Hello & welcome to another episode of Sutton United Talk Time on podcast. We’re buzzing through this one very, very quickly today—partly due to the busy schedule, and partly because we’re all still nursing a bit of a hangover from Saturday's performance! I’m your host, Mike, and joining me are Louis, who’s been busy with his National League Lowdown notes, and Nick, calling in from a sunny Super Bowl Sunday in the States to give us some cold, hard reality.
Mike Dowling
Hello and welcome, I guess, to another episode of Sutton United Talk Time on podcast. We're going to buzz through this one very, very quickly. As always, we're an association with Lucky Star Gin.
Mike Dowling
Thank you for listening. No, sorry. If you are a regular listener, thank you for listening, tuning in. Very much enjoy your company.
Mike Dowling
And if you are a new listener, you are very welcome. What a one to start. I'm your host, Mike. And with me today, we have Louis and Nicholas.
Mike Dowling
We love hearing from you. Join the conversations. Stay in touch. Nicholas has already glared at me because he said Nick.
Mike Dowling
Stay connected with us. Share your thoughts on the episodes and chat with other fans. Let me know what you think and reach us on all social medias at Sutton Podcast. All the likes, shares and everything really, really do help and give us some big thumbs up.
Mike Dowling
We're going to step aside a little bit, pad this out a bit, but Lewis, it's been a while. Louis, Christ, I'm doing awful on names. It's been a while. I haven't spoken to you for a while, but I keep reading your notes in various places.
Mike Dowling
How are you and how's the writing and also podcasting going?
Louis
Yeah, I'm good. Thanks, Mike. Put that aside. Yeah, doing a usual article in the programme, looking back at the National League features from the previous week.
Louis
And I'm also on the National League Lowdown podcast, which is two podcasts a week. We review and preview the games coming up, which is a good bit of fun. But it's a bit tough at the moment considering I've not seen us win in person since the 5th of November. So it's getting tougher and tougher each week, maybe I'm the problem.
Mike Dowling
We had a good November with the rest of the games. And Nick, how was it for you? Nice, bright, sunny morning over there.
Nick
Yeah, it's very sunny, very warm already. It's for those who care. I don't count myself amongst them. It's Super Bowl Sunday here in the United States.
Nick
So this is an event that a lot of the population tunes in for the halftime show and the adverts. That's the highlight for a lot of people. That's why the ratings, I think, is so high. So I'm trying to get excited, but not doing very well.
Mike Dowling
There's a 50 cent advert that you need to see. It's got some very interesting in-jokes. I think the whole thing is a big in-joke, but yeah, the 50 cent one is a very good advert.
Nick
Looking forward to it.
Mike Dowling
Right, so let's do this, let's get it over with as quickly as possible. Yesterday, heading into the game, Nick, what were your expectations, what were you hoping for, and was there anything in the lineup that threw you a little bit? Did anyone kind of not appear that should have appeared, or vice versa?
Nick
Nothing in the lineup that threw me. I think everybody it had been signaled that Eden Pruety would come straight here straight back in So the lineup was as to be expected my expectation was that we would I predicted a win Just simply because I just think I think we have to go quite far back I think we'd lost twice against them last season and also because I think I think I was on the last time previously one time that was on previously and It was for the home game against Boston. I remember I was talking about how the coach, their coach had said that if the game had gone on for another 10 minutes that, you know, they would have lost it.
Nick
And I thought, well, could we maybe pick up from there? You know, that's obviously going all the way back to October, and we're in February, but that's, I'm probably, you know, hindsight's a wonderful thing, and maybe I was clutching at straws, but I thought, could we have left off from there, however? wasn't to be. Yeah.
Nick
But I thought we would, I thought we would be on the front foot and that we would get something out of it. So.
Mike Dowling
Clutching at positive straws. Sounds like you've been on the podcast far too many times then, because that's, that's exactly what I do. I'll try and find something and cling to it. Um, Louis, what were your thoughts going into the game?
Mike Dowling
And was there anything about the lineup that, um, you weren't sure about?
Louis
No, so I still do the fan half and I got 11 out of 11. I wasn't surprised he proved to come back in. I think he said in his pre-match aggie that he was suggesting that he could come back in and I think given he's given them the captain's armband it wasn't much surprise that he came in. I expected a low margins game.
Louis
I didn't think, going back, I don't think our performance against Brackley was our best, so I expected a bit of an improvement on that. But I did think it was going to be a really sort of nervy, edgy game and either side were going to nick it one nil or it was going to be a low scoring draw. And unfortunately, it went the way of Boston in terms of the low margin and the nicking the goal.
Mike Dowling
So you've both mentioned Brutus coming back in. Will didn't even get a place on the bench. Do we think that's a bit harsh? Do you think there's maybe an injury that we don't know about?
Mike Dowling
I haven't listened to the whole post-match, I'll be honest. I mean, he's done okay. He hasn't done terribly. He's chipped in with a few goals.
Mike Dowling
Where do you think the choice is on that one, Lewis?
Louis
I think it's just that leadership aspect that Fruity's got compared to Tissard. I think he's done really well, Tissard, and he's added a bit more in terms of playing out from the back and driving out from the back. But I think in terms of the leadership, in terms of getting stuck into challenges, maybe Fruity was probably the reason why he came in. Yeah, I think that's the main reason.
Louis
But I think it is hard on Tisard, but we've now got a full-foot squad, really. So it's no surprise that players are going to be left out of the matchday squad. I think Vincent was unlucky, considering he came into the Baldy game. I think he came on or played 60 minutes or so and did well, apparently, from what I saw.
Louis
Yeah, but there will be players left out. I think it's just the nature of the fact we've got a strong squad and quite a big squad at the moment.
Mike Dowling
Yeah, I mean, he did mention a couple of weeks ago, Nick, that once you've got all the players back, we're looking at a good solid squad that there will be people just completely left out for no reason. But do you think it was maybe harsh in tears? Do you think it, as we said, there's good reasons for this?
Nick
I think, well, I mean, it is harsh on Tiz, but I mean, that's the job of the manager. I mean, he's, you know, there's only 11 places and there's a certain number of places on the bench as well. I think, I think what proof does give is that he is a bit, he is a bit more robust, a bit steelier. And I think he was maybe looking at a team like Boston and thinking that we could do with a little bit more, a bit more muscle at the back there.
Nick
I mean, Tiz is no pushover or anything like that, but I think think that's what he was in there for, for a sort of, for a slogfest, I dare say. But yeah, let's see, I mean, you know, we'll come on to it, I dare say, later on, but maybe Tizard We've averaged less than a goal a game since Shrewsbury and it's an odd one that Tisdale just got a couple of goals. So it's an odd one to think that you'd leave somebody that can score goals out of the both the starting lineup and the bench as well. So yeah, one that maybe needs rethinking.
Mike Dowling
But as you say, he's physically, but also he's got that big scary mask as well. So maybe we're hoping to frighten people. This has come up repeatedly over the last few weeks and people are getting very, very antsy. The nature of the goal, there was a mistake at the back.
Mike Dowling
Nick, do you think that this was just a mistake or do you think this is another one to put down to the playing it out from the back? Because the, was it Cursons, their new signing kind of jumped on the mistake and ended up scoring. What were your thoughts on the goal, the only goal?
Nick
I cursed my own because I was looking at Jake in the first half and he'd been really good. And, you know, there was a bit of play, I don't know if people remember, it came up on the highlights, but Jake had it and he was in a bit of a bind near the goal, not there, on the byline. He's turned around, he hasn't got anything on, so he's very, very cleverly just like played it back off the player for it to go out for a throw in to keep possession. And I thought that he's a very intelligent player.
Nick
And I, you know, at which point I thought, yeah, we're going to be talking about, we're going to be talking about Jake tomorrow, but we are talking about him for the wrong reason. Regrettably, we're back to the thing again. It wasn't a defender that made the mistake, it was a midfielder that found himself in that back position. An error like that doesn't always necessarily lead to a goal.
Nick
You can give it away in that area. I don't, I mean, on the playing out from the back thing, I did, I did think that they were doing it less and that they were going longer, far more yesterday. So maybe that's been a discussion midweek to say, right, we're gonna have to mix it up because it's just too predictable. That's, that's the sense that I got anyway, I don't know, from yesterday.
Nick
I don't know if anybody else saw it that way, that they are now mixing it up.
Mike Dowling
Yeah. I mean, Louis, if these players didn't make any mistakes. they wouldn't be at Sutton United. Everyone's going to make an error.
Mike Dowling
I mean, in this podcast, in what, 10 minutes so far? I've got your name wrong twice. Nick's wrong once. People make mistakes.
Mike Dowling
It just happens. And it isn't systematic that we're a terrible team because there's individual errors. But how did you see it? And what's your view?
Mike Dowling
And I'm guessing it's been discussed a few times on your podcast. But what's your view on playing it out from the back?
Louis
Yeah, I think it was evident yesterday from being at the game that, especially early on in the first half, we seemed to be running it down the channels a lot more, playing it down the wing a lot more and sort of putting it forward much quicker than we were against Brackley. And whether that was the tactic to try and trick Roston into maybe stepping off the press, maybe. It didn't particularly work because those long balls weren't finding men and we weren't winning headers and we weren't winning second duels, as Aghi said in his post-match.
Louis
Yeah, the playing out from the back being up, I don't mind it, but I just feel like at times there was three passes made when one pass could have been made. And I think that's the issue and the frustration with it all. And then on the goal itself, I don't think you can pin it entirely on Jake, because I think there's a series of errors that sort of came about from, I think it was Muller and Topalaj, I think it was, who sort of semi went for the same ball. And then Muller didn't sort of clear or pass it out clearly.
Louis
He gave the ball to Jake and then Jake sort of runs into a narrow alley and you sort of think, oh, there's no option for him. I think the only option then was to go back to Sims. Yeah, it's just a mix up and a plateau of errors that eventually led to their goal. It was a good finish by the guy, but I think Sims is also, because he's trepped across the goal, he's also caught off guard as to where his far post is in that respect as well.
Louis
So it's a bit of both. It's just when you see that we're making three passes. I think there was multiple times where Jermaine Francis was free on the left winger in the second half and we were 1-0 down. And we seemed to make two or three passes to get it to the left-hand side and then get it out to Francis, which Boston had then closed off the space.
Louis
And by that time, he just had two men around him by the time he got the ball. So I think that was my frustration with the game from watching it from the stands. I could see him right in front of me, clearing space. We are humans and we will make errors.
Louis
It's just, I know it's difficult in-game, but it's in-game decision-making that maybe is letting us down at the moment.
Mike Dowling
As you even said there, there were times where we're going long and it was coming straight back, which is the whole point of trying to just keep the ball. It does need to be a kind of a hybrid thing. I absolutely understand and get why Chris wants to play this way, but there are times when it's around our penalty area and I literally can't watch it because I'm like, please, please, please just get it.
Louis
Our only aerial threat really when the balls went long was Junior, I think, and he did win quite a few head-ons, but then we didn't win seconds after that. So, as you say, there's no point in lumping it forward for the sake of lumping it forward, and there's no point in passing it round the back for the sake of passing it round the back. It's finding the right balance. into it as well.
Louis
When you're in a rut and you can hear the away fans having a go at you, you're going to play a shorter pass to a player who's 10 yards away from you rather than spread it across a pitch 40 yards. So it is easy for us to complain, but it was just the consistency of the same kind of thing happening. And when we did try and play it long, it was going out for a throw-in or going out for a goal kick. And yeah, really frustrating afternoon.
Mike Dowling
Now, we briefly chatted beforehand and we were saying about midfield. Kind of, we were outbattled yesterday, would you say? Look sluggish, maybe. Do you think that maybe The guys need a bit of a break.
Mike Dowling
We've got Simps, Jake and Kai. We've played a lot of football recently. We'll start with you, Libby. What do you think of the midfield?
Mike Dowling
Do you think one or two or three of them need a break?
Louis
Yeah, I'd argue so. I think if you take them individually, I think Jennings hasn't looked the same. I don't think that's really had a hit on him, sadly. And he's a fantastic player.
Louis
He's a really good technical player. But I think there's just something that hasn't been right. And maybe he just does need a rest. You know, he can be an impact player as well.
Louis
I think Jake Taylor is the only one that I think would be hard to replace. I don't think we've got that hard man in midfield who's going to put his foot in and win tackles in the same way that Eastman did when Eastman was with us. So I think he's the only one that I think you can argue needs to play most games because of the nature of the position and the player that he has. And then with Simpa, I think he's, yeah, I think as an impact player, he'd be great off the bench.
Louis
And I think if you played someone like Eze instead of him, Eze is another maverick who can make something happen from nowhere, which is exactly what Simpa does. Yeah, I'd argue the case that maybe bring them on for a half an hour against Braintree when Braintree retiring, you'd hope that we'd have most of the ball against Braintree and have most of the possession of the territory. So therefore, bringing Essayon to start and bringing Simpson off the bench against Tidal, they should probably work better, hopefully. But I'm not a hook manager and there's a reason for that.
Mike Dowling
So, yeah. say it very often it may as well be a catchphrase is uh i pay to watch football so uh and there's a reason i pay we're often unpaid um but nick what what do you think of that midfield do you think um they're looking tired and leggy uh yeah absolutely uh uh i mean lewis said that you know uh kai has not let the same play out you know
Nick
something's got on his head since that mistake and so you know we all know what a fantastic footballer he is and it's sad that that's happened. I think you know Jadon's the second highest goal scorer I think behind Lewis Simpson, I think he's on five and he was spending he had some time on the bench yesterday so you know, players can't be untouchable and, you know, if you become, it might be the case that Louis Semper, he was, you know, he's been absolutely superb, thank goodness we've kept hold of him during the transfer window and that we can't, we can't lose him, at least not for now. But it might be the case that players are looking constantly to him to make the play.
Nick
And if you take a player, a key player out of the game, sometimes it does free other people up and put an onus on them to do something with it. And so It might be necessary to start, I think I mentioned just before we came on that Steve was subbing Lewis Simper at the start of the season but since the Shrewsbury game I think Lewis has only been subbed once and that was in the 94th minute up at Tamworth. So, you know, he is probably very tired.
Nick
I mean, he's running his heart out as well, but sometimes just running around isn't necessarily getting the best out of you. So, I think he needs to rest. I'd like to see Charlie Bell given a few more minutes. I mean, he's proven decisive, he proved decisive at woking, coming off the bench there, so he can do something.
Nick
But I agree on the point about Jake Taylor, that he is you know, he is indispensable. Despite the error yesterday, I don't think that should be held against him for reasons that were said earlier on because, you know, they say everyone's got an error in them. But yes, certainly Kai and certainly Lewis, you know, I hope it's not the case. I don't think it is the case that these are considered untouchable players, but they should be given given a start on the bench and come off of it and then make an impact from the bench.
Mike Dowling
I suppose one of the dangers of, and it's exactly why Kai's with us, of putting Charlie in to a side that's maybe not full of confidence, is it could it then knock his confidence and enthusiasm, because that's why Wimbledon didn't want to take that Kai, because it was like fans are calling out for him to be in the team, but his manager Johnny Jackson was like, is there any point in putting him in a struggling team and knocking his confidence, let him develop at Sutton? And obviously we don't want to do that necessarily with Charlie. But we didn't really test their keeper.
Mike Dowling
We don't really know if their keeper is any good or not, do we? I think it was only one shot on target. I think it was simple. What do you think we need to do now?
Mike Dowling
Nick, we'll stick with you on that one. Do you think it needs to be a bit more just Confidence be brave shoot. See what happens or are they right to make carve out the best chance possible?
Nick
I thought Just on that coming to that point. I thought I'm Chris's post-match hint of history was slightly concerning Because he did seem a bit. He didn't seem at all chipper and he seemed deflated. There were long pauses between his own like as he was almost lost for words, for what to do.
Nick
I mean, I don't know, what did we, what did we do yesterday? We had three up front, you know, maybe we go two up front, maybe start both Maddison and Todari up front, go to a 4-4-2. I mean, yesterday, I think it was a 3-4-3, did we have? Was that the formation?
Nick
So starting two strikers, you know, we've got the third striker in Brandon, you know, so we looked to so much of that game in the first period. I don't think we had a shot on target in the first half. didn't certainly didn't work the keeper in the first half so now that we've got three strikers you know a couple of couple of uh weeks ago we didn't have a single i didn't have a single fit strike and maybe it's time to go to to shake it up a bit and start with two up front and so that we've got todari maybe two or one of them to hold it up and then knock on to the other one the Just to stretch the full-backs and stretch them around a little bit, because I think that they
Nick
weren't a great side. That's the worst thing about yesterday. All due respect to Boston. They must love playing us, by the way, because they seem to do really well.
Mike Dowling
Like us and York.
Nick
Yeah. So that would be something I'd maybe be looking to see over the next few games, is to just switch to a 4-4-2.
Mike Dowling
Louis, what do you think about the situation? You can't just blame the strikers because if they're feeding on scraps, it's difficult for them to do anything. What are your thoughts on how do we get some more shots away?
Louis
The answer is I don't know really. It's really difficult. people brought Rodari on for the second half, I don't think he had a touch. I don't know what it was, but we weren't creating any chances.
Louis
Obviously, Javi said in previous interviews that he's not a player who's going to create his own chance or make that late row. It's going to be a goalscorer, it's going to be in the six yard box. We just didn't get anything into the six yard box. you know, it's not good that he didn't have a touch, but he didn't have anything to feed off.
Louis
I think maybe playing with a bit more width, because we, we had, we took a Bonner up at halftime and I think he was getting in good positions, but he just, it was that final ball that just wasn't really there properly. And then when we got the ball in the, in the wide areas in the second half, whether it's a confidence thing, I don't know, whether it's, you know, it's been coached into them to sort of play it out and look back on and everyone around us was saying that their defence has got a mistake in them and we just didn't test their defence. So just take your man on if you're 1-on-1 or 2-on-1 towards the City half, just take him on, get yourself in the box and try and get something from that.
Louis
And from set pieces yesterday, we were pretty woeful. I think we had seven corners and I think every single one of them went straight into the keeper's hands and we didn't test the keeper. And the one time we huddled around the keeper, the corner ball was put right on the far end and no one was there because we were all huddling the keeper. Yeah, it's the million dollar question because if we knew the answer, Aggie would know the answer and we'd be scoring goals probably.
Louis
So, yeah, maybe shape it up a bit. But I do think wing players is where potentially we're lacking because we didn't get many balls in the box yesterday, I don't think, which is probably what Rodario would thrive upon.
Mike Dowling
Yeah, ages ago I spoke to Josh Coley at a chat and he did say it is a confidence thing because when you're on fire, you're just going to go for it. But when you're not doing so well, you're going to think actually let someone else take the responsibility for this. And that could be exactly what it is that we're facing here. I mean, he made the substitutions, they were attacking substitutions that didn't work out, obviously.
Mike Dowling
Do you like this whole thing of, OK, we were playing this way, but now we're going to go for it completely? And I think he constantly puts on attacking substitutions. That might just be because we're chasing games. But Louis, do you like this way that we're completely changing the tactics and the formations now late on in the game just to try and influence the outcome?
Louis
Yeah, I think we have to, given the situation that we're in, really. I mean, we haven't benched the table, but we are fifth from bottom. We are the fifth worst team in the league based on the league table. We need wins.
Louis
We need results as quick as possible. So in-game, if we're losing one day, I've got nothing against going for it and throwing attacks on. But yesterday, I think the only criticism yesterday is that we put them on a bit too late. Obviously, they got their goal just after the second half, and I don't think Eze came on until 75 or 78 or something.
Louis
So it was very late in the game, and you think, By the time he gets himself played into the game, it's the end of the game kind of thing. But no, I'm not against it at all, especially when we're 1-0 down. We have to get results. We have to score goals.
Louis
We have to try and get as many men forward as possible and try more for it. Obviously, if we're winning and we don't know how we do that, then it's a bit of a questionable issue. But when we start winning, we can have that issue then.
Mike Dowling
We don't seem to ever have any defending players on the bench. But about yourself, Nick, do you like the way we're kind of going, OK, well, that's not working. Let's go to plan B.
Nick
Yeah, I mean, yeah, you have to. I'm with Louis that, you know, I found the substitution of David Ogbonna, if there was a bright spark in the first half, it was coming through him. I mean, he's got very quick feet. And I thought, well, it's only a matter of time before, you know, one of the defenders that was, you know, a little bit, not the quickest that he's going to be able to take them out.
Nick
So that was disappointing. But yeah, I mean, I think, you know, I think the other, the other odd one was that Brandon, he didn't come on till the 90th minute yesterday, at which point the game was, you know, pretty much was one million out of sight. But I thought he should have come on at least 10 minutes earlier, I think. Charlie Bell came on the 85th for Kai Jennings.
Nick
Rudari came on, I think, at half-time. So, yeah, I mean, I like the fact that, you know, if something... He will make decisions at half-time. But, yeah, I mean, you know, I almost found myself thinking at one point, put all three strikers on at once and just throw caution completely to the wind, because at 1-0 you're not getting anything out of the game, so you might as well just try and pin them
Nick
back in the half and... hope that somebody's just going to be able to sweep up at the back and cut out the breaks if and when they happen.
Mike Dowling
Why not do that at the start? Go blitz them for the first 15 minutes, get a couple of goals, and then go chuck all the defenders on the night for the best. It's been brought up. We're still in the bottom very much in a relegation fight, although I know I joke around about these things, and I know I said it and Dan wanted to try and kill me.
Mike Dowling
19 points off the playoffs, which is obviously beyond, but actually we were 18 points in November. So if we had got ourselves together and did all right in December and January, we would have been up there. But Nick, how do we dig out of it? Is it just a case of we've just got to grind out result after result, or are you still confident that we're going to be okay?
Nick
I mean, to the playoffs, I mean, we've got 17 games left. That's potentially 51 points. Exactly.
Mike Dowling
Exactly.
Nick
It's fine.
Mike Dowling
My thing is, how bad a December and January we had.
Nick
Yeah.
Mike Dowling
How can we still be only one point worse off than we were when we were flying in November? It's like we would have done all right if we'd carried on November's form. We would have been up there and everyone would have been like, Mike, you're a genius, instead of shut up.
Nick
It's a competitive league. I'm still confident that we will stay up, but to sound negative, we will stay up because there are four teams that are worse than we are. And we are the least bad of five teams, basically, I think. I mean, looking at the table, I think Gateshead are in a real bind.
Nick
I can't remember the last time they won. Morecombe are in real trouble as well. I think they got rid of their coach recently, so they might get a managerial bounce. Truro you know, that was a very important psychological win at their place.
Nick
And then, you know, we'll come to Wednesday night in a moment, but I think we're a better team than Braintree and should be able to stay up. So I think fifth and bottom, you know, it'll be really, and if that happens as well, you know, we were back in October when we changed managers, we were going down. I mean, we were in the bottom four at that point. So if we stay up, I think Aggie, you know, I know you said about the playoffs and we were at the playoffs.
Nick
I mean, like my comment a moment ago, I'm kind of thinking that must have been tongue half in cheek, surely, when he said that. He was serious. Well, you've got to have aspirations. I think we will stay up.
Nick
It's been said on this pod very recently, it's not going to be pretty and they're going to be some very, very, you know, very, very tense moments. And dare I say that that might not be, well, I'm hoping that yesterday was our Nadir and that we will get better than that. But then again, after Brackley away and after Autry in a while, I did think something similar. Regrettably, at the moment, it's almost a competition for just really bad performances where you think, well, we can't get much much worse really.
Nick
But were I a betting man, which I'm not, I would still put Moni and I staying up rather than going down, but for what I can't help thinking are the wrong reasons.
Louis
Yeah, I think my biggest concern, and I think Aggie touched on it in his post-match yesterday towards the end of it, I don't know whether the realism is set in properly within the thing that we are in trouble. There are teams around us, when you look at last week's result against Brackley, albeit we were probably slightly better in terms of our play, but I don't think we deserve to win that game. We definitely didn't deserve to get anything out of yesterday's game, maybe straight at point. These are the sides around us that we've got to be beating to be able to get above and to stay up.
Louis
It needs to be, that needs to be the baseline yesterday where we say we write it off and we go, OK, that is the worst we will be for the rest of the season. And we can't be that bad again. And it is in our hands because at the end of the day, we've got Morecambe to come at home. We've got Churro to come at home.
Louis
We've got Goethe-Gateshead. We've got Braintree at home on Wednesday. We've got Old Tram at home. We've got Eastleigh away.
Louis
So we've got it in our hands. It's in our hands. We are capable, as we've seen in November, to go on a good run, to compete. Yeah, it's just, I think once we get that first win again, once we put a team to bed, which we could do, maybe the results will start flowing.
Louis
But I think there just needs to be a mindset that we need to battle and we need to scrap rather than look towards... I don't think relegation has been mentioned as a word in the post-match interviews or the pre-match interviews. I find it a bit worrying. But yeah, it's going to be a scrap.
Louis
It's going to be one hell of a scrap.
Mike Dowling
Yeah, I think he, his other clubs, he's come into a similar situation and dragged him out of it, playing the style, I'd say the November form, and it just carried on. He actually hasn't, I don't think he's ever lost, I think it was two games in a row prior to coming to Sutton. And so obviously he's on the worst run that he's ever been on, which may affect why you were saying about his post-match as well. You mentioned Wednesday, Braintree next, big, big, big game.
Mike Dowling
Who would have thought that at the start of the season? We're going, oh, Braintree is going to be massive. But Louis, what do you think is going to happen on Wednesday against Braintree and a little prediction for us? I don't think you do the prediction league, I can't remember.
Louis
if the I think there's a case to make potentially that we play better against the better side because we don't end up in a scrap kind of thing. Because obviously the better side will probably play nicer football, get it on the ground. And there's a degree to which you kind of cancel each other out in that sense. But when you come up against a side that kind of bullies you or wins their heads and puts their arm in, that might be where we get let down.
Louis
I just think that Wednesday is going to be the exact same game as Saturday, where they will kill the clock down. They will run it down. They will use set pieces. They don't score many goals.
Louis
I think the lowest score is in the league on goals per game. We're either going to take it up a notch and we're going to be in 3-0 or it's going to be 0-0. I'm going to put 0-0 down. I think it's just going to be a horrible watch.
Louis
So, yeah, 0-0 from me.
Mike Dowling
Don't forget, you can change your prediction right up until kick-off, so you're not stuck into that.
Louis
I've got to do mine on our podcast next. I can't change that one.
Mike Dowling
And Nick, what do you what do you think? How do you see it going and what's your prediction?
Nick
Yeah, I mean, I'm I keep I'm one of those people that keeps predicting sudden wins. So, you know, on the on the prediction, I'm not doing that. And I can just let their way for might be even worse than ours. They've got a couple of really I mean, They lost 5-0 recently up in York.
Nick
They had a similar scoreline, I think, at Carlisle early on in the season as well. I don't know whether they've won on the road this season. They might have picked up one win, maybe, which is actually just one less.
Louis
They won at Woking and Eastleigh. They won at Woking and Eastleigh.
Nick
Oh, they got two, so the same as us. So, yeah. It's, you know, horrible, that horrible footballing cliche. It's a six point really, isn't it?
Nick
It's because they're just below us in the league. I think, am I right in thinking that we've got a game on them or, yeah, we've got one game on them. So a draw. It's gunfort, guys.
Nick
Oh, it's at gunfort, yeah.
Mike Dowling
Let's not hold out too much hope on that one.
Nick
They're also looking at it, their goal difference is, well, probably because they're going away and getting thumped 5-0 in places like Cardiff and York, which we are, so they're on minus 23. Dare I say, the onus might be on them to take the game to Sutton a little bit to try and get out of the relegation zone. That could work in our favour, that could factor into Aggie's plans. How good we are at sitting back and then inviting, well, but, you know, soaking up pressure and then trying to hit them on the break from there.
Nick
I don't know, maybe this is where the, you know, playing it around at the back, this is where it actually, you know, comes to fruition. Because they might come at us, in which case we want us to be able to soak it up and then find those spaces behind them. I think, you know, yeah, I don't, I think that the players, there's no doubt that the players came off of that pitch yesterday. really, really pissed off at the performance that was put in.
Nick
And they're going to come out roaring on Wednesday to try and put it behind them, basically, to expunge what was a terrible performance. So we're not going to see a repeat of yesterday. I'm fairly confident of that. I think it'll be a narrow I'm not going to put this on the prediction here, but I think we might just narrowly edge it.
Nick
But it will be very, very narrow, and it won't be pretty as well.
Mike Dowling
OK. Well, I'm going to go for a 2-1 win, because I always go for a win. And I don't think we're going to keep a clean sheet, but I think we'll win the game. I do wish I was able to spell it properly, because I think this episode should literally just be called, because every question I've asked you two guys, you've both gone, Deep sigh is what the episode is called.
Mike Dowling
But gents, thank you so much. You've done amazingly well to talk about that. We've rattled through it, but we've done well. We're going to wrap up this episode of Sutton Podcast.
Mike Dowling
We appreciate everyone's attention and feedback. Follow, like, share, give us the thumbs up on all the YouTubes and whatnot. Leave us a review if you like as well. As always, thank you to LuckyStarGN, our sponsors, and big thank you to Louis and Nick.
Mike Dowling
Yay, got it right. and take care and thank you for listening. We'll catch up soon.
Share this post