Ever found yourself cheering loudest in the dying moments of a game? That’s the magic of a team that refuses to quit.
Mike Dowling
00:58 - 01:30
Hello and welcome to another episode of Southern United Talk Time on podcast. It's the Sutton podcast. I'm your host, Mike, and we're an association with Lucky Star Gin. We are being joined today by Chalmers and Mark Bravery. So Chalmers PC, pessimistic PC. I don't know what you want to call it. And we're going to be talking about both Southend and Rochdale and. Four points from six. This is brilliant. We love hearing from you. We love joining the conversation, like, shares, retweets, comments, all the rest of it. Love it. You find us on all the social media platforms at Sutton Podcast.
Mike Dowling
01:31 - 01:37
So Mark, it seems like just a few days since we had you on the show. How
Mark
01:37 - 01:40
have you been? It was post Boston, wasn't it? So that was
Mike Dowling
01:41 - 01:42
a week and a half ago.
Mark
01:42 - 01:45
Yeah, I've been fine. Yes. Enjoying the weather.
Mike Dowling
01:47 - 01:50
Lovely. And Paul, it's been a while for you. How are you?
Paul
01:51 - 02:02
Not bad. Yeah, not bad. Thank you. Life's been busy as as always. So yeah, I've not had a chance to get on for probably for Christmas, I would say. I don't know when exactly, but it's been a while.
Mike Dowling
02:03 - 02:07
So you're installing and reinstalling defibs all over the borough?
Paul
02:08 - 02:19
Yes. Yeah. We fitted the one today on the outside of the ground. That got knocked off by the by the grass cutters.
Mike Dowling
02:19 - 02:20
yep
Paul
02:20 - 02:25
so that's all that's all up and running again so claire's very happy with that as it was the first one so
Mike Dowling
02:25 - 02:33
she was in great she was very upset um thank you for that i'm so glad you got involved because she's so delighted
Paul
02:34 - 02:41
Yeah, same here. It's a great charity. And yeah, I'm just happy to help. Beautiful.
Mike Dowling
02:42 - 03:19
So I gave you both a little question. Don't know if you saw it. Mark didn't because he's suddenly looking at his screen. I haven't seen it. Have you ever tried to convert anyone into becoming a Sutton United supporter? So this was the knowingly knowing you jingle and then Paul, it's with you first. So Paul, have you ever tried to convert anyone into becoming a Sutton United supporter and how did it go?
Paul
03:20 - 03:58
Yeah, I've quite a few people actually over the years with mixed success. I mean, my brother, Alan, who many people know, he's had a season ticket over the years. I'm not sure if he had one this season, but he doesn't seem to appear at many games, it seems. And if he is at one, it's generally one I'm not at. So we're like ships that pass at night. and other friends. I've probably brought a good dozen people down probably at least and you know everyone wanted tickets when we had the cup run for example. And I tried to get a couple here and there where I could.
Paul
04:00 - 04:34
But yeah, none that really stuck massively. As I say, Alan, he's probably been the most successful one. But there's Darren and Billy who travel to a lot of away games as well and do home games with season tickets as well in the last couple of years. But yeah, I think the issue that's with the prices and they were saying, yeah, they think they're going to be passing next season. But we'll see. We'll see. Yeah.
Mike Dowling
04:35 - 05:01
You might not remember, but you did drag me back for a little while because when I had a... I had to change my sort of lifestyle a little bit with... I had to change things and one of the things was football triggered lots of beer and crap food and stuff. So I thought, right, let's cut that out. And then we went on a really good run and I didn't want to come back because of, you know, I believe in superstition, but you were like, come on. So you dragged me back. So that counts, I think.
Paul
05:01 - 05:02
No,
Mike Dowling
05:02 - 05:02
fair
Paul
05:02 - 05:03
enough. Yeah, I
Mike Dowling
05:03 - 05:03
forgot about that one.
Paul
05:03 - 05:05
That was probably around the real social dead space.
Mike Dowling
05:06 - 05:07
It would have been, yeah.
Paul
05:08 - 05:09
Yeah, there
Mark
05:09 - 05:09
you go.
Mike Dowling
05:10 - 05:13
And Mark, what about yourself? You had a few seconds to think now.
Mark
05:14 - 06:16
Yeah, I can't really match Paul's exploits there. I think the strict answer to the question is no, I haven't really. But my friend Peter, who I got to know through the campaign for Real Ale about 20 years back, he was originally an Arsenal season ticket holder going way back to the 1970s. he became a bit disenchanted with Arsenal for various reasons and he stopped going basically. He started to follow various other clubs including Brentford and he came with me to the old Sutton game. This is back in the last Roman Isthmian spell and then National League South and then when we got into the National League he decided to get a season ticket and he's been a regular um for the last you know eight seasons or so uh and he gets to he gets to nearly all the home games and he gets to the away games if there's decent drinking That's his main criteria, if he's in good parts of the country and away for the next year.
Mark
06:17 - 06:18
Absolutely.
Mike Dowling
06:19 - 06:52
Beautiful. So give us your thoughts. Let us know if you've ever converted anyone to a Sutton United fan or had a great failure. Let us know on social media, at Sutton Podcast as well. um club news lots of bits going on um i can't remember where i got up to but uh we did get through to the final of the national league cup which um i know a lot of people do like some people don't like but we're now playing a under 21 side so it's kind of us defending the National League against the Under-21 Premier League, etc.
Mike Dowling
06:52 - 07:21
So hopefully everyone will get behind the team. Still no news that I've heard of where or when, but Leeds Under-21s is going to play us in the final. I know we have asked if it could be at Gander Green Lane because it's like, what's the point of making people travel miles and it's more likely to get a bigger crowd at Gander Green Lane than anywhere else, but we will see. I don't think you were at this, Paul, but Ben had a Q&A session on Monday. Yeah, I heard a
Paul
07:21 - 07:23
few whispers about it, yeah.
Mike Dowling
07:23 - 07:43
Yeah, Mark, you were there. I was. There was, I know he worries about things sort of coming out of the room, but it wasn't an awful lot of deep secrets involved. But what did you think in general about the Q&A and this different stuff, especially the data side that he was very keen to talk about?
Mark
07:44 - 08:28
Well, that was quite interesting. I mean, it was basically about how they use data, the club uses data, primarily for recruitment, actually. And they look at, you know, players performances under various headings, successful passes, successful tackles, breaking the lines, etc, etc. And also fitness records. And it's slightly ironic that Ben mentioned that one of the reasons we signed Will Davis is because he had an excellent fitness record. And of course, he didn't play last night, presumably because he was injured, though we haven't had that confirmed as far as I'm aware. But up until last night, I think he played pretty much every game or was available for every game.
Mark
08:29 - 09:11
So despite his absence yesterday, his fitness record has been pretty impressive. And Ben also talked about Edwina Vaz having very good stats as well from the data set. My question that I asked was given all this impressive data and the way it's used, Why hasn't that quite translated into better performances on the pitch, particularly at home? But Ben didn't really answer that. But he did mention injuries. And, you know, we have got quite a few key players out, seven, I think, at the moment. If you include the two who were missing last night, seven players who you might expect to start in any league fixture.
Mark
09:11 - 09:31
Um, so that's, that's some mitigation. But yeah, overall, it was was quite interesting, very, very informal. Yeah, Ben was quite happy to take questions. And some people went off piece a little bit, and that didn't really matter. So it was, I think, overall, quite a successful evening and quite educational.
Mike Dowling
09:33 - 10:06
Yeah, I thought my one thing I thought was really, really good is you had Terry Bullivant there. Yeah, definitely old school, you can't in any other way. But he said this, this whole system, he goes, absolutely 100% believe in this system. He said, I used to have said scouts here, they're everywhere, sort of a big picture. But with this system, we've got a good picture of people before we're sending people to go and have a proper look at them. And for me, that was like, well, that should say everyone like okay it's fine we've got the old school as he said flat caps but he doesn't wear it anymore um saying a
Mark
10:06 - 10:07
burger
Mike Dowling
10:07 - 10:38
i think he said yeah absolutely but then he also um is prone to um exaggerating the truth because he did also mention that he loves and gets on with every agent in the game and trust I'm not sure. One other little thing about that is I had a quick chat with him about Harry Beaman's red card, which I know has been rescinded, but I don't know if you guys saw the video of that, and everyone's slagging off the referee, and I'm like, that has nothing to do with the referee. That referee doesn't deserve anything because it's the players, and one goes down crutching his head.
Mike Dowling
10:39 - 10:42
It's the player that deserves all the abuse on there. Did you see it,
Paul
10:42 - 10:42
guys?
Mike Dowling
10:43 - 10:43
I've seen it, yeah.
Paul
10:45 - 11:14
Yeah, it was soft. I think that's going a bit light with it. There was, you know, he sort of gave him a bit of a shove, I felt. Harry did give him a little bit of a shove, it looked like, but it wasn't in the face by any stretch. You know, Harry was probably a good six inches shorter than him, to be fair. So you'd have seen his elbow coming up. But yeah, yeah, it's a shame, but you know.
Mike Dowling
11:15 - 11:54
Yeah, it's got, it's got rescinded now. Yeah. One thing I also love Mark is when he sort of said, oh, it's the first red card of my career, he'd brave you on the post almost straight away going, no, you got sent off at Dover a few years ago. Yeah, as we mentioned there was a nice semi-final and some fantastic penalty shootout for the first, what, four penalties each and then not so fantastic afterwards, but well done to Jack Sims and Andy Little obviously for the penalties. And then, thankfully, John Meaney's wife, who did have a health scare, is home and fine.
Mike Dowling
11:55 - 12:07
And John was there last night. I didn't question why he was there, and he said she told me to go. I would imagine that he was bouncing around the place, and she was like, Christ's sake, get out of the house. But thankfully, she's home. And John did the
Mark
12:07 - 12:08
post-match interview,
Mike Dowling
12:08 - 13:03
didn't he? He did indeed, yeah. So myself, I've been busy the last few. On Saturday, I was questioned, I sort of did the hospitality questions now, the players, and there were six players. There was Tony, Paul, Vernon, Phil, Mike, and Steve Fowler as well, all from the sort of Coventry game. So only about 120 people in the room while I had to stand and ask these guys questions. No pressure, nothing, it was fine. You're getting good at it now. I'm getting, like, I'm doing it. Last night's one was quite funny because I was in hospitality last night thanks to the Holiday Inn and Charlotte who invited me so I was in the hospitality and then I did a chat with Jack Taylor on the stage and I sort of said, oh I'm here with the Holiday Inn so I'm gonna ask a question about the Holiday Inn.
Mike Dowling
13:04 - 13:28
And, oh my God, he was brilliant. And I said, oh, which is your favorite hotel in Sutton? And why is it lovely? And he was like, oh, the food's great, the staff are wonderful, and the rooms are lovely. I was like, mate, they're not paying us. It's all right. We're OK. I went to the bar and talked to Matthew, so I didn't hear any of the lovely plugs. But yeah, it was really good. It's nice to see a different way of watching Sutton as well. It was like, oh, this is slightly different, not behind the scenes, but what we offer to people.
Mike Dowling
13:30 - 14:05
Let's get through some of the football stuff. I've kind of written down a few things here, on both games. So first of all, Paul, two big home games against opponents kind of up there, four points gained and climbed back up to 12th. What, what, how do you feel about the overall four from six and also both games decided in the last few minutes of the game? What do you think about that resilience that we're showing and plugging away to the end?
Paul
14:06 - 14:46
Yeah, I mean, I was obviously overjoyed with four points. Uh, it could quite easily have been one, uh, one point in total out of those six, um, with not long to go in either game, couldn't it? So we've got to see that us plugging away must show that, you know, our fitness is, isn't in a bad place for the stage of the season. Um, Yeah, quite pleased with the points haul. I think a play-off push is still a bit beyond us, but you know, wishful thinking. Mark, what about yourself?
Mike Dowling
14:46 - 14:51
What do you think of the overall thing over the two games?
Mark
14:57 - 14:57
Yeah,
Mike Dowling
14:57 - 14:57
I mean, I
Mark
14:57 - 15:36
think John was keen to stress that, you know, this team keeps playing until the end. They don't give up. And if you're just the one goal down or the score's level, you've always got a chance if you keep plugging away to get a late, decisive goal. In fact, in all four of the last league games, there have been very late goals. Three of them have been scored by us. to salvage to draws and then last night to win the opposite happened at Boston of course where we were drawing and then ended up losing to a slightly freakish goal but the goal last night was a bit freakish as well, so this cuts both ways.
Mark
15:36 - 15:52
But yeah, although the performances over recent games have been a bit patchy, you can't fault the team's determination and perseverance, and they do keep plugging away until the final whistle.
Mike Dowling
15:54 - 16:05
Yeah, I saw that. I think it was someone on the forum had said about is finally the spirit shown through and I think it was Frankie again he was like no the spirits always been there it just hasn't
Mark
16:06 - 16:06
yeah
Mike Dowling
16:07 - 16:42
we haven't applied the um I can't remember the word to use but he said the spirits always been there but we just haven't maybe applied ourselves as much yeah um but Mark staying with you with the Southend match um in hindsight everyone should have lumped on for the uh Southend goal scorer um Almost nice to see the goodies. But what did you think? Obviously, Ben's opening the scoring and half celebrating and not quite fully there. And we've seen that from him before. But how did you feel about the Southend match and Ben scoring against us?
Mark
16:44 - 17:23
Yeah, I mean, it was it was a spectacular goal, wasn't it? I think he scored the occasional goal like that for us when he was with us. We know he's quite a threat from set pieces. but yeah I thought Southend looked a good side and it took them a while to grow into the game but as the game progressed they started to look more and more in control and they got that goal in the first half and it looked as if they were going to see out the 1-0 win and then you know It was Lewis Simple, wasn't it, had that run right, right into stoppage time.
Mark
17:23 - 17:46
They just sliced through their defence, hit the post, and Ashley Nellison, who's come in for a little bit of criticism recently for perhaps not being quite on his game, he was alert to the chance and first to the loose ball and got the goal. I think he's played well the last couple of games, and obviously, yeah, his involvement in the goals underlines that.
Mike Dowling
17:47 - 18:02
Yeah, I was blamed for him. Not by him. I was blamed for him. He was like, I'll be on his back. I'm like, hang on, I'm not on his back. I'm just taking a wick out. Paul, what do you reckon? What do you think about Goody scoring against us and how we sort of recovered from that?
Paul
18:03 - 18:35
Yeah, it was always going to happen, wasn't it, as we were all saying it before the game, you know, it'd be typical. And yeah, he did take it well, didn't he? I wouldn't say it was quite an overhead kick, would you? He sort of hooked it over his head, didn't he? But I don't mean that quite, or over his shoulder, but I wouldn't quite claim it to be an overhead kick, but he took it well and yeah. bit frustrating that we didn't defend it a little bit better maybe. But the positives were, yeah, we got a point, as I say, we plugged away.
Paul
18:35 - 19:15
I think they were definitely more dominant in the game. They were definitely, I think, the better side. There was a few frustrating moments from us, you know. We seemed to misplace a lot of passes and there was... I noticed the ball just going under our feet, under our studs a few times and just going out of play from a pass and yeah, it frustrates a little bit but... yeah good to see the battle good to see us keep plugging away jack simms was very busy wasn't he uh what i remember i mean it was it was a few days ago now um
Mike Dowling
19:16 - 20:21
yeah i did josh was with me last night and i thought he hasn't been much this season i'll say about jack well he is he's really really good i said the I mean, again, this is going to jump all over the place, but substitutions recently have seemed to be really working. Now, I can't even remember what match it was, it must have been Fylde, did we come back to win that one? I joked with Mane. yeah i joked with him saying well you it was we were losing when you came on and uh 77 minutes and then we won the game and there was another game that he came on and we almost did it i think it might be in boston um and then other subs this this time have had had an effect do you think we're get into that moment where, I think John was indicating it last night, where people start the match, people who finish the match, it's the whole process.
Mike Dowling
20:22 - 20:36
How do you think we're managing substitutions? Because under Matt, it used to be very much between 60 minutes and 70 minutes. We knew this one was happening and that one was happening. We knew what was going to happen. But these are a little bit more finesse, I reckon. What do you think, Paul?
Paul
20:38 - 21:18
Yeah. It's good to see that we are trying to change the game. We're trying to make something happen. We're trying to, we're bringing a mix of players on as well. It's good to see yesterday, for example, Vinny come on and he had a good go, didn't he? He had a good battle about and He looked, I didn't realise he was, he looks quite a stocky lad. I've not seen a huge amount of him because I don't really get to the Surrey Senior Cup games and they're the games he's mainly played in. So, he's a stocky lad and he looks like he could be someone who could get involved in first team proceedings going forward.
Paul
21:19 - 21:45
Um, but yeah, overall, I think it's definitely a positive, um, as you say, the, the 60, 70 minute thing was always, uh, always stood out, didn't it? It's like, here we go. We know it was coming here and we could generally name the substitutions as well. Couldn't we? So, uh, yeah, yeah, definitely a positive and it's good to see that we are. keeping going, instead of trying to change things.
Mike Dowling
21:46 - 21:58
Going to the end. What about yourself, Mark? Do you feel that the way Morrison's managing the in-game and making those substitutions is having a big impact? Or has that always happened? I'm not sure it's
Mark
21:58 - 22:31
having a big impact, but I think he uses substitutions quite astutely. He's much less predictable than, as you say, Matt was. Obviously, other teams do watch us. And if you're very predictable in the way you make your substitutions, they're going to pick up on that. And if you're unpredictable, they don't know what to expect. They don't know which players might come on and when. And that gives you an advantage because you can catch them out sometimes. So, I think that's one of the reasons why, you know, Steve does mix it up a bit more with the way he uses the substitutions.
Mark
22:32 - 22:43
I'd actually forgotten that Ashley Netlesser was a substitute against Southend, because he came on and scored that goal. And he started last night and did play the full match.
Mike Dowling
22:44 - 23:21
Yeah. I mean, we did last night in the Rochdale game, again, Was it scrappy? I think it was scrappy. But we were in it. I'm not sure. Obviously, you've got these sort of amputated glasses on, so I wasn't sure. We're overly in danger. They had a few chances. But again, hang on to the end. You mentioned Vinny there, Paul, involved in the goal. Long ball, which we don't do very often. Knocked it on, and then Nadis has slotted it home.
Paul
23:24 - 23:24
You can't
Mike Dowling
23:24 - 23:25
even keep a straight
Paul
23:25 - 23:26
face saying that, can
Mike Dowling
23:26 - 23:40
you? Mark, how do you feel last night, the game overall? Did you feel we were going to get something out of it, or did you feel that, oh, here we go, they're going to get something in the last few minutes?
Mark
23:43 - 24:21
I thought it was going to be nil-nil, to be honest. I thought they were the better side in the first half, particularly the kind of middle third of the first half, and they seemed to be pretty much in control, but their shooting was a bit wayward. Jack made a couple of saves. I thought second half, you know, they seemed to ease off a little bit rather than the south end had done. I think the substitutions did make a bit of a difference. The game did seem to open up a bit in the last 20 minutes or so, I noticed that Vinny was getting quite a lot of space up front, he was sort of playing centre forward.
Mark
24:21 - 24:53
uh because actually Madison was moved out to the wing is more normal role and uh you know Vinny he's obviously a young guy plenty of energy bit of pace uh not the tallest of course so he wasn't winning many headers but he was chasing a lot uh he's chasing balls um and I actually said to to Jenny Corkett I think he's going to score he didn't of course but as you pointed out he was involved he got sort of a sort of assist to the goal So, you know, he certainly showed his worth and it was great to see him getting that chance and being involved in the way that he was.
Mike Dowling
24:55 - 25:02
You mentioned he didn't win many headers, but he did win that header. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, true, yeah. And Paul, what do you reckon? Yeah.
Paul
25:03 - 25:47
Yeah, I saw it being a new new as well. It just had all the makings of a new new scrappy a bit, wasn't it? As Mark alluded to, some of their shooting was very high and wide at times, wasn't it? It was all over the place. I don't know if they heard something or thought they knew that Jack was susceptible to long shots or something, but they did seem to be trying that didn't they and yeah none of them really got close. So yeah I saw it just petering out to a nil-nil but obviously as you say Vinny's knock on and Ashley keeping going and getting stuck in there and and you just don't know what's gonna happen.
Paul
25:47 - 25:55
The keeper was sort of halfway, he was in no man's land a bit wasn't he, he was sort of coming for it and he wasn't. I think it was only his third game for them as well, he's come in on
Mike Dowling
25:55 - 25:56
loan,
Paul
25:56 - 26:32
I assume emergency loan from I think Sheffield Wednesday one lad said. So when They were starting to look a bit shaky in the second half a little bit. The centre-back who came on, E-Banks something, Landau. Landau, X Wolves. Yeah, yeah. He'd come on and they had a bit of a misunderstanding and they both went for the same ball and we had a chance, a little bit of a chance there. I thought Kane had a good game as well. I was quite happy with Kane's efforts. He looks positive. So
Mike Dowling
26:32 - 26:33
there was
Paul
26:33 - 26:46
definitely some positives coming out of the game. But yeah, overall, I was thinking this is going to be nil-nil and we'll take a point. Again, you know, two points against two playoff hopefuls. exactly not too bad not too bad
Mike Dowling
26:46 - 27:24
that's the other thing they're both sort of up there um i'm gonna talk about the girl because um yes i'm quite happy to take the p out matters um and he even said it last night i was gonna take it away from him Without him, that goal would not have happened. He chased in, he did exactly the right thing. Yes, the defender was coming back onto goal and then that has kind of stopped the ball, knocked it off him almost, and looped it up. And that was a really, really clever play to get it. Yes, it's an own goal, but that was definitely from his work.
Mike Dowling
27:24 - 27:43
And it was, you could never really say an own goal is intentional, but those ones where you drill it across the goal and you hope it's going to clip off someone, you're making an intentional move to do it. But what did you think? Were you two just too busy celebrating, Paul? Or did you really have a chance to look at the goal and see what actually happened?
Paul
27:44 - 28:28
Yeah, I mean, I had a good view of it from where I was standing to the right of the goal, as you're looking at it. So, I saw him come in and I did see, you know, the way the challenge happened. They're both right-footed players, so their feet are going to clash in that way, and it looked like Nader's got to it first, and as you say, it came off of the right back. and the way it looped over it was like I couldn't believe it really it's like beautiful a bit of luck a bit of luck that you want you know just just uh sometimes you want things to go for you and sometimes your work ethic and the hard work you put in these things sort of come off you know hard work pays off and all that so We actually haven't, if that was the case.
Paul
28:28 - 28:28
It
Mike Dowling
28:28 - 28:41
might be new, Mark, saying that luck evens itself out, but we do have quite a dollop of it because we've had a lot over the years. But what did you think of the goal and Nader's work? I
Mark
28:41 - 29:25
mean, having earlier said, I thought Mini would score. I think by that stage of the game, I was, again, pretty much resigned to it being 0-0. But, you know, Navas had played the full game and he still had the energy to make that strong run and it was a strong run into their penalty area. He got the ball and yeah when he does that so any player makes that sort of run you think well maybe something's going to happen here and we hadn't seen too many runs like that in the second half from our players and he still had the energy to do that and I couldn't exactly see what I couldn't tell whether he'd scored or whether the ball had gone in off the defender, but then Tony didn't announce the scorer.
Mark
29:25 - 30:01
And I knew then, because he never does, it's an own goal, he just won't announce anything. So I knew that it was an own goal. Yeah, it's quite an amusing own goal, if you like, or quite a spectacular one. And, you know, you enjoy those in a slightly charred and fraught sort of way. But yeah, a lot of smiles around the perimeter fence when that went in. And only a few minutes left after that. There was, I think, three more minutes than 90, then only three added. So we each had to see out another six minutes fairly comfortably.
Mark
30:02 - 30:07
And it was the first time we celebrated a home win in the league since January. And
Mike Dowling
30:07 - 30:08
I
Mark
30:08 - 30:34
think that goal and that result lifted everybody around the ground, because you got used to being a bit miserable at the end of the game, sitting in the bar, we thought you were awful, we should have done better and didn't win it. And suddenly we get a win, not undeserved, and everybody gets a bit of a boost from that. Of course. I
Mike Dowling
30:34 - 31:16
mean, we were sort of watching it slightly different last night because we knew we'd have to pick a man of the match and That was quite difficult, because we were battling everywhere, but it was like, who are you going to pick? So we were kind of trying to narrow it down, but Tain had a good shout and then he went off. Then we were looking at Nanabotang, because he was quite busy in the first half, and then again a spell in the second half. Bez at left back was quietly doing everything. Jack and Lewis were doing well in midfield, none of them anything superb and spectacular.
Mike Dowling
31:16 - 31:25
And we're like, God, whatever we choose is going to give us some grief here. And then he thankfully scored or created that goal. So we're like, oh yeah, that's an easy one
Speaker 5
31:25 - 31:28
now.
Mike Dowling
31:28 - 32:07
It's difficult when you can't just pinpoint, but it's good as a fan. It's good that you can't just go, ah, this player has carried us through. It's the whole team, the spirit of the whole team and the fire of the whole team has done really well. I mean, We've done well the last couple of games. We've got some late goals. How important, and I think John Meaney said similar for the matches, he said how a match ends is how you can bring it into the next match. How important, I know you said it's gone, but how important is it we go on a run pull to finish this season as strongly as possible to take in to the close and next season?
Paul
32:10 - 32:54
Yeah, it would be nice for us to do so, to pick up some points, you know, but being the pessimist I am, I see us, I see us struggling against Epsle, I'm sure we'll come on to it. But they've picked up a few results. I'm hopeful, I am hopeful that we might, we should get a result against them, shouldn't we? They're tailed off, we should have enough to beat them. I hope we do. I know we've got injuries and so on and so forth. and I wouldn't say we have the most tricky running, you know, we've got Barnet obviously, but there's sides we're playing who are in the middle of the table.
Paul
32:54 - 33:14
I think Woking are going to be safe pretty much now. Jovo are pretty safe, I think, aren't they? Obviously have Sleet down already, so it'll be nice for us to have a good battle and show something, you know, win a few more, And as you say, give us something positive to go into the summer with.
Mike Dowling
33:15 - 33:22
Exactly. Mark, what do you reckon? I said John saying about the matches, but it quite applies equally for the season, doesn't it?
Mark
33:24 - 33:55
Yeah, five games left, haven't we, in the league. And, you know, sometimes the form at the end of one season can indicate how the next season is going to start. So, yeah, even if you've got not a lot to play for, you know, you're not going to go down, you're not going to go up, you still want to win games, you still want to finish the season on a bit of a high. So, you know, I'm sure the management team will be, you know, looking at ways of winning those final few games, even if they don't all end up as wins.
Mark
33:56 - 34:09
Were we to win the last five, actually, the playoffs would probably come into focus. But as Paul said, I somehow can't quite see that happening. Maybe if Barnett have clinched the title by the time they come
Mike Dowling
34:09 - 34:09
to us
Mark
34:09 - 34:40
on Easter Monday, I think it's possible that they'll be a bit relaxed and we can perhaps beat them then. But if they can clinch the title by winning at our place, obviously it's going to be a different situation and you would expect them to do that. So there's a few unknowns at the moment. But I think John said that that very late equaliser against Southend gave the whole team a bit of a lift. I think that may have carried through to last night's performance.
Mike Dowling
34:42 - 35:00
I mean, there's two things. One is that would be a really nice symmetry, because obviously we won the title and then went to Barnet. Yes. So it would be quite nice if the other way around, so we could have... Yeah, yeah, yeah. ...players. And then... They gave us the Guard of Honour as well,
Paul
35:00 - 35:06
didn't they? So... Say again? They gave us the Guard of Honour, so it might be nice to repay that gratitude
Mike Dowling
35:06 - 35:07
and do the
Paul
35:07 - 35:07
same for them.
Mike Dowling
35:08 - 36:08
Then there was that talk where I said, oh, yeah, take us all into the new season. I'm just remembering that season we won the conference house after that brilliant run. And we went, like, all those games unbeaten. And we took it into the National League and then got bullied by Solihull 4-0 or something. Yes. 31, I think. OK, maybe that doesn't work so much. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But yeah, we're up to 12th. There is. Yeah. hope chance that kills you but um yeah it's gone but we'll see um what we're going to do now is going to very quickly ask for some good bad funnies for the overall for the last couple games whatever you want from the penalty shootout all the way through i'm not i'm not precious whatever you want to go for Right, I'm gonna go first.
Mike Dowling
36:08 - 36:39
On the Braintree match, this covers good, bad, funny and ugly. I was helping set up the TV and I went to take off my hoodie and my t-shirt got caught up and they both came off. A normal person would have went, oh I'm just gonna put that all back on again but I'm standing there in the room full of people trying to unravel my t-shirt. It's like, it took ages. And I apologize to every single person there for that horrible vision and every single person thinking of it now. But Paul, what was good for you over the last week or so?
Mike Dowling
36:39 - 36:40
Oh,
Paul
36:40 - 37:02
in a week or so? If you'd said last few weeks, I'd have included the trip to Boston. We've covered Boston. You weren't there, man. All right. Fair enough. What's been good over the last few weeks? It has to be football related as well, doesn't it? I suppose you've got to say the late goal yesterday, haven't we? I think
Mike Dowling
37:02 - 37:02
I'll
Paul
37:02 - 37:06
get in there and nick that one then. Yeah,
Mike Dowling
37:06 - 37:07
battling away and
Paul
37:07 - 37:13
claiming that. A very pleasurable three points. Excellent.
Mike Dowling
37:13 - 37:14
And Mark, what was good for you?
Mark
37:17 - 37:23
Well, I suppose four points against sides above us in the table who are in or close to the playoff places.
Mike Dowling
37:25 - 37:27
Perfect. And what was bad for you, Mark?
Mark
37:29 - 37:55
Well, I suppose the absence of Will and Finlay yesterday. We don't know when they're going to be back, why they're out. But, you know, as I mentioned earlier, we're already missing a number of quite important players. And if those two are out for a spell as well. Despite the spirit that the whole team showed yesterday, that's not going to be great for us, but we'll see.
Mike Dowling
37:55 - 37:58
Yeah. Paul, what was bad
Paul
37:59 - 37:59
for
Mike Dowling
37:59 - 37:59
you?
Paul
38:00 - 38:38
Um, I mean, not really bad, but sometimes, um, I got a bit frustrated with the way we were, we were knocking the ball about at times. Um, the last couple of games, you know, as I said before, stray passes, um, the movement sometimes just wasn't quite there, I felt. So, yeah, I think I'd say that. Nice to see the movement and the, though we are working well as a team generally, Yeah, a bit more movement and some quicker balls would be nice. Excellent.
Mike Dowling
38:38 - 38:39
And what was funny for you?
Paul
38:41 - 38:52
Funny? I can't think of anything funny. What funnies happened in the last couple of games? Funny for me to beat her on a Tuesday. I think I've made something
Mike Dowling
38:52 - 38:52
like...
Paul
38:54 - 39:19
Because of my children, I don't often make Tuesday night games. So I think I've done about five or six in the last 10 years, maybe. So maybe that's a funny for me to be at a Tuesday night game. Oh, and I forgot my coat. I didn't bring a coat with me, and I was like, this was a bad idea. What do I need a coat for?
Mike Dowling
39:19 - 39:28
Yeah. Yeah, it threw me completely yesterday, you and Josh both being there. What's going on here? Mark, what was funny for you? Oh,
Mark
39:30 - 39:45
it's got to be the own goal. I mean, football supporters can be a little bit cruel at times. We do, as I said earlier, sometimes take delight in the misfortune of other teams, nothing particularly against Rochdale. But yeah, the way that that went in was quite amusing.
Mike Dowling
39:48 - 40:43
Right, well I've got two other things. I was popping my investigative journalism hat on on the Saturday, having a chat with different people and Finlay's brother was there and I was fifth What an arsehole question that is! How are you limping around? How's your season going? So yeah, that's another one. The crowd last night, we should have mentioned this, did not stop. I know Seb has said his arms were like jelly with the banging on the drum, but obviously I was in a slightly different spot yesterday. Definitely could hear them, definitely going all game. What difference do you think that made, Mark?
Mark
40:46 - 41:23
I think it makes a difference. We've heard a few comments recently about the homecare being a bit quiet and moaning a lot. There's obviously a lot of that going on and understandable given home performances have been a bit disappointing this calendar year. But you know, the youngsters behind the goal, you know, perhaps not quite as many of them last night, score night, even though it's Easter holidays, but not quite as many of them maybe as there often is, but they still made the noise, as you say. And I think that does lift the team. I think the management team appreciate it.
Mark
41:25 - 41:45
And, you know, it's a bit circular. If the team feels the crowd's egging them on, then that can give them an extra one or two percent maybe. And then the fans can see that and then they get more behind the team. So you get into a kind of virtuous circle rather than a vicious circle, which can also develop if things are not going well.
Mike Dowling
41:46 - 41:50
Yeah, exactly. Paul, what do you think of the noise they were making last night?
Paul
41:51 - 42:26
Yeah, I mean, I was standing quite close to it where I was, and it's always good to see that they are creating that atmosphere, you know. They, yeah, they're brilliant, and I applaud them, you know. I think they're making a great job of improving the atmosphere for us at that end. Even when we're at the far end, I often stand behind the goal at the far end, even if we're shooting that way. and you can hear them very clearly from that end so it's it's good and it could see it reverberating around the ground definitely
Mike Dowling
42:26 - 42:27
keep it
Paul
42:27 - 42:27
up guys
Mike Dowling
42:28 - 43:14
it's been it's been not problem that's the wrong word but we've been quiet for many many years I remember discussions of how can we do things how can we make people do this more and it's never really everyone had a place to go and now we've obviously they've got their little home that place to go so hopefully we'll just keep going and I've got some things planned certainly for the Woking match and obviously next season as well so I'm probably going to get some of them on at some point in the summer just to kind of explain yourself to children, no not really, just to go through different things and tell them what how everyone else can kind of help and point people towards But we're going to quickly talk about Ipsli, even though Paul's kind of covered it.
Mike Dowling
43:16 - 43:35
As you mentioned, they've been picking up points. This seems to happen to us quite a lot. Suddenly a team doing quite well just as we're about to play them. But where do you see it going on Saturday? How do you see us continuing this run? Or would you take a point now and move on?
Paul
43:38 - 44:05
I'm going to be optimistic. We are going to tune in. We're going to beat them. We're going to we're going to continue our hard working performances and we're going to battle away and yeah, let's see us put them to the sword, get out them early and demoralize them. Do it early,
Speaker 5
44:05 - 44:05
this is what
Paul
44:05 - 44:06
we need
Mike Dowling
44:06 - 44:09
next, do it early. Mark, what do you think?
Mark
44:11 - 44:58
We had difficulty beating Eppsfleet in the two games we played at Gander Green Lane against them this season. We beat them 3-2 in the league, I think, but it was a bit of a battle. And then in the trophy, it was 3-0, and then we won the penalty shootout. And as you say, since their relegation was confirmed, their results do seem to have improved a bit. They've been picking up a few points. On the other hand, our away form generally our performances have been a bit better than the home ones this this year and obviously we would have had a bit of a lift from the recent results so unusually for me I'm going to be a bit optimistic I reckon we will win I'm going to say 2-1.
Mike Dowling
45:00 - 45:25
Excellent, excellent. Well, I'm obviously going to go for a win, but we're now going to hear what exactly how this game is going to go, because we're all going for a win. Yeah, we're optimistic. So now it's going to go. I'll go free one, because I think we'll get some early and then we'll get a late and we'll just tighten up a little bit. So but let us know what you think. Join the Prediction League. I know Paul and Stuart haven't actually updated the table from last night, so we'll have a look. But I know Paul and Stuart are battling away.
Mike Dowling
45:26 - 45:57
So we will see which of them does it over the next five games. Thank you both. We're going to wrap up this episode of Sutton Podcast. As always, we appreciate your attention and feedback. Let us know if you've ever tried to convert anyone to become a Sutton United supporter and how's it gone. Follow, like and share at Sutton Podcast on social medias. And next time we will be back after absolute match. I cannot remember who's doing that one. But thank you to our sponsors, Lucky Star Gin. Thank you to today's panel, Paul and Mark. And thank you for listening.
Mike Dowling
45:57 - 46:01
I hope you've enjoyed this episode of Sutton Podcast. Take care and we'll catch up soon. Bye bye.
Stay Connected with Sutton United & Sutton Podcast
Join our community on social media for the latest updates, exclusive content, and engaging conversations. Don't miss out on the Sutton Podcast for in-depth match analysis, player interviews, and more!
Bookmark our one stop page for all updates
Follow Us:
Listen to the Sutton Podcast: Catch our latest episodes on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and all other platforms.
Contact: If you have any questions, feedback or comments please reach out on any of the socials with @suttonpodcast
Share this post