored. And honestly, until he pulled off a great save, I was comfortable. I was sitting there going, they've offered literally nothing. And then suddenly this shot come out of nowhere and Jack made a great save.
Mike Dowling
And I'm like, oh, it's only 1-0. OK, we need to maybe concentrate a bit more. Although we conceded a couple of goals, what did you think of Jack's performance? Obviously, we've got him back now and Tommy's moved back to his club.
Mike Dowling
Is Jack back to his best or are we still easing him in a little bit, Claire?
Claire
I think he was brilliant on Saturday. I think there was some always feel more comfortable with him in goal. Not that Tommy didn't do a great job, absolutely no doubt about that, but yeah, it's great to have him back between the sticks and I think he made some great saves and you feel, I don't know, just a bit more, I do feel a bit more comfortable with him there and I wouldn't doubt that there's probably an element of easing into it first, before going back, but it was great to see him there and I think he did really well.
Mike Dowling
Yeah, I think why we're feeling comfortable is there is he's a big part of how we are playing, and he knows it, he gets it, and it's not just the saves, it's the coming out and controlling everything. I'm really only talking about him, so Andy retweets the show, that'd be good. But Kyle, what did you think of Jack's
Carl
performance? Well, you mentioned Andy, I actually stood with Andy, I think it was the Gateshead game, and I think it was when he first came back last week, and we had a good conversation about Jack and how he's finding the new style of playing. Actually, he enjoys the ball at his feet, and that's the one big bonus I think we've got in Jack. He's a good shot stopper, and he's comfortable claiming the ball.
Carl
But he's so good with his feet, and he showed that on Saturday, you know, with the intricate passing that we played at the back, and to get out there, he is really comfortable with the ball at his feet, and not many keepers are. You know, there was a goal, one of the goals that Gates said where They were playing it around the back and Aggie or Dean shouted Kane or whatever, and he just played his ball over. Next thing you know, two passes left in the back of the net. So, to have him back is great.
Carl
Tommy's done really well, like Claire said, but it was a case like last year when he had the issue with his teeth, reporting George from Millwall. He did really well. I think he's two or three penalty saves in a shootout. But as soon as he was back fit and available, he was straight back in the side.
Carl
So it's a compliment to any player that if they're out for a period of time, they can come straight back in the side and perform like that. Especially with Jack being in the guard gives you that confidence in the back. I'm not saying that we're shaky. We've got great centre halves and stuff, but know when you've got a shot stopper that's comfortable to come and claim the ball as well it's always it's always comfortable when when you've got a keeper
Mike Dowling
like that and it's the defense as well know that if the ball goes past them they don't have to just go charging
Carl
out
Mike Dowling
they know the keeper's going to come for
Carl
it so
Mike Dowling
it's that confidence that they know they can turn and face and all the rest of that and but we did concede at some exceptionally poor times i mean They showed you played well for about 90 seconds overall. I mean, how were you feeling at that point? I mean, we'd obviously conceded late, conceded straight away. So Carl, what were you feeling at that point?
Mike Dowling
Did you think, OK, we're going to reset, we're going to get back into it, or did you feel like this is flat now? For
Carl
the first goal, I was frustrated because five minutes prior to that, he'd done exactly the same and Jack saved us. You know, and so to allow a guy that much space when he's just cut back to do it, have another go, it's almost like you failed the first time, have another go. So I was frustrated about conceding the first goal. And if I'm honest with you, Mark, I missed the second goal because people were getting back into their seats.
Carl
So people stood up in front of me and I missed actually what happened. So I have seen it back on the, on the highlights and stuff. Frustrated is not the right word to say about that one. It's just that's the way they're playing.
Carl
It's the way the manager wants them to play. They've done it brilliantly for 90 odd minutes prior to that. And, you know, whether it's tired legs, tired minds, he does take a look up. He does see Eden available.
Carl
It's just a poor pass. He's not a left footer, I don't think. I think he's right footed. It's just made a mistake and it's a costly one.
Carl
But when the goal went in, it did flatten the ground, it flattened the fans. And I don't think we were able to pick ourselves back up. We didn't really create that many chances after that, I don't think, that were as good in the first 90 minutes where we could have put the game to bed. You get it to 90 minutes and then you can see so quickly in extra time, it's frustrating, it's annoying.
Mike Dowling
Yeah, I agree. I did just feel like, oh God, this is going to be a struggle. It wasn't a case of, okay, you scored two, we're going to now score two more, it's fine. But Claire, what were you feeling?
Mike Dowling
Did you see this goal or were you? I saw
Claire
those ones. Yeah, no, I think I think Kyle's right, it just flattened everything. And we'd had such this kind of momentum and this build, and it was like, we've been really holding this. And as much as I was saying I wasn't comfortable, I felt like we, and it's not how football works, but I felt like we deserved it.
Claire
We'd got to the point where we'd really, it was ours and we should have taken it. And it did kind of knock the stuffing out of us a little bit. And then, you know, you get nine added on and you're just a bit like, oh. And yeah, it was just, it was just really disappointing, I think, from everybody's perspective, because I think ultimately they had no disrespect.
Claire
Like when you look at the stats, it says that they had so many shots on target. And I really don't feel like I noticed that many of them. And not just because I was queuing for a burger, but like, I just felt like we were in control of that game for the vast majority of it, and they had two flashes where they really took advantage of them, and it wasn't reflective of the performance. The boys did so well, and they battled so hard, and I think that's where the disappointment comes into it.
Claire
I mean, yeah, disappointed that you'd lost, but disappointed that they didn't get what they deserved. Because absolutely, they battled so hard and they played so well. And it was a real testament of the momentum that's been building with this squad over the last couple of months. So yeah, it's easy to say, it's done now, let's not worry about it.
Claire
But actually, I think it just showed that there's a lot of promise in this squad and that there's some really great stuff to come. can focus on some other bits and pieces and I don't think that we're all going to be that upset about it for very long.
Carl
No, well, just to back you up there, Claire, you can't be disappointed because... No, no, no, exactly. You know, I mean, they play so well, but you mentioned a stat there, but Vic told me in a stat this morning, 72% possession. Name me any other competition or league game where a lower league team has 70% possession and doesn't come away with a win.
Carl
It is annoying, but the boys can hold their head up high Monday, Sunday morning, Monday morning, go, you know what? We outplayed a League Two opposition here. They did us proud. Let's key that into the league, you know.
Carl
So they've got every right to be disappointed in not getting what they deserved, because sometimes you don't get what you deserve. But ultimately, they can go into the next game at the weekend with every confidence that they can go and turn over. I don't even know who they've got. Is it Walton?
Carl
Walton Hirsham at the weekend? So yeah, look, they could be proud of their performance anyway. Now we can lift the trophy instead of the
Mike Dowling
cups. It's not a disappointment as like losing to Farnborough a couple of years ago. You're disappointed by everything. This is disappointing because it didn't fall in our favour.
Mike Dowling
And you can't just go, oh, well, they didn't do well. One
Carl
thing that made
Mike Dowling
me... I know they were
Carl
so
Mike Dowling
hard. You're absolutely right. There's nothing... I'm not moaning, but what made me laugh is it's just like Rovereham all over again.
Mike Dowling
Half these players don't even know who Rov... No,
Carl
it wasn't like that at
Mike Dowling
all. It wasn't like that at all, no. But one other talking point, and I haven't spoken to all of Shrewsbury fans, but a few of them have said, how on earth has that game had three red cards and that many yellows? If you just saw that on the stats, you'd be like, that was a filthy game of football.
Mike Dowling
But Claire, I know obviously we had two of them and we're going to feel a bit aggrieved, but what do you feel about the amount of cards?
Claire
If I'm being entirely honest, and I probably shouldn't say it like this, but I just think the officials were awful. Like, there is no way some of those cards should have been handed out, and some of the decisions that were made were just kind of mind-boggling. Like, that's our second red, like, no thanks. Like, it's just, yeah, it was poor.
Claire
It was a real poor moment, and I think we were talking about it earlier, it really is very unusual, though I have seen it happen before, it is very unusual that you get people at Sutton, you know, booing off a referee. You know, we're generally, like, we might, people might shout something,
Carl
I might say
Claire
something, it doesn't happen very often, it does, it does happen on occasion, but the fact that there were people that came round specifically to, you know, to show their displeasure at the level of, effort put in, shall we say, by the officials, I think speaks volumes. It was one of those times when I felt like someone was trying to make the afternoon about them when it really wasn't.
Mike Dowling
Obviously this is easy to say, but I think a lot of that booing would have happened had we won 2-1 because he was awful. Although maybe, Karl, it's unfair to say he was awful because sometimes it's the rules. There's so much stuff that you get yellows for technical stuff.
Carl
I
Mike Dowling
think he's like, hang on, how is that dangerous when you don't book someone doing something that's quite dangerous?
Carl
We've
Mike Dowling
lost the balance
Carl
here. I actually mentioned in his post-match with Aaron that it wasn't a game that deserved that many cards. The first one, after what, a minute, letter of the law, it's a yellow card. But after a minute of a game, just use your common sense and go, do you know what?
Carl
And I've seen it back, and it wasn't like he's pulled him down intentionally, it was a coming together of legs. So you can call it... I don't know. Like in Formula 1, if you crash and it happens on the first corner, it's the first corner there.
Carl
You know what I mean? You're in the first minute of the game. The Eden Prudy one, absolutely. What is the referee?
Carl
Even the linesman is right there. He's tucked him on the shoulder and he's falling over and he's giving the yellow. I was thinking, some of the yellow cards. The only card I think was deserved was David O'Connor's first one.
Carl
Having seen it back, it could have even been a red card. I don't know whether you've seen it. He stands on his on his mid leg and he goes down and it's a sore one. But at the time of the incident, I was all like, what's he?
Carl
and get up and all this and the other. That's the only card that was deserved. I haven't seen the junior records team red card, but the other two sending offs were cards. David Ogbonna can't stop that.
Carl
He even made two attempts to stop the ball and the other guy took out Kaya. So you can't complain about the second yellows, especially when you're on a yellow, but I didn't actually see even why Junior was even booked, but a mate of mine who was watching it on TV said it was a silly elbow. So, you know, and we all know Junior, we know he's not that sort of player, but Claire said it, it was definitely a TV performance from the referee. Yeah.
Carl
I was watching it earlier, Mike, and he refereed a championship game this month, within the last month. How's that guy refereed a championship game? I don't know.
Mike Dowling
Yeah. I don't know. I mean, some of that we are going to be looking at fairly biased because obviously we do know Junior. And if the elbow hit, the elbow hit, he didn't hit with the elbow.
Mike Dowling
But obviously, referees...
Carl
The guy was a foot taller than him. How was he able to get his elbow through his head in the first place? I don't know. But I'd have to watch the whole game back and all the highlights and see for myself.
Carl
But up to this point on a Monday evening, i haven't had a chance to see the whole game but but you know i think some of the cards were really silly but then once he made the first booking the second booking had to be yeah the third booking had to be you know i mean it sets a precedent for the game and after a minute it's um it's uh it's it's a hard precedent to set so yeah
Mike Dowling
I mean, although we said it went flat, with nine men, and I mean, we still had chances. I mean, does that show the character that was missing a few months ago, Carl? I mean, what do you think? We dominated them in overall, and the nine, he's gone, he's left, he doesn't want to answer this question.
Mike Dowling
We dominated them overall, Claire, with the nine men. Does that add to the pride that with the nine men battled it out?
Claire
Absolutely. I mean, you kind of expect that to change everything, don't you? And we had that moment of like, OK, well, we've got the advantage of an extra man. And then we were level pegging again for a while.
Claire
And yeah, you think like, OK, now it's kind of swung in their favour. especially when you're down to nine, it's not normal, is it? But no, I think they absolutely just kept battling with it. And you'd think at that point that it could become a bit of an easy push for anyone in that situation.
Claire
And it didn't come off like that at all, which is, as you say, it's another reason absolutely to hold their heads high and to know that they played so, so well. Like, they have nothing to feel bad about on that performance in any way, shape or form. Like, they really were a credit to themselves and a credit to us. Are we dodging the question or?
Claire
No, I'm babysitting Mike, I'm babysitting. You're not babysitting, you're parenting. Parenting, yes, sorry. Sorry,
Mike Dowling
yes. I
Carl
did
Mike Dowling
miss the question, so. We were creating chances still with the nine men, and we're still pushing with the nine men. Does that add to the pride? Does it show the character that we maybe
Carl
didn't
Mike Dowling
have?
Carl
Yeah, I understand. At that point, you know, heads could have dropped. There were two went down. I think it was, what, 13 minutes left to go in the game.
Carl
Tired legs. Heads could have dropped easily, but the fact that they carried on going and still created, I think they had one decent chance where, you know, You could have said that it could have resulted in an equaliser, but they still pushed forward, still defending when they were broken on. And then I think Shrewsbury just tried to kill the gang going into the corner. There was a couple of potential head loss kickouts or challenges that could have resulted in more cards.
Carl
But I think ultimately they kept their nerve, they pushed on and tried to take it to penalties. So definitely can be proud of that. I was just thinking
Mike Dowling
the penalties would have been a nightmare if we only got nine players and they got 10 players. Is anyone going to take a penalty? Claire, you might be able to answer this. I don't know.
Mike Dowling
I mean, have we investigated the water bottles exploding just as Junior walked off? Because that seems pretty
Claire
dangerous.
Mike Dowling
It's
Claire
an absolute freak anomaly. I don't quite know how that happened. I suspect it was another firework that just just kind of hit some bottles. or someone's got sparkling water.
Claire
Some of these places do might look like they have
Mike Dowling
sparkling water, it's just the
Claire
pressure's built up. Yeah,
Mike Dowling
it's a terrible thing, someone's looking
Claire
into it. Terrible,
Mike Dowling
terrible. We'll have to get Graham onto that bottle.
Carl
Yeah. We'll have to
Mike Dowling
get him to replace
Carl
them.
Mike Dowling
Terrible coincidence it happened just as Junior was walking past. Absolutely.
Carl
You both mentioned it earlier. The best thing about it though, Mike, the best thing about it, I think the water splashed the linesman, so he got what he deserved. Can we edit that out or does it have to stay in?
Mike Dowling
We should be charged with assault or something. So you both mentioned the goal we conceded and there was a lot of Not quite moaning, but there were some gripes. We'll say there's some griping about it. Karl, are you happy with the balance of, you know what, it's going to happen, but the payoff is we're seeing very attacking football.
Mike Dowling
We're seeing lots of goals, both ends, and that draws people in. Yeah.
Carl
What's the saying? You die by your sword or whatever. I was speaking to Marcus, Hayden's dad, after the game and he said that he heard the booing and he heard the disgruntled, oh, here we go, blah, blah, blah. And he said, you can't celebrate it for 90 minutes and be wowed by the football.
Carl
And then the one mistake which costs, okay, it costs us the game, it costs us the goal or whatever you want to call it, right? But you can't moan. It's how they want to play football. They're all excited and gooey over the style of football.
Carl
You're going to have slip-ups. You're going to have moments where it doesn't work out and it puts us on the back foot. On this case, it just left an open goal and conceded. But there have been other times where we were able to recover and get away with it.
Carl
But we lost 2-1, but I actually enjoyed the game. You know, it was, it was probably some of the best football I've seen at that place for, for the five years I've been going, you know, um, Jack Taylor down in the left when he was doing a little one, two with David and then played it in six foot, whatever. And he's playing football like that.
Carl
You're going to, you're going to, it's going to lead to some mistakes, but I enjoyed it anyway. Exactly.
Mike Dowling
Claire, obviously you watch with slightly different eyes sometimes, but how are you feeling about the, I think
Claire
Carl's right. It's really nice football to watch at the moment and I get that you are always going to, and it's not everyone, but there's always going to be those fraction of people that are going to look for that thing to be annoyed about, to moan about, to get on people's backs about, literally straight away as soon as it happens. I mean, it's not okay.
Claire
Like that's how they choose to support their team. That's on them, right? That's for them to reconcile at the end of the day as to whether or not that's the way to do it. And that's the appropriate way to show your support and your backing.
Claire
But like, it's great to watch the atmosphere on Saturday, like the last couple of weekends, even like, you know, it's been pouring with rain, it's been horrible, but actually like the way that people are getting behind us, the noise that gets made, Like, it just feels great to be part of that and to have that. And so, yeah, mistakes are going to happen. We're all human.
Claire
Like, we all make mistakes in our jobs full stop, right? No one's perfect. So, like, these things are going to happen and they're going to happen on a football pitch. But, like, I'd agree with Kyle.
Claire
Like, I enjoyed the game. Yeah, I'm miffed not to have got what I think we wholeheartedly deserved. it was a great game. They showed real heart for it and it makes me excited for what else is to come this season.
Claire
I think a lot of people have been moaning and groaning about where we'd got to so far and all that kind of stuff and this makes me excited for what the league still has in store and the other competitions that were slim.
Mike Dowling
you and I sat at the beginning of November, we discussed what points, and we were being really wildly optimistic, saying, oh, well, do you know what? Seven, eight out of 12 would be really good. Yeah, we'll do 10.
Claire
Which is wild, isn't it? Yeah, absolutely. What could we do? And like, yeah.
Claire
And I can't even remember what the predictions were. I might have to listen to that one back and hear what we said. But yeah, like we were very optimistic about what we could get out of this month. And I don't think any of us really wholeheartedly expected to be where we are now, which is really exciting.
Claire
It's exciting.
Mike Dowling
And I know you're going to roll your eyes. I know you're going to just laugh, for God's sake. We didn't lose that game. We lost the tie.
Mike Dowling
Oh, shush. 90 minutes, that game is a
Speaker 3
draw. Joy, you're so optimistic, mate. You're like, back in the last season, you're like, oh, we're finishing the top half. Yeah, we're finishing the top half.
Speaker 3
Was I right or not?
Mike Dowling
You're such an arse.
Speaker 3
What it means
Mike Dowling
is Aggie's still unbeing at home and the yellow coat is still unbeing at home.
Claire
I hate to be this person, but your
Mike Dowling
coat has absolutely no bearing on what happens on
Claire
the pitch. Can
Mike Dowling
you explain how it's all happened since the coat's come out of storage? Whatever. We all know full well that the reason we've started
Carl
winning is because Tats has been wearing trousers. All right, that's what it is. So basically come March, April time when the sun comes back out and the coat goes back in the storage, we're buggered. No, he's gonna have to wear the coat for the
Claire
rest of the season now. I fully expect to see him wearing the coat at the fans game so that his favoured team wins. You
Mike Dowling
know what, there was one game last season where it was really warm and I'd worn the coat and I was like, oh it's a bit warm, took it off and then we conceded the goal and we're straight away and you can see me in the background putting it back on again because it's fucking hell. It was all your fault? Absolutely,
Carl
yeah.
Mike Dowling
Stupidstitions, eh? Yeah, stupidstitions I think is best. The prize money, obviously we've got a lot more for the third round, but it's still, I mean, I don't know what they decide on the budgets, whether it's the first round, second round, how they decide these things, but always good to have nice prize money. And also this Cup is right over, but as you've mentioned, we still have the FA Trophy next week with Walton
Carl
and
Mike Dowling
Hersham, and also the Surrey Senior Cup, which will bring us about £560 extra in, I think. But That's all about pride and
Carl
going for the record. You know what was funny?
Mike Dowling
When I said to him, I said, oh, it doesn't really count as first team matches. And he was like, doesn't it? I went, no, but we are on joint record with Dulwich for the most wins. So there'll be quite a few people would be quite happy.
Mike Dowling
I'm not saying that's why, but he has been picking big, strong teams. I'm like, the yellow coat, it's all me, it's all me. Don't shake your head. Anyway.
Mike Dowling
I thought
Claire
I was a
Mike Dowling
princess on this call. I've got a crown and everything. I've got three of those.
Claire
Next time
Mike Dowling
we're all on together, I want crowns. Everyone wearing their little crown. Don't pretend you've got two daughters in the house. You've
Carl
got crowns. I've got a couple. I've got a couple of earrings as
Mike Dowling
well. Right, there was one comment I had on one of the things which I just thought was a bit bizarre. So someone sort of said, oh, you shouldn't have belittled Shrewsbury and you should have taken more seriously because you lost the game. And I watched the clip back of what he commented on.
Mike Dowling
It was David saying, well, we're right to look ahead with optimism. And who knows, we could win this game, go into the third round, fourth round. It would be great to go on a cup run. sure that's belittling
Carl
anyone to
Mike Dowling
be honest, that's just saying we
Carl
hope
Mike Dowling
we win, but people are strange. Right, Warner Hersham, what do you think
Claire
Claire? Am I going for a score prediction? I'm going, I'm gonna say we're gonna win
Mike Dowling
3-0. Greenhill, okay. Do we, anyone know anything about Horton and Hirsham? Because I haven't looked at them because I've been too busy.
Mike Dowling
I think they're doing quite well, actually. I think they're ahead of Farnham, someone was saying. Farnham, yeah. Carl, what do you think?
Carl
They're actually top of their league, Mike. Yeah. So, but look, if I'm going to make a comment that Shrewsbury was a winnable game, I can't exactly say we've got a struggle against. We wouldn't hurt you, could I?
Carl
But I will match Claire's prediction. I'm going to go 5-0. 5-0? Wow.
Carl
Okay. That's very impressive. Were they two divisions below? They are, but...
Carl
We're in the same division as Churchill. We stuck a few past them in pre-season. It's pre-season. But they are top there.
Carl
their division. So it's a slight reverse. We were underdogs against Shrewsbury. They're going to be underdogs against us.
Carl
So could they put in a performance that would trouble us? I'm not sure. Like you said, I don't really know. I just quickly looked up where they were.
Carl
But with the confidence from the weekend, yes, OK, we lost. We lost the tie, not the game. But the way we're playing football, it's out of their place as well. So it all depends on It depends on the hangover, you know, and the conditions.
Carl
It should be an easy win, if I'm honest. Yeah, there's two ways it
Mike Dowling
can go. I mean, the players could be really disappointed and be really flat for the whole week, but I have a sneaking suspicion that it's pretty unlikely. And they'll be up for it.
Carl
Yeah, and it all depends on what team he picks. But if he's picking seniors for the Senior Surrey Cup, because he's taking that seriously, then I'd expect him to pick a a fairly similar side to what played at the weekend, minus the absentees from suspensions. But it's definitely a priority number one now, I would say, because not to say and not being cocky, but safety looks like it's on the cards. It doesn't look like we're going to be one of the four that gets relegated.
Carl
So, you know, league form can continue that way. We're out of the FA Cup, so that cup run is gone. So why not? Why not take the FA Trophies here.
Carl
So what, semi-finals we got last year? Yes. So let's go one better and actually
Mike Dowling
get to the final. Genuinely, when I thought you said this is priority number one because the league, I just thought, oh, he's going to say the playoffs are a shoo-in. This is it. They
Carl
absolutely are. We're in the playoffs. I chew my words too often, Mike. I'm not going
Mike Dowling
to say anything stupid on here, mate. It's recording. AI has gone for 2-1 and Kai to score, which I think is just a bit of a cop out because I think he might just check the last few results and go, yeah, Kai's going to score. I'm going to go with a bit more of a goal fest and I'll say 4-2 to us.
Mike Dowling
So 2-4. Are you making the trip, Mike? And probably not because I'm out all day on Sunday for a very exciting work
Claire
to do. I just like to manage my expectations of seeing you somewhere within the M25. Not be shocked. Yeah.
Claire
Yeah. She's not expecting to see you now to a boxing
Mike Dowling
day. Yeah. Yeah. I was saying have a good Christmas to everyone.
Mike Dowling
Oh, this is so weird. It's
Carl
odd isn't
Mike Dowling
it?
Carl
A traitor's experience day. So how long after New Year can you say Happy New Year? It's how long before Christmas can you say have a good Christmas? It feels a bit soon, doesn't it?
Carl
It
Mike Dowling
does. I reckon I've always said the 11th of December is the fuck it is Christmas
Claire
fortnight. You can just I don't know. I've already fallen into that space where I've got things to do at work. And I think, is this a job for now or is this January?
Claire
Claire's problem. Yeah, I'm
Mike Dowling
going for to be full up for it. I think we might be doing something else on Saturday as well. I think it might be a big man visit. I'm not sure.
Mike Dowling
I'm not sure. I'm not sure. Because it's not me this year. Look, I had to shave.
Mike Dowling
Anyway.
Carl
Disappointed.
Mike Dowling
Disappointed.
Carl
Yeah, yeah. Not
Mike Dowling
angry, just disappointed. And we're wrapping up this episode of Sutton Podcast. As always, we appreciate everyone's attention and feedback. Get involved, follow, like, share, give us the thumbs up and all the rest of it on social media at Sutton Podcast.
Mike Dowling
Subscribe, give us a review. Thank you, as always, to Lucky Star GN for sponsoring. Thank you to our guests, Claire and Carl, CNC Football Factory. No, not Football Factory, that's bad.
Mike Dowling
Thanks to everyone for listening. I hope you've enjoyed this episode of Sutton Podcast. Take care and we'll catch up soon.
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