In this week’s Sutton United Talk Time on Podcast, I was joined by long-time Sutton fan Sarah for a heartfelt chat about the team’s rocky start, the importance of perspective, and why sometimes the atmosphere in the stands matters just as much as the action on the pitch. From long away trips to Rochdale to nostalgic chants that echo back 15 years, Sarah brings a fan’s passion and honesty to the conversation.
Mike Dowling
00:58 - 01:07
Hello, and welcome to another episode of Sustained United Talk Time on podcast. It's the Sutton podcast in association with Lucky Star Gin. I'm your host, Mike. If you're a regular listener, you
Speaker 1
01:07 - 01:07
know my
Mike Dowling
01:07 - 01:08
voice. Don't worry about that.
Speaker 1
01:09 - 01:09
If you're new,
Mike Dowling
01:09 - 01:15
then everything's amazing. Everything's wonderful. And I hope you come back again another time. I am delighted to say I'm being joined by Sarah.
Mike Dowling
01:15 - 01:24
It was going to be Dan, but he's not here yet, and he's not read the messages. So he may join a partway through. But Sarah is here, and Sarah is going to carry the show as usual.
Sarah
01:25 - 01:26
Good evening.
Mike Dowling
01:28 - 01:39
We love hearing from you all. Join the conversation, stay connected and share your thoughts on social media at Sutton Podcast. Your likes, shares and comments really do help us grow. Sarah, how are you?
Speaker 1
01:40 - 01:46
I'm all right, thank you, Mike. In fact, I'm a bit tired. It was a long journey up to Rochdale and back up, so, as always.
Mike Dowling
01:47 - 02:02
And we're going to be keeping it very tight today because we've got important things to do this evening. So, your little one is a birthday. And are you ready for back to school? Did you get the message about some weird day they're doing on day one?
Speaker 1
02:04 - 02:12
I didn't get any message about that, but Lucy mentioned today that she was, oh, I need to dress up in such and such a costume. And I was like, oh, well, it would have been nice to know that a few weeks ago.
Mike Dowling
02:12 - 02:15
Well, yeah, it did. It was an email, but
Speaker 1
02:17 - 02:20
it's like, hang on, that's day one. That's when the kids stand in front of a door. You can't
Mike Dowling
02:20 - 02:20
do that.
Speaker 1
02:22 - 02:30
They do send, primary schools these days, I've noticed, do actually send a huge deluge of emails. So things just get lost in there.
Mike Dowling
02:30 - 02:41
They do, absolutely, yeah, yeah. And the stuff you're reading, going, no, no interest, no interest, no interest. Anyway, that's completely off topic. Are you ready for back to school is where I was kind of going with that, but we still got a week to go.
Speaker 1
02:42 - 02:43
Yeah, probably not really, no.
Mike Dowling
02:44 - 02:58
Fair enough. So I did send a little Knowing Me, Knowing You question, whether you saw it on the invites or not. I know you saw the invite for the wrong time. But do you travel to home games the same way each time?
Mike Dowling
02:58 - 03:22
And what does your routine entail? And there's going to be the jingle while you think about it, if you haven't thought about it already. So do you go the same way every game? And if you do, what does your routine entail?
Mike Dowling
03:22 - 03:33
Because I still, even though I make a conscious thing of I'm not doing it today, as I'm walking down that road towards the bus garage, I still have to cross it at a certain point. I can't cross it before then. And I'm like, this is mad. Why are you doing this?
Speaker 1
03:34 - 03:45
How about having it? This is a knowing me, knowing you's question that I really don't have to think about because I know how I go to home games. The answer is no, I don't go the same way every time. And that depends on a number of things.
Speaker 1
03:46 - 04:14
For the men's games, if it's a Saturday, and I usually, then it falls on me to take my children to football, because my husband looks after them when we have away games, so I get the day off. But if we're at home, we've got, if the weather's okay, we will walk. It's about a half hour walk from my house, because we're right on the other side of Sutton. So where we live, you can get a bus halfway, either half.
Speaker 1
04:14 - 04:35
You either walk into town and get the 413, or you get a bus from our house to the point where you're halfway there. So we either walk or we get half walk on one bus, but we actually normally walk all the way these days because they're good girls and I like getting them exercise. And we generally do take the same route. It's a bit of an annoying walk.
Speaker 1
04:35 - 04:50
So if they're not coming with me, so if it's a midweek game or if for whatever reason they're doing something else that day, I'll just jump on my bike and it takes me 10 minutes. If I do that, then I do go the same way every time. There are alternative routes I can take, but I'm a creature of habit like you, Mike. I like to go the same way.
Speaker 1
04:51 - 05:04
And so that's for the men's games. For the women, obviously, we're playing at the David Weir Centre this season. I haven't actually been yet. A home game they played this season was at Cobham and I actually rode my bike all the way there.
Speaker 1
05:04 - 05:17
It was a nice day. But that's not going to be a habit because we're not going to be playing at Cobham. But for the David Weir, I'm going to try walking to that as well. I don't have a habit for that yet, because we haven't gone.
Mike Dowling
05:17 - 05:30
Yeah, no. It won't take me long to get out of it. Interesting what you said about a half an hour, because I saw this thing on French the other day where some person had put, oh, if you're in London and someone says it's only around the corner, prepare for a 25 minute plus walk.
Speaker 1
05:31 - 05:33
Yeah, that's just a walk.
Mike Dowling
05:34 - 05:37
Yeah. I mean, how else would you get somewhere if it's literally only 25 minutes away?
Speaker 1
05:39 - 05:39
How else
Mike Dowling
05:39 - 05:40
would you do it?
Speaker 1
05:40 - 05:49
That is to be fair. For me, I would say that is the perfect length for a little bike ride. But then that's me. Not everyone's got a bike and not everyone can be bothered riding one.
Speaker 1
05:49 - 05:49
So, you know.
Mike Dowling
05:49 - 06:00
yeah mine's buried in the garage somewhere so i'm like by the time i've got that out and make sure it's ready getting there putting it all away i might as well just walk it um anyway um there
Speaker 1
06:00 - 06:01
was
Mike Dowling
06:01 - 06:28
a message that's just gone out on social media that they're going to be doing sort of a cleanup day at green lane on sunday the 7th i think it said um and they're asking for volunteers so um if anyone's around for that go and have a look i'm not sure I might come along in like a supervisory capacity and point at things because you've seen these hands. These hands don't do work, they're physical, nice soft gentle hands. But I can point, yeah.
Mike Dowling
06:28 - 06:45
Right. Ahead of the game, I know you don't really go into them with much expectation or anything like that, but what were your thoughts and hopes ahead of the game and were there any surprises in the lineup of people you didn't expect or that you wished were in it?
Speaker 1
06:47 - 07:01
Nothing surprises me these days when it comes to the line-up, to be honest. I don't have any expectations at all when it comes to that. We can see anybody. I'm going to be honest with you, I didn't see it before the match because I was busy getting there and meeting people and stuff.
Speaker 1
07:01 - 07:11
So kind of when a team came out, it was the first time I saw the line-up. And I was like, oh, there's Mr. Eccleston. OK. No, I didn't really have any surprises there.
Speaker 1
07:11 - 07:41
In terms of expectations for the game itself. Well, we always lose at Rochdale, so that's basically what I was expecting. I said to my Rochdale pal before the game, if we don't expect anything, then we won't be disappointed. A little bit pessimistic, but no, that doesn't mean I haven't got faith in my team, but it was always going to be a difficult fixture and it is a really hard ground to go to, so Yeah, that's, that was it really.
Mike Dowling
07:42 - 07:47
Yeah, I mean, that's exactly what I said to Joe is the hope for the best, but expect
Speaker 1
07:47 - 07:48
the
Mike Dowling
07:48 - 07:49
worst. You're gonna be like,
Speaker 1
07:49 - 07:53
yay. That's served me well for the last 30 years supporting Sutton to be honest.
Mike Dowling
07:58 - 08:26
I mean, the first half, there was expectation of Rochdale coming forward and everything, but we kind of managed them quite well. And as you said, Junior had a great game. I thought he was going to come in at left back, so I did say to him after the game on Saturday, I said, get practising with that left foot this week, mate. But he came in, did really well, wasn't over-ordered, and Steve is full of praise of him.
Mike Dowling
08:26 - 08:47
So yeah, so but what I mean, Control had most of the possession, they created opportunities, but I think Jack only really had one, one or two saves to make. But what were you feeling kind of as halftime approached and during the half were you as this is a matter of time or were you thinking hang on a minute,
Speaker 1
08:48 - 09:07
Kind of a bit of both because I felt that Rochdale were on top of us for most of the first half, to be honest. They did have the better half. And I think there were times when we just gave them a bit too much space and let them kind of run into big holes that shouldn't really have been there. And I also felt absolutely no disrespect to Rochdale.
Speaker 1
09:07 - 09:11
They're obviously a good team, but I thought we're a bit lucky they're not a little bit better at hitting the target.
Sarah
09:11 - 09:12
Because
Speaker 1
09:12 - 09:24
if they were, we could have been two or three down. But they did have some world-class misses during that half. So, you know, if they'd managed to get those on target, then we wouldn't have been so lucky.
Mike Dowling
09:25 - 09:36
Well, I'm going to have to just basically say I watched it on the zone, but I wasn't live because I was out and I was watching it in like 10 minute spell, having to log off, go to something else, and then watching it again another little few minutes.
Speaker 1
09:36 - 09:38
Which I could have done that from the ground.
Mike Dowling
09:38 - 09:50
Yeah, that might have been where my view is skewed because there might be bits of it that I'll actually miss. But I mean, we've mentioned anyway, Lewis, we're forced into a change with Liam being suspended.
Speaker 1
09:50 - 09:50
Yeah.
Mike Dowling
09:51 - 09:58
And Eddie being injured. There was also another change, you went for what seemed like a back four. Were you
Speaker 1
09:59 - 09:59
surprised by that?
Mike Dowling
09:59 - 10:00
Or again, is that
Speaker 1
10:00 - 10:00
one of
Mike Dowling
10:00 - 10:01
those just...
Speaker 1
10:02 - 10:11
It kind of felt right for the occasion, to be honest. I felt like that was probably a good tactic to go for. So yeah, I wasn't surprised.
Mike Dowling
10:11 - 10:14
Yeah. And Mo came in for
Speaker 1
10:15 - 10:15
his
Mike Dowling
10:16 - 10:20
first sight. How did he seem for that first
Speaker 1
10:20 - 10:29
sight? There were times when I was worried he was going to get a bit swampy, but he didn't. I think he kind of held up pretty well. Yeah, I'd like to see more of him.
Mike Dowling
10:29 - 10:35
Yeah, he seems to be that kind of midfield battler.
Speaker 1
10:35 - 10:39
Yeah, he's small. I quite like a little midfielder.
Mike Dowling
10:41 - 10:52
We want him small and angry, but not too angry, on the pitch angry. I mean, do you think that this was the change was through tactics or through we've got no choice? We have
Speaker 1
10:52 - 11:06
to do something. A bit of each, I think. I think maybe a little bit more, a little bit more necessity than we'd have liked. But I do think it was also something that potentially would have worked quite well.
Mike Dowling
11:07 - 11:13
Yeah, well, we came in at halftime nil-nil, which was great.
Speaker 1
11:13 - 11:16
Yeah, I was pleased with that, to be
Mike Dowling
11:16 - 11:28
honest. It was fairly early in the second half that they, I mean, I'm not sure if people have given enough credit for the build up to the goal,
Sarah
11:28 - 11:30
but they were good.
Mike Dowling
11:31 - 11:41
Yeah, so the goal came, and I think Steve kind of said it, got it into the back of the net and I'm like, it was a very good cross and it was one of those that
Sarah
11:41 - 11:42
you
Mike Dowling
11:42 - 11:54
crossed over and you hope it's going to hit someone and deflect somewhere. But how do you see it in the ground and how were you feeling at that point? We're struggling now.
Speaker 1
11:54 - 11:57
Yeah, I've been dreading you asking me that, Mike,
Sarah
11:58 - 11:58
because
Speaker 1
11:59 - 12:13
I was having a cup of tea and at that moment my hand slipped at the tea and I looked down to and that's when they scored. So I didn't actually see it go in. I just saw the build up to it. And I was like, I mean, actually for a couple of minutes before that, it had been coming.
Speaker 1
12:13 - 12:23
You could tell it was coming. You know, when you're just like, oh, they're going to score. But I saw the build up to it and I was like, oh no, oh no. And then it was like, ugh, and looked up and they scored.
Mike Dowling
12:25 - 12:27
Don't drop your T. That's two sins.
Speaker 1
12:27 - 12:28
You missed the goal and you dropped your T.
Mike Dowling
12:29 - 12:29
Didn't spell
Speaker 1
12:29 - 12:29
a
Mike Dowling
12:30 - 12:32
drop. Oh, OK. Fair enough. Excellent.
Mike Dowling
12:32 - 12:37
That's even better, Lynn. But we did have chances ourself.
Speaker 1
12:37 - 12:37
I
Mike Dowling
12:38 - 12:46
mean, we had, or what have I written down here? I mean, Simps had a shot, it was kind of a miscued shot,
Sarah
12:46 - 12:46
but
Mike Dowling
12:46 - 12:50
it's like one of those, oh, damn it, that could have done something.
Speaker 1
12:52 - 12:56
That's kind of, that sums up the second half for us, really. Yeah. There were a few like that.
Mike Dowling
12:57 - 13:08
in space. And you're kind of like, if you see that build up and the ball dropping snatters, you're going to go, that's a goal. And it just couldn't get it under control. What was the other one?
Mike Dowling
13:08 - 13:10
Brandon, straight through.
Speaker 1
13:11 - 13:16
That was the worst one, I think. I don't mean worst, I don't mean he was rubbish worst. I mean, that was like the most, oh no, you know.
Mike Dowling
13:19 - 13:24
Yeah, about an inch out and that keeper made it. I mean, fair play to the keeper. I think they said he was 17.
Speaker 1
13:24 - 13:25
Really? That's crazy.
Mike Dowling
13:26 - 13:29
I don't know if that's true, but the commentators were talking about a 17-year-old.
Speaker 1
13:29 - 13:52
That's a big ground. I didn't get close enough to see his face very clearly. Yeah, I think those moments, it was quite frustrating because I think, well, the first half, it wasn't the best half of football I've ever seen in most exciting games. And like I said, I think Rochdale were kind of on top of us a bit.
Speaker 1
13:53 - 14:09
But in the second half, it was a lot more us and we had a lot more chances. And the fact that they were kind of all going awry at the last moment, it was quite frustrating because it felt like we deserved to get more out of it at that point. You know what I mean? But then Rochdale had a few in the first half like that as well.
Speaker 1
14:09 - 14:09
So,
Mike Dowling
14:09 - 14:16
yeah. I mean, I think the guy who scored has scored a hat-trick against us. I think I read something last year against Hartlepool.
Speaker 1
14:17 - 14:21
Oh yeah, he does score a few, I know that much.
Mike Dowling
14:22 - 14:41
But yeah, he's a big player. I mean, is it just bad luck, or is there something missing from those last touch? Is it something we can just get over, or is it going to, you know, what is going to come?
Speaker 1
14:42 - 14:54
I think some of it is confidence. Because when you're in front of goal and you've just got to hit it, you've really got to believe. I mean, I'm saying it like I know what it's like to be a striker. I've got no idea.
Speaker 1
14:56 - 15:08
you're up against a team that is well organised in defence, they know what they're doing, you've got to be cunning, you've got to get in the right place, you've got to get in the right position and you can't just smack it when you feel like smacking it because they're just going through the sky like it did a
Sarah
15:08 - 15:09
few times.
Speaker 1
15:10 - 15:38
And I think you really have to have a confident head on your shoulders and I think we've got some great players for that but I think, I mean, we've just played what, three games in six days, and we've got no points from those three games. So the confidence isn't going to be at its highest at the moment. I mean, obviously, you've got to remember, the games we've played so far, they've been on paper some of the toughest fixtures of the season. We always knew it was going to be a difficult start as soon as we saw the fixtures.
Speaker 1
15:38 - 16:08
So I think that was always going to affect, I mean, to be honest, they're professionals. They've got a really good attitude in that squad, you can tell, but they're still human beings. And it's going to be difficult when you're one nil down and it's a big ground and the home team have got a massive crowd. And, you know, it's quite intimidating, I think, especially if you haven't often played at grounds like that before, which some of our players wouldn't have done.
Speaker 1
16:11 - 16:19
And I can't remember what your question was now. We've got the potential. We're going to get that. I reckon it's going to click.
Speaker 1
16:19 - 16:37
I mean, I know I say this every season, but it feels like this is, like I say, this was always going to be a bit of a rocky start. And I think we're going to start putting a few results together and we'll get into a groove. And then maybe we'll just start sort of sneaking up the table. No, I keep saying this, right?
Speaker 1
16:37 - 16:47
I keep saying this. We have all these fixtures at the start of the season against what is probably like the big teams in this division. We don't want to go out and win all those. Then people will start noticing us.
Speaker 1
16:47 - 17:00
Then they'll start raising their game when they played us. What we want to do is give people a false sense of security. Let them think we're rubbish. Lose the first few games, let them think we're rubbish, and then start sneaking up the table and catching them all on their ways.
Speaker 1
17:00 - 17:05
We've got the first bit, right? We've got the first bit right, we've just got to get the second bit right now.
Mike Dowling
17:05 - 17:19
Well, I kind of trying to, because a lot of people are jumping on this on social media going, oh we're terrible, we've not won in this many games, we've not scored. And I'm like, OK, let's try and compare this. So I've had a little look. We finished 12th last season, which is 12 from 24.
Mike Dowling
17:19 - 17:39
And I've had a look. And the team that finished 10th, so 10th from 20 last season, was Brentford in the Premier League. And the teams that we've played, so York was Arsenal, who came second. Forest Green would be Man City, who came third.
Mike Dowling
17:40 - 17:48
Rochdale, I think, I can't remember if it's fourth or fifth they came, but basically wherever Chelsea finished. And so you've got all these teams that
Speaker 1
17:48 - 17:50
if it was... Rochdale, Chelsea of the National League.
Mike Dowling
17:50 - 18:06
I know, but if it was... If it was Brentford playing those games in the Premier League, people were looking at, oh yeah, but look at those fixtures, there's no chance they had there. And then we've got Carlisle, who obviously in the Premier League you don't have them going down, but Barnett aren't there anymore, so you could say Carlisle will potentially Barnett.
Sarah
18:06 - 18:06
So
Mike Dowling
18:07 - 18:25
we've always knew it was going to be tough, as you said. I mean, I made a mistake last time, I said Solihull finished in the playoffs last season, but it wasn't, it was the year before. But you could argue that Solihull we may have got something more out of, but at the time. Yeah, absolutely.
Mike Dowling
18:27 - 18:39
But I think even though some of those chances didn't end up in shots on target, like Brandon's one, it didn't end up in a shot. Nada's one didn't end up in a shot. The chances are there. We're making chances.
Sarah
18:39 - 18:40
Yeah,
Speaker 1
18:40 - 18:41
that's the main thing.
Mike Dowling
18:41 - 18:46
we will start putting them away, hopefully. But we will start putting them away. Because
Speaker 1
18:46 - 18:53
that's how it feels. It feels like we're getting those chances, but just that final, they're kind of a little bit shy in front of goal, it feels like.
Mike Dowling
18:53 - 18:53
Yeah.
Speaker 1
18:54 - 18:55
It's almost like they don't want to
Mike Dowling
18:55 - 19:08
shoot. Well, that could be, that could almost be true, because when I spoke to Josh Coley a couple of seasons back, it's our last season, he said you get to this point when things aren't going well that you just don't want to take on the responsibility
Speaker 1
19:08 - 19:08
and
Mike Dowling
19:08 - 19:28
you want to look for someone else to do it so they can mess up rather than you and he goes and that thing makes itself you're going to mess up it's going to mess up because you're not taking the chances so it does kind of go there like that But there were positives. Jack, both Jacks had another good game. Jack Taylor had a good game as well, and Jack Sims.
Mike Dowling
19:30 - 19:46
I think the defense is starting to come together. Unfortunately, obviously, we've lost Kirkland for a while now, but I think the defense is starting to find its shape. And, I mean, Jaden did well when he came on, apart from maybe one tackle, which...
Speaker 1
19:47 - 19:48
I know the one you mean.
Mike Dowling
19:49 - 19:55
Skip over that one. But yeah, everyone's doing well individually, but we're not clicking quite as a team yet.
Speaker 1
19:56 - 19:58
Which is surprising after that preseason, isn't it?
Mike Dowling
19:58 - 20:10
Well, I'm really surprised because preseason was great, got everyone in nice and early. And it was like, well, actually, we've got everyone ready to gel. We're here, we're hitting the ground running, and then it's just stuttered ever so slightly. But
Sarah
20:10 - 20:10
as
Mike Dowling
20:10 - 20:37
you say, we're going to going to suddenly start sneaking up the table before anyone realizes where we are and what we're doing, hopefully. But we are five games in. I did say to Joe, he came, big surprise to him when I said they didn't even used to publish the tables until sort of six to ten games in yesteryear, but five games in, no wins, two draws and three losses. We're 22nd, which obviously isn't great,
Sarah
20:37 - 20:37
but
Mike Dowling
20:37 - 21:00
it's going to look great, as you say, when they start showing the rise throughout the season, the chart going upwards. Definitely that's going to 100% look great. Do you think that it's a case of we are looking at this long term thing, not week to week, month to month? I know Steve kind of is very much with that.
Mike Dowling
21:00 - 21:11
We just moved to the next game. We're not looking too far ahead. He always says, and Matt said as well, never too high, never too low. But do you think that that's realistic for the fan base to be playing?
Mike Dowling
21:11 - 21:13
Okay, well, we'll just have to accept what it is at the moment.
Speaker 1
21:14 - 21:45
Oh, definitely. I think we're I think achieving stuff, I mean, you've got that instant gratification thing that all football fans want. I think that's the sort of thing you can expect from a club with big money that buy big money players, because then you've got that instant success ready to use almost. But for us, it's more like we're growing the club and We have to be careful how we do that because in a sense, when we got promoted into League Two, it was almost like we had to grow too quickly as a club and we outgrew ourselves in a
Speaker 1
21:45 - 21:57
way. And it was very, very difficult. And I'm sure like any member of the board will tell you that that was, although exciting, was a really difficult time for the club because so much needs to be done in a short space of time. We couldn't really, it was really hard to keep up with ourselves.
Speaker 1
21:59 - 22:32
I think we need to, like you say, be realistic, because if we kind of pace ourselves a bit better, then I think we will then be, our growth will be a lot more sustainable than if we try and do too much too soon. Because if we do that, then, you know, what happened when we got promoted, we went back down again after, you know, not that long. We had a couple of good seasons. Then we went back down again and It kind of, in a sense, almost felt like we'd gone backwards a little bit because we were then in a place where we were back as a non-league club, but we still felt like we'd lost stuff.
Speaker 1
22:32 - 22:47
Like, for example, the 3G pitch that we had to get rid of when we got promoted, and it almost felt like a step back. You know, that's not kind of what we want to do. We don't want to be a yo-yo club going up and down, up and down. We want to build a good foundation to go forward.
Speaker 1
22:47 - 23:05
I mean, this is just my opinion, obviously, as a fan. I don't really know anything about running a football club, but that's how it feels to me. And I think in terms of the team itself, which is kind of more what we're talking about, really, I think we're looking at something similar, really. You don't just bring in loads of players and shove them together and hope for the best.
Speaker 1
23:05 - 23:42
You know, you've got to build You've got to build a culture within a squad, where you've got to get kind of the attitude spot on, you've got to get everyone singing from the same hymn sheet, you've got to get everyone, you know, getting to know each other well and obviously any football squad is going to be, there's going to be comings and goings, but you want that core of players who kind of build up that kind of way of playing together over time. And a lot of people, and I can completely understand why, because we football fans, we want to see, we want to go out there and want to see our team score lots of goals and win games. So people can be a bit impatient about it, and I get that, I totally get that.
Speaker 1
23:43 - 23:54
They're paying their money, they're paying money to watch that game, they want to win that game. And yeah, totally, totally see it. But I think sometimes it's quite hard to see the bigger picture. And I think with a club like Sutton, we've got to see the bigger picture.
Speaker 1
23:54 - 23:56
Because it doesn't work any other way.
Mike Dowling
23:57 - 24:12
You're absolutely right with the sense of loss of the league status, which is strange because we were only there for a short period, but what we've got is people who now think that we should, we have a right to be back there.
Sarah
24:13 - 24:13
Whereas,
Mike Dowling
24:13 - 24:13
in
Speaker 1
24:13 - 24:13
fact,
Mike Dowling
24:13 - 24:19
it's only a tiny, tiny, tiny bit of our history that we're there. In fact, it's a tiny bit of our history that we're in the level we're at
Speaker 1
24:20 - 24:20
now,
Mike Dowling
24:21 - 24:32
realistically. But yes, it's certainly a thing of, well, no, we need to look upwards and forwards. And I know people get frustrated hearing that,
Speaker 1
24:32 - 24:33
oh, we
Mike Dowling
24:33 - 24:36
were working hard, we're doing this, we're pushing towards it, because people keep saying, well,
Speaker 1
24:36 - 24:37
show it on the
Mike Dowling
24:37 - 24:58
pitch then. But it is often forgotten that there's another team who are also trying to work hard, and they're starting from a point a little bit ahead of us. I mean, one of the comments I saw was, well, it just proves we should never have let Will Davis go. It's like, he wanted to go, you can't force him to stay.
Mike Dowling
24:58 - 25:06
Yes, we could have forced him to stay for this season, but you would have had a player who's not happy and lost him for no money at the end of the season, so.
Speaker 1
25:06 - 25:19
Yeah, what's the point in having someone playing for you, his heart isn't in it. Not only are they not going to play well for you and not going to do anything for you, but it's going to be really bad for them because who's going to want to buy them at the end of the season? Exactly.
Mike Dowling
25:22 - 25:22
Have
Speaker 1
25:22 - 25:23
you had a chance
Mike Dowling
25:23 - 25:28
to see tomorrow's interview post-match?
Speaker 1
25:28 - 25:28
Sorry?
Mike Dowling
25:29 - 25:30
Did you listen to Morrow's post-match interview?
Speaker 1
25:30 - 25:39
Oh, sorry, I thought you said tomorrow's interview, and I was very confused. So, Morrow's interview. I don't normally, actually, but I did. And I really, really felt for him.
Speaker 1
25:39 - 26:02
He sounded really dejected. I know he's not everyone's cup of tea, because he's not as engaging as some managers are when it comes to things like that. But it's clear that even if he's not particularly expressive about how he feels sometimes, you can really tell that he was like, he was gutted. And you can tell that he really, really cares.
Speaker 1
26:02 - 26:06
Yeah, he wants to do a good job. He really desperately wants to do a good job.
Mike Dowling
26:07 - 26:07
Yeah,
Speaker 1
26:07 - 26:08
he's got the players on his side.
Mike Dowling
26:09 - 26:26
Of course, yeah. I mean, even if you felt that, for whatever reason, doesn't care about Sutton, so let's pretend that we can agree with that. It's a case of he cares not to lose, he wants to win. He doesn't actually care what he wins, he just wants to win.
Mike Dowling
26:26 - 26:37
That's kind of in his DNA. And you were at the meet the manager evening and he's sort of come out with I'm sorry I'm not Matt.
Speaker 1
26:38 - 26:40
That hurt me.
Mike Dowling
26:40 - 26:53
You're not supposed to be. But he's clearly feeling frustrated, he's taken it on board and he's apologised to all the staff. a swan song, Steve, come on,
Speaker 1
26:53 - 26:54
you've just
Mike Dowling
26:54 - 26:54
got
Speaker 1
26:54 - 27:10
to... Actually, when you say that, but he worried me for a moment there, he's like, I'm going to do a bit of soul searching, and so he's apologising to practically everyone he can name at the club, and I'm like, you sound like you're about to resign because you think you're doing that, I'm bound to cheer up, mate, come on.
Mike Dowling
27:10 - 27:13
We're having a super, awful August, and now we're going to have a super September.
Speaker 1
27:14 - 27:19
Oh, that's the spirit. Yeah. Standing October. Yeah, absolutely.
Mike Dowling
27:21 - 27:45
We'll worry about November when we get there. Yeah, in general, people are obviously very pessimistic, forgetting what they felt like when the schedule came out, and saying, well, God, we're going to struggle, and now thinking, well, we should have picked up more points at this stage. I think, as I always do, we need the unity. I mean, we've got people saying, oh, this isn't a recent thing.
Mike Dowling
27:46 - 27:48
We've only won x number of games since last January.
Speaker 1
27:51 - 27:51
The
Mike Dowling
27:51 - 28:04
home form is this, that, the other. Now, the thing is, that kind of goes back to midway through our second season. And since then, we've had a change of management and staff, loads of changes of players, changes of behind the scenes. The only thing that's remained stable is us.
Speaker 1
28:05 - 28:14
It's true. I don't like that. In August, you can't really talk about form. You can't really talk about the end of last season, because like you say, half the players weren't there.
Speaker 1
28:15 - 28:26
But also, that was a different season. We're in a very different place. You are always in a very different place at the end of the season from where you are at the beginning of the season anyway. It's not a continuous thing.
Speaker 1
28:26 - 28:30
You've stopped, you've ended the season, put that season in a box, put it in the archives, start a new one.
Mike Dowling
28:32 - 28:56
I mean, the only real time I ever tried to do that was the season we won into the national league. We won the conference south with like 26 games unbeaten. And then we were going into the conference, the national, and it was like, we're looking at potentially going towards the longest winning streak in the national, the unbeaten streak in the national league. And then Solihull Moore's battered us 4-0.
Mike Dowling
28:57 - 28:58
Well, that doesn't count anyway. You
Speaker 1
29:00 - 29:15
did make a good point there, Mike, because you said the only constant is us. Now, actually, obviously, the fans are important. We are an important part of the club. And the fact that for us, even if some of the players weren't at the club then that we've got now, for us, it's been that long without seeing a win.
Speaker 1
29:16 - 29:27
And that is still important. Because we're the ones who have to get behind the team. And it's harder to do that when you feel like you're not getting as much back as you'd like. Now, I'm not saying that's how I feel.
Speaker 1
29:28 - 29:36
I can see those players out there trying their best. I know they are. And we've played some good football this season. We've not always been lucky, which you never are going to be on football.
Speaker 1
29:37 - 29:52
And we have played some very strong opposition. And also, you know, for all me and my joking about winning the league every five years, no one's actually expecting us to win the title. So we're not going to beat everybody. But still, you know how it is.
Speaker 1
29:53 - 29:59
Cheltenham's one up to win the league for us to win the league. That's how it goes, isn't it? I know it's the other way around. They win the league every time we win.
Speaker 1
29:59 - 30:01
No, we win the league every time they win the league. Right. So
Mike Dowling
30:01 - 30:30
kids, Christmas is clearly cancelled because I've put everything on winning the league. Right, next up and the start of the run. We have got Carlisle, nice little small club. bunch of northerners turning up to gander green lane um i mean the players did i don't know if you saw that little video that was the player's idea to do that video we want you behind the girl we want to come out to a wall of noise that
Mike Dowling
30:30 - 30:30
was that
Speaker 1
30:30 - 30:30
was
Mike Dowling
30:30 - 30:51
all from them But as you say, it's been getting more and more difficult because it's like, we've done this and nothing's happened, but it is happening. It's bringing the players closer, they're knowing we're doing things for them, so they're going to be wanting to do things for us. The form is quite different. We're going into it, as I said, we've not won anything.
Mike Dowling
30:52 - 31:06
Carlisle are, I think they're Bird, they beat Braintree quite easily, and Willstone they beat as well. So, we're kind of psychologically coming from this as a weaker side, and they're full of confidence.
Speaker 1
31:07 - 31:09
How do you think it's going to go? That's the sort of game you win, isn't it?
Mike Dowling
31:10 - 31:21
Well, it's the sort of games we used to lose. Because, I mean, a few years ago, I remember we were going into a game, we were pushing, pushing for the title. I think it was before we got promoted. We were doing really, really well.
Mike Dowling
31:21 - 31:30
And then Torquay came rock bottom of the league. They hadn't won in forever. They came to our place on a Tuesday, long journey, and they beat us. And it's like, yep, great.
Mike Dowling
31:30 - 31:31
Thanks a lot, guys. That's exactly
Speaker 1
31:31 - 31:45
what I like. We used to always do that when Paul Doswell was our manager. Yeah, he could, he was a very good man manager, he was very good at the psychology, and we would win the big games with him. But then we're playing Braintree on the Tuesday night, we'd lose.
Mike Dowling
31:46 - 31:46
Yeah.
Speaker 1
31:46 - 31:48
And that's when Braintree went down.
Mike Dowling
31:48 - 31:50
So
Speaker 1
31:51 - 31:57
Truro City came to us and they didn't have any players, and they beat us. And they were in crisis.
Mike Dowling
31:58 - 31:58
Yes.
Speaker 1
31:59 - 32:00
But then we beat the teams at the top of the
Mike Dowling
32:01 - 32:05
league. We're flipping this. We're going to be beating the teams at the top of the league. Let's do it.
Mike Dowling
32:05 - 32:14
What do you think? I mean, we've got Dave coming back. I can't remember who else they've got of ours. But what are you expecting from Saturday?
Speaker 1
32:16 - 32:22
I'm expecting to be playing against a very strong opponent. I'm not going to lie.
Mike Dowling
32:22 - 32:24
Two blokes to run around after a ball. Goodbye.
Speaker 1
32:25 - 32:28
Yeah. Yeah. I'm expecting that. And then someone else to referee up.
Speaker 1
32:29 - 32:45
Not necessarily a bloke, but probably a bloke. I haven't thought that far ahead yet. All I've thought so far is that's going to be a tough game. I mean, everyone knows it's going to be a tough game.
Speaker 1
32:45 - 32:56
I can't really say anything particularly interesting, because that's what we expect. It's going to be a tough game. But I mean, we've seen flashes of brilliance. And one day it's going to come together.
Speaker 1
32:56 - 33:02
And who knows, maybe it'll be Saturday. Who knows? We'll see. We'll do that wall of noise, see if it makes a difference.
Speaker 1
33:02 - 33:22
Because a lot of these tough games we've had so far, you know, Solihull, not Solihull, I meant to say Forest Green, it came out as Solihull. A lot of them have been away. And actually, we've not had, you know, our big crowd of young lads, they weren't there yesterday and they weren't at Forest Green. It's obviously, it's the kind of place that it's very difficult to get back from.
Speaker 1
33:25 - 33:48
very expensive to get to as well. So we didn't have, I mean, to be fair, one thing that I enjoyed is, I'm sorry, I'm going off on a tangent here, but I'm sure you don't mind. One thing I kind of enjoyed about yesterday was because that big group of lads wasn't there, and I don't, I'm not saying I enjoyed them not being there. I love the noise they make, but because they weren't, some of the old school fans had to step in instead.
Speaker 1
33:48 - 33:59
And we had the old school chanting that we used to have like 15 years ago before those lads started turning up. Well, maybe even longer ago than that. And it was very nostalgic. It was very nostalgic.
Speaker 1
33:59 - 34:01
I quite like
Mike Dowling
34:02 - 34:02
that.
Speaker 1
34:02 - 34:09
Saturday, I'm sure they'll all be back in force and we'll have even more noise. And it'll be a different atmosphere, maybe.
Mike Dowling
34:11 - 34:23
Right. You don't join, you don't do the Prediction League. I'm going to get you to do a prediction. I don't like saying this because if you're going to force me to make a prediction,
Speaker 1
34:23 - 34:43
I'm going to have to say we'll lose. Because otherwise I'm like an idiot when we lose. I don't like predicting that we lose, because it feels like I'm not having faith in our players. And I think they're great.
Speaker 1
34:43 - 34:46
And I think we've got a great side.
Mike Dowling
34:46 - 34:51
We have a thing of if you predict a loss and we win, then everyone loves you.
Speaker 1
34:52 - 34:58
That's true. And then actually no one will ever remember that I predicted we'd lose. OK, let's say 2-0 defeat.
Mike Dowling
34:58 - 34:59
I've
Speaker 1
34:59 - 35:01
never predicted a defeat in a podcast before, I don't think.
Mike Dowling
35:02 - 35:08
That's the opposite of what I've done. I've gone for a 2-0 win, because, yeah, same as you, I can't. I
Speaker 1
35:08 - 35:10
just can't.
Mike Dowling
35:11 - 35:20
And I've got to go with Nadas to start his scoring run, get his pre-season form back. Interestingly, AI, who I've kind
Sarah
35:20 - 35:20
of got
Mike Dowling
35:20 - 35:28
to research it and go through, has gone with us to win 2-1 with Brandon to score first. And I think that's the first time this season it's predicted us to win.
Speaker 1
35:28 - 35:32
Even what AI has given us so far, I'm surprised it didn't predict Jack Sims to score the goal.
Mike Dowling
35:33 - 35:38
Well, it was the one that a couple of weeks ago, Will Davis to score.
Sarah
35:39 - 35:40
It was like,
Mike Dowling
35:41 - 35:51
I'm not sure how much I'm going to trust this, but it's caught up with itself. It's fine. And also, I'm going to see if we can do a storybook on this one as well, because that was
Sarah
35:51 - 35:52
very, very exciting.
Mike Dowling
35:52 - 35:54
AI storybook. I'm loving
Sarah
35:54 - 35:54
it. My
Mike Dowling
35:54 - 35:55
kids
Sarah
35:55 - 35:55
will like that.
Mike Dowling
35:56 - 36:00
I might just pop to in the podcast and just put out a storybook. Stop doing
Sarah
36:00 - 36:01
the podcast, Joe.
Mike Dowling
36:01 - 36:10
We're going to wrap up this episode of Sutton Podcast. As always, we appreciate everyone's attention and feedback. Joe's rolling his eyes somewhere. Get involved in the Knowing Me, Knowing You segment.
Mike Dowling
36:10 - 36:21
How do you travel to home games and do you do it the same way each time? And what does your routine look like? Follow, like, and share Sutton Podcast on all social medias. Give us comments and whatnot.
Mike Dowling
36:21 - 36:28
And thank you to Sarah. Danny's obviously recovering from his two pies at the weekend, wasn't it, Sarah?
Speaker 1
36:28 - 36:39
Yeah, two pies. Two pies at Botchdale with lots of gravy. We can see you out there, Dan, two pies, Taylor, lying on your bed, clutching your stomach in agony. That's what's happening.
Speaker 1
36:39 - 36:41
That's why he's not answering his messages.
Mike Dowling
36:42 - 36:49
But thank you also to Lucky Star Gin, our sponsors. Thanks to everyone for listening. Hope you've enjoyed this episode. Take care and we'll catch up soon.
Mike Dowling
36:49 - 36:49
Bye-bye.
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