Ever felt you had the perfect game plan until reality set in?
In this episode of Sutton United Talk Time on Podcast, I'm joined by Sarah and Neil to break down a frustrating yet strangely encouraging 2-1 defeat against Forest Green Rovers. We discuss team selections, tactical surprises, and those moments where the plan seems perfect—until it hits the pitch.
Speaker 4
00:58 - 01:11
Hello and welcome to another episode of Sutton United Talk Time on podcast. It's an association with Lucky Star Gin. I'm your host, Mike. We have on today's panel, Sarah and NEIL. Don't know why Neil's in it in capitals, but we will refer to him as NEIL for the rest of the show.
Speaker 3
01:12 - 01:12
In
Speaker 4
01:13 - 01:44
this episode, we're going to be discussing a Really, really disappointing gutting loss. Not because we expected to win, I always expect to win, but we could have won. And we're going to look forward to the home match against Halifax. We love hearing from you. We love the engagement, like all the thumbs up, the shares, all the rest of it. So keep them coming, boost the ego, because my head is not big enough. It needs to be more. Neil, a few weeks since you've been on. How have you been?
Speaker 5
01:45 - 01:50
I've been fine, thank you, Mike. Enjoying watching Sutton, but not enjoying the results.
Speaker 4
01:52 - 01:56
This may be a theme throughout the rest of the conversation, but Sarah, how's yourself?
Speaker 2
01:57 - 02:10
Yeah, I mean, I've put on very tired today. I didn't get up to sleep last night, and my brain hasn't been working all day, so I might just say some really stupid stuff and nothing very intelligent, but hey, it might add to the entertainment.
Speaker 4
02:12 - 02:13
That's my job.
Speaker 2
02:15 - 02:16
Can't
Speaker 4
02:16 - 02:16
be
Speaker 2
02:16 - 02:23
doing that. You've got one dance tap between two, that's fine. We'll pass it over when we speak.
Speaker 4
02:24 - 02:59
Right, so I sent you both a question a couple of hours ago. I had to be prompted. Thank you, Neil. Knowing me, knowing you, you both asked the exact same question for clarification, which was funny. But in a second, I will ask you the question of if you could ask the cups management one question, what would it be and why? The question is open to interpretation. So if you could ask the club's management one question, what would it be and why?
Speaker 5
02:59 - 03:25
Well, Jenny knows I'm going to ask this question is why do we never leave one or two players up when we're defending a corner? Because that would then take two or three of the opposition out of our box. And then there would be a much better chance potentially of getting a goal on the break because Jack's got such a good long kick. Dylan's pace he could potentially get on the end of a clearance?
Speaker 4
03:28 - 04:01
There was a reason, I can't remember that, but Steve did explain it in quite a bit of detail in that evening, but you know me, I kind of switched off about five minutes into it, but yeah, there was a reason and it was like a new modern thing of it's easier for the attack, it's easier to reset for winning the throw-ons and whatnot as well. But there was a reason. It did come up in conversation. He did sort of suck his... I didn't go into explanation, so... But there was a reason, but yeah, go on, ask him.
Speaker 4
04:01 - 04:07
There you go. Sarah, what was your question, if you could ask the club's management one thing?
Speaker 2
04:09 - 04:44
I didn't really get a chance to think about it, so I'm kind of going to wing it. But I think one question that I might want to ask is, I'm going to switch over to management in a different way. Since Neil's gone with the management of the team, I'm going to go with the management of the club. Now, a lot of, when we talk about Sutton, we're all kind of quite focused on what we love about our club. It's like this beautiful community ethos thing and how it's like a family and blah, blah, blah. And in recent years, we've obviously had to do things, a lot of things very differently as we kind of moved up to the football league, even though we've come back down again, a lot of things have had to stay as they have been there.
Speaker 2
04:44 - 05:19
It's a lot more business oriented and also professional and slick in a lot of ways, not so much in others. and a lot of people don't like that, either because they don't understand why they have to do things differently or because they just don't like it. And it does feel a little bit less family-like and a little bit more business-like sometimes. So my question would be, since I do understand that we do have to do things differently and more we have to do that, but my question is, sort of going forward, looking for the future, how are we going to keep up that ethos?
Speaker 2
05:19 - 05:52
How are we going to keep the heart of our club beating? Because people come and go, you know, that people... well, you're starting for life, aren't you? But I'm sure you don't live forever. And I'm just thinking, I wonder what the club would say to that. I mean, I'll say the club as an entity, but I wonder what the, um, the chairman and then the board would say, if asked that question, how do you future-proof the club's ethos? It's a difficult one. I don't know if they'll be able to answer that, but I'm sure they would have some good things to say about that.
Speaker 4
05:53 - 06:32
Yeah, you're right on both. It has to be more professional. It could be more professional in not the same as everyone else. It could be a brand new way, more professional the Sutton way. So who knows? But yeah, it is a tricky one to click because... That's what's happened over the last few years where you've got a core of like seven, 800 people and then suddenly it's 3,000 people. There's no way to know everyone and you do lose that little thing. And the whole thing about coming into the bar and all the rest of it, there's a lot we will miss because we've seen it.
Speaker 4
06:33 - 07:10
The new fans won't miss because they've never known it. But yeah, that's a cracking one. Get your questions in. I'm not saying I'll get them asked, but get your questions in. And what would you ask the board or the management, or whichever way you want to do it, the academy management, anyone, the ladies management, whichever you'd like. But get those questions in. I have no idea how I'll get answers for them, but we'll try. Right, we're going to go on to the match. Sarah, we'll start with you. What was your expectations and what did you think of the line-up?
Speaker 2
07:11 - 07:53
Well, my expectations are Forescreen are doing very well there, looking to bounce back up. I would have been really chuffed, was incredibly chuffed with the win there, I would have been chuffed with the point there. They're always a tough nut to crack, Forescreen, so I wasn't going and expecting it to be plain sailing. When I saw the line-up, I thought, oh, this is a bit different. What's going on here? So it wasn't what I expected. Although, you know, it does change from game to game, but it seemed to have changed more than usual. So basically I just thought, well, okay, let's see what happens here.
Speaker 4
07:58 - 08:06
I'll tell you my very confident prediction in a moment when I saw the line-up. Neil, what were your thoughts and expectations on the
Speaker 5
08:06 - 08:51
line-up? Before I predicted a narrow 1-0 win for us, Then when I saw the line-up, I wanted to change it to a 2-0 loss. But Jenny was talking to me so much that I forgot to change before the kick-off. So therefore, I was cursing her, particularly when we were 2-0 down. Basically, I'd blown eight points on the prediction league. But I agree with Sarah. I thought the lineup was bonkers, playing no wingers. And I thought, basically, Steve hasn't got a Scooby-Doo. But subsequently, he explained it was these two diamonds of four, was it? Well,
Speaker 4
08:52 - 09:28
this is what I said. I was like, OK, that's going to be the diamond formation. I know Chelsea were doing great things with that a good few years ago. So I was sitting there and confidently said to someone, right, that's going to be Suji on the base, that's going to be Lewis and Finlay in the center, and it'll be Jack Bodham up top. I basically got Lewis right and all the others wrong. So that shows what I know. But yeah, I mean, Obviously I don't know anything about football, so we're going to start with that.
Speaker 4
09:30 - 09:43
Do we like the idea of re-chopping and changing what we do for what the opposition are doing, or should we just be saying, nah, this is what we do, cope with it? Are we not there
Speaker 5
09:43 - 10:21
yet? I don't, I don't think we're quite, I don't think we're good enough and we're not quite there yet to inflict or impose is the right word, isn't it, to impose our playing game on. So I think we have to compensate for where we lack. by either adapting a special way to play the opposition or to come up with something that the opposition is not expecting and catch them by surprise, which I think is a little bit of what happened with Forrest Green because I think they were expecting us to play with two out and out fast wingers.
Speaker 4
10:23 - 10:32
So, what do you think? Do you agree with Neil that we need to adapt, or do you think that we should be the big guns and say no?
Speaker 2
10:32 - 11:15
I'd love to agree with Neil, but I think much of it, because I think, I mean, the squad we've got, they are almost used to change now, and I think that's a strength that we've got, actually, in a way, because we always come up with something that the opposition aren't expecting. and then never really know what to think, you know, when we turn up at their gaff. So I don't know, I would like to see a little bit more consistency, if only because I think for some of the players it would help them to have that stability and know who they're playing next to from one week to the next.
Speaker 2
11:16 - 11:19
But I'm not the manager and I don't really have a clue.
Speaker 3
11:22 - 11:22
I
Speaker 4
11:22 - 11:59
did start the conversation with, let's just remember, I know nothing. Let's talk about Will. He was captain and he had a good performance, great goal, I think number 17, but it did seem that was the first time he'd had enough time to get the ball under control. That's not criticism, there were just people around him all the time and as soon as he got the ball and he had that couple of steps and let it fly, how did you feel about the goal, Sarah, and his performance in general?
Speaker 2
12:03 - 12:39
You could probably pick out a few players who had a good game. I think he was a bit unlucky not to get another one, actually. I mean, no disrespect to Final Screen. They're on good sides. Like I said, they're always going to be a tough nut to crack. Sorry, I'm so tired. I've completely forgotten what you asked me. I've probably asked you that. About Will's goal and... Yeah. It was a great shot, wasn't it? It was a really good goal. I was, I was, I was like, wow. It was one of those goals that makes you go, I wish I had a bit of a ball like that.
Speaker 4
12:39 - 12:56
Yeah. I mean, he did, he did, in the interview afterwards, I don't know if you heard it, Neil, where he said, oh, it's a lot of work by the team and a lot of good supply and then every now and then a bit of magic. I was like, oh, come on now, Will. But what did you think, Neil, of the goal and his performance overall?
Speaker 5
12:57 - 13:16
I thought it was a good goal when I watched it live, but actually watching it back on the highlights, it was even further out than I thought. It was an even better goal than I first thought. And even Steve Cottrell, who is a miserable bastard, he really is, their manager, said it was a good goal.
Speaker 3
13:16 - 13:17
It was?
Speaker 5
13:18 - 13:18
Yeah.
Speaker 3
13:18 - 13:19
High
Speaker 5
13:19 - 13:35
praise. And the only other thing he said about it, you know, to put it into context is that Sutton aren't aren't bad. I've watched them a few times and they're not bad. That was as much praise as we got out of him. I think that
Speaker 2
13:35 - 13:39
was begrudging the fact that that was actually an extremely good
Speaker 5
13:39 - 13:39
goal.
Speaker 4
13:50 - 14:14
Yeah. We need that on a poster. Just like Sutton United. Not bad. Steve Godgeville. It's like a movie review. Sarah mentioned there were quite a few players who had good games. Who stood out for you? Who did you think had a good day or surprised you?
Speaker 5
14:16 - 14:57
Surprised me, I thought Henry did actually extremely well considering that's his first start and first significant amount of cumulative minutes that he played, so I thought actually he surprised me better than I thought. Didn't surprise me, both the jacks were absolutely superb. Jack Taylor basically marked all their superstars out the game and he just wasn't phased by anything. And Jack Sims made a couple of cracking saves. Not
Speaker 4
14:57 - 14:58
for the
Speaker 5
14:58 - 14:59
first time this season.
Speaker 4
14:59 - 15:17
No, rather for JT. Jack Taylor, I thought you had a great game. But I was really pleased, Sarah, to hear Steve pick it out as well, because he said afterwards, Jack, absolutely marvellous, as Neil just said. Who do you think stood out? I mean, you may have already had some of the names mentioned, but who else do you think stood out?
Speaker 2
15:18 - 15:49
Yeah, I've had mine mentioned. I did think Eddie Vaz had a good game. He has been improving, I think, over the last few weeks as well. He's kind of stuck out a little bit for me in a few games. I was definitely going to say Simo as well, because although, obviously, he went in two goals, but that doesn't say anything about the number he saved, does it? He made some superb saves yesterday. And Mr Simba, he had a few moments as well, didn't he?
Speaker 4
15:49 - 16:22
He always does. For goalkeepers, I always remember years and years and years back when Newcastle were in their pomp under Kevin Keegan, they played West Ham and they won something like seven, eight, nine, nil, something stupid. And he'd come off and he said, all young goalkeepers need to watch Les Sleedy in that match. That is the best goalkeeping display he's ever seen. Yes, he's letting all these goals, but we had something like 40 shots on target. So, look at how many saves he made. Don't look at the score, look at the performance, which is a long time ago.
Speaker 4
16:24 - 17:00
What did you, I mean, it would be marvellous if we could just take 10, 15 minutes out of that game. Because I felt we were on top. I felt we looked more likely to score. And then they scored. And then they had a goal that we conceded, but we never ever seemed to score. How do you think we managed the game overall, Sarah? And how can we get this luck? I mean, what do we need to do to get all this luck that needs to go our way?
Speaker 2
17:01 - 17:27
I said, you know what, Mike, it's going to sound funny the day after we lost, but I think we're getting there. I mean, I think we've got the momentum back in terms of feet. I don't want to speak too soon, but in terms of that, we always seem to come out tired in the second half and we always seem to fade towards the end of the game. That seems to have been fixed. And it was just like you said, about 15 minutes. I mean, I think their heads dropped a bit when they scored. And I think they weren't really with it for a few minutes after that.
Speaker 2
17:27 - 17:55
And that's how they scored another one as well. I mean, if you look at the whole game, they weren't a goal better than us over the course of the game, were they? I mean, I think, you know, we had a crack in second half, and most of the first half was ours, to be fair, and it was thrown on the way out of the ground. We actually felt, we actually felt alright, not, you know, we got it that we lost, but we were like, we'd just seen a good performance. And I was like, if the second half and the first half were swapped over, we'd be really annoyed, wouldn't we?
Speaker 2
17:58 - 18:19
had a really good half and then we would have given away two goals when we were one up and you know we would have been really annoyed and if it was the other way around it would have been like a match from earlier in the season where that kept on happening so I'm actually even though we lost I'm actually quite pleased we got it the other way around and now we're down to have a stronger second half.
Speaker 4
18:21 - 18:31
Yeah, I'm going to come back to that because I've got that as well. But Neil, what did you think overall on the game and where can we get the luck from?
Speaker 5
18:33 - 19:03
If I knew where we could get the luck from, I'd put in a bulk order on Amazon and get it delivered. Yeah, I agree with you. I thought it ironically it was. And then I think Steve said this in his post-match interview. I thought that was our best overall 90 minute performance. It was even it was even out better than than York, because we certainly dominated. They barely got into our half in the second half.
Speaker 4
19:04 - 19:04
Yeah,
Speaker 5
19:05 - 19:05
yeah.
Speaker 4
19:06 - 19:37
Well, the thing I wanted to come back to was the late game fitness and intensity. This is going to contradict what we probably said earlier about the team having a bit of consistency because the team changes so much. Do we think that that's having an effect on the stamina for the players as we come into this part of the season? Neil, we'll start with you. I mean, what do you feel is the good point there, especially with the high pressing late in the game?
Speaker 5
19:38 - 20:21
I think we're very good at managing the players. I think a lot of the science, the fitness, They know when to take a player off because potentially the stats are showing that they're flagging perhaps before we're aware of it and perhaps even before the players are aware that they're dropping off. So, I think the science is playing off. So, there's a lot of data-driven decisions made off the field that we're unaware of. It was obvious that Steve was cross with Dylan, perhaps, you know, Dylan
Speaker 4
20:21 - 20:21
had
Speaker 5
20:21 - 20:30
sort of not been transparent with the facts and that he was carrying something or was feeling a twinge because he wouldn't have risked it.
Speaker 3
20:31 - 20:31
Yeah.
Speaker 5
20:31 - 20:38
Because that was, you know, he came on for 45 seconds and then he was off. And, you know, that's probably a hamstring.
Speaker 4
20:39 - 20:49
Yeah, doesn't know what it is yet, by the way. Sarah, what about yourself? What do you think about the sort of squad management, as opposed to the consistency that we were talking about? I
Speaker 2
20:50 - 21:21
mean, I've been washing myself for nearly 30 years, so I can say it's not what we're used to, is it? No. And it's much more unpredictable for us. It's harder for us to know what's going on behind the scenes than it ever was, because under previous management, it's been really easy to see this is what's happened and this is why. And the decisions were very obvious and sometimes a little bit too obvious and a bit too predictable. And we've now got a management team that to us, who aren't privy to all that's going on behind the scenes, is very unpredictable.
Speaker 2
21:22 - 21:38
And I do think it does seem to be doing something. I think there's a lot of good stuff behind it. I just don't always understand what it is. So it's quite hard for me to answer that, because there's techie stuff that I just don't know enough about to really comment on.
Speaker 4
21:39 - 22:20
That goes back to the thing that Neil said about leaving someone up at a corner. There was a nice explanation, but it got way, way, way too technical for me. I was like, why are you talking and asking stupid questions? So, the line-up we obviously saw was a little bit different. The bench was very, very attack-minded. Do you think the idea was, last 20, go for it? And then, obviously, Dylan slightly scuppered that. But what did you think about the plans or the substitutions there? Do you think it made a difference? Because it was 2-1 at the time, and we did keep it, but we were pushing on forward.
Speaker 2
22:21 - 22:34
I think the problem was Dylan kind of threw in the plan really, didn't it? But yeah, I thought maybe, you know, the whole sudden thing of conceding late goals and stuff. Maybe it was like, let's
Speaker 3
22:34 - 22:36
try and score one instead.
Speaker 2
22:37 - 22:50
Save the attack weapons until the end and then hit them with everything we've got. And that's, that's maybe a better idea than kind of, let's just try and keep them out for the last 20 minutes. Because it doesn't work like that.
Speaker 3
22:52 - 22:56
Yeah, I predicted hold them at 00, 70 minutes, go for it in the last 20.
Speaker 5
23:08 - 23:09
And you did, didn't
Speaker 3
23:09 - 23:10
you Neil? I was there then.
Speaker 5
23:10 - 23:22
Yeah, I said that before and I put it on the WhatsApp group, you see. So, yeah. But being 2-0 down sort of wasn't quite in the script. Yeah,
Speaker 4
23:22 - 23:26
it wasn't perfect. Especially that second goal. That was just a horrible goal.
Speaker 5
23:27 - 23:27
That was going to
Speaker 4
23:27 - 23:28
hit with a
Speaker 5
23:28 - 23:31
Horner flag, Rob.
Speaker 4
23:32 - 24:14
He was rubbing his belly like, oh that hurt. I was like, damn it, we never get a belly shot. It'd be great if we could get a belly call. I'm not going on a binge somewhere. Right, so differing amounts to the amount that went up yesterday, I've seen 35, I've seen 31, but whatever it is, absolutely fair play to a lot of you. Not you, Neil, because it's only up the road for you, but fair play to everyone for going. Very vocal, but how has it been there? Did it seem like a bit of old times without the the bigger crowds we've had recently.
Speaker 4
24:15 - 24:16
What did you think of it, Sarah?
Speaker 2
24:17 - 24:18
It was nice that it wasn't raining then for a change.
Speaker 4
24:19 - 24:19
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2
24:21 - 24:40
Yeah, I'd say it was good effort from our fans, to be honest. It was, considering we were mostly out in the open as well. And it's not bad for noise, that ground, considering how open the away terrace is. So I think we did all right there, and I must be part of it.
Speaker 4
24:41 - 24:48
Definitely, definitely did. I mean, we had 32 in our, in Roland's bar, not Amber's, Roland's bar. And I know there were people watching at Robin
Speaker 3
24:48 - 24:49
Hood as well. So
Speaker 4
24:49 - 24:53
there's possibly more people watching on TV. On the terrace as there were
Speaker 2
24:53 - 24:54
in the bar then?
Speaker 4
24:54 - 25:01
No. But what do you think of the travelling support? I know Steve kind of points it out every week. It
Speaker 5
25:01 - 25:22
was, it was great fun on the terraces. There was great banter and it was, it was, it was, it was really some quite funny things got said. So we were having a lot of fun as well as the football. So
Speaker 4
25:23 - 25:50
the overall, I mean, I think Sarah actually wrapped it up at the, almost at the start. It was a 2-1 loss. but there was moments of lots of promise, coulda, shoulda, and potential for the next few weeks. What's your overall match verdict, Neil? I mean, Steve was very, very proud of it. And he did say, as you said, that it's possibly the best we've played. Some
Speaker 5
25:51 - 26:29
of the passing was really, really good. It was precise. We were working the ball beautifully up the pitch. And I think some of the best consistent passing that I've seen from us all season. And it was just, the ball just didn't fall in the final third. We didn't get that little bracket break of luck. And if any shots, they fell to the wrong person, as I said. So, unfortunately, they fell twice to Sidge, who managed to put it over the bar. Had that fallen to Will or Lewis?
Speaker 4
26:29 - 26:31
Yeah. Oh, I don't know about
Speaker 5
26:31 - 26:33
Lewis. In the back of the net.
Speaker 4
26:33 - 26:38
He's missed a couple recently, so. Sarah, what was your overall match verdict?
Speaker 2
26:39 - 27:16
I think the appropriate football-managed cliché to trot out at this point is there's a lot of positives to take from that. I thought it was nicer to watch than most of our games have been this season. It was just prettier football, wasn't it? It was neater. I felt like it felt more self-assured from the team. They really do seem to have grown in confidence. Like I said earlier, it was annoying not to come away with anything. at the same time, even though there's not quite any points on the table for it, but we have got a lot to take away from that game that we can use to build on.
Speaker 2
27:16 - 27:38
I had the forest green friend that I met up with at the game, and I got some messages after the game. That was such an underserved win, sorry. You would go for a draw at least. I honestly thought you would score on the free kick that was given at the end. So, you know, that's from a Friar Spain fan. They're mad, of course. Exactly. As
Speaker 5
27:38 - 27:54
I was walking out, the ground couple came up to me and said, I think we got away with one there, mate. Which, you know, that was a fair comment and the mutterings from some of their fans around agreeing.
Speaker 3
27:55 - 27:57
Right. We're going
Speaker 4
27:58 - 28:22
to finish up with yesterday with the good, the bad and the funny. Sarah, what was good for you yesterday, or that whole experience, not just on the pitch?
Speaker 2
28:23 - 28:36
Considering it's mid-March, their pitch looked amazing. It was a really nice pitch to play on. I think it's part of, you know, it makes good football happen if you've got a really good pitch. So, excellent for that.
Speaker 4
28:37 - 28:39
Excellent. Neil, what was good for you?
Speaker 5
28:41 - 29:00
The performance, the crack was, you know, on the touchlines, on the sidelines was brilliant, but I think the good bit was really was Tim eating a meat pasty in an all-vegan ground. I think that, you know, basically that was perfection. You
Speaker 4
29:00 - 29:01
can't be naming names.
Speaker 2
29:03 - 29:29
In that case, just so that he's not on his own there, I had to bring in a small bottle of cow's milk because I have various dietary restrictions, which mean that the only thing I can get at most football grounds is a cup of tea. Not Forest Green. At Forest Green, I can't get anything because one of those restrictions is grains, and they only have oat milk. So I brought in a bottle of cow's milk to use. That could be the bad, you know, but I don't know. Select something else for that, don't
Speaker 4
29:29 - 29:33
you? No worries. What? You brought it up? Neil,
Speaker 5
29:33 - 29:33
what
Speaker 4
29:33 - 29:33
was the bad?
Speaker 5
29:33 - 29:50
Oh, the bad, again, was dietary. And this was a collective bad. Jenny bought a bag of what she thought were crisps. They were shiitake mushrooms. They were dried shiitake mushrooms. Where
Speaker 2
29:50 - 29:52
did you go? You're shiitake. Ah!
Speaker 5
29:53 - 29:55
Smelt like dog turd.
Speaker 2
29:56 - 29:57
Dried mushrooms stink.
Speaker 5
29:58 - 30:16
Tasted even worse. Then she passed them around. Luke, Johnny had some basically universal disgust from all of us eating them on the terraces. That was possibly the worst thing I've ever put in my mouth.
Speaker 2
30:17 - 30:21
I'd probably use them as a cooking ingredient, like to make stock, but I wouldn't just munch them
Speaker 5
30:21 - 30:32
out of the bag. And this was the only things that were on sale in there, along with their tea and coffee, were these bags of dried shiitake mushrooms.
Speaker 4
30:33 - 30:36
Nice, nice. Sarah, what was bad for you?
Speaker 2
30:37 - 30:58
Well, Neil's covered that one. So I'm going to have to say one thing that really kind of took the wind out of my sails for what happened with Dylan De Silva, because it's bad enough being subbed when you're subbed, but after seconds of that, it was a bit of a heart-sick moment. I was like, oh dear.
Speaker 4
30:58 - 31:10
Yeah, as I said, Doc messaged me, hasn't had any results come back yet, so he doesn't know any extent, so fingers crossed, fingers crossed. But what was funny about Adelphi, Sarah?
Speaker 2
31:12 - 31:47
I should have thought about this one before coming on. I'll tell you, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know if this is funny to you, but it was funny to me. They've got really good like pitch side LED adverts for a screen. And there were literally six or seven adverts for different things that all had the same formula. They were all I don't know what they are. Various things, fossil fuels as one, gambling ads, body odour, muscle pain, headache, and tiredness. We used to give them all the red card. And they were like, after our vote was coming up, and they were all like, give such and such the red card.
Speaker 2
31:47 - 31:53
And I'm like, football fans are simple creatures, but you can probably understand something slightly
Speaker 4
31:53 - 31:54
more
Speaker 2
31:54 - 31:56
simple.
Speaker 4
31:57 - 32:24
The only thing behind the goals, They were really strange, because when the blue one came up, it basically chopped out players' legs. We saw the ref standing to the side, his whole face was blurred because he just couldn't make it out because of the blue. His advert was put on as AI afterwards. It looks like it's been photoshopped on. It was very, very weird. Neil, what was your funny?
Speaker 5
32:25 - 33:06
The funny was, you might not have seen it on the telestream because of the angle of where the camera was, but late on in the second half, right in the corner, their right wing, Vaz, and ended up on top of the assistant linesman right down in the corner, where they had to extricate themselves from a mass bundle right in the corner. That always amuses me when the linesman falls over, but to have two footballers falling on top of him as well just added to the enjoyment.
Speaker 4
33:08 - 33:26
Right. Excellent. Well, we are going to move on quickly to the Halifax game. But before we do, we're going to put Sarah on the spot. It wasn't a random selection, Sarah. You've been chosen. Because tell us what is going on in the Halifax game this weekend.
Speaker 2
33:27 - 34:11
Well, we have our annual dedicated Hergain 2 fixture, which is part of the club's partnership with the campaign, which if any listeners aren't aware, it's basically a campaign against sexism and misogyny. um the women and girls face at football it's a special other sports as well but obviously this is this is a football match so we'll focus on the football um and uh we're sort of a point of contact where anyone can report any sort of abuse or sexism they encounter either at a match or while watching a match down the pub or anything to do with you know online social media and so on um and we kind of work with clubs to fight against that.
Speaker 2
34:11 - 34:56
We've been going for nearly four years now and we've got clubs all over the world. I think we're up to 80 of the 92 Football League clubs now as partners, which is pretty good. the ones you might expect. So what we've got on Saturday, it's the point of having a dedicated fixture, is just to give the campaign as much publicity as possible. Not just to sort of put it out there, but also so that women and girls can kind of feel like we've got their backs at football. It's like we're there, we're all around the ground, you know, we're looking out for you and we want women and girls to feel as welcome at men's football matches as men do, because it's kind of traditionally been a very male-dominated sphere.
Speaker 2
34:57 - 35:40
So I will be around quite early on, I'll be sort of in the fan zone, and my wonderful team, I'm the ambassador, which means I'll kind of take the lead of sort of working with the club and the campaign, but I've got two lovely advocates working with me, and they're Emma and also Lucy, who's Lucy Clark, the women's first team manager, she's our manager advocate. She's fantastic for the campaign and we'll be around to kind of answer any questions people have about the campaign itself and what work we do with the club. We're going to be doing a little bit of fundraising for the women's section because they haven't been, um, they kind of feel a little bit forgotten this season because being out, out of Chipster, people can't go to the game.
Speaker 2
35:40 - 35:52
So the crowds have not been great. Um, of course, most people will know that. Um, and if you don't, we're telling you now that we've finally managed to get a game of the VBS for the women, which will be next Wednesday, which I'm sure you were going to mention anyway, Mike.
Speaker 4
35:52 - 36:33
Yeah. So. We've said it before, it's not about taking away the fun of being at football. You can't not say anything. It's just, let's make everyone feel comfortable. There's no If someone's feeling uncomfortable, they're not going to enjoy it. And by that, the crowds will dwindle. I'm sorry to say, but they will dwindle. I'm being very mercenary here. But the more women that come to football, there's more money behind the bars and the counters and all the rest of it. So if you guys, like Sarah said, oh, it's the sort of girls know me, this and that.
Speaker 4
36:33 - 37:07
But if you guys have got any questions, Sarah, Emma, and Lucy will be delighted to answer them. Maybe not straight away, but They'll always be able to get back to you. I can always put you in touch as well. But it's not a campaign to say men aren't allowed at football. It's two. It's the very important thing. Her game two is for men and women. going to be the lovely, I don't know what Greta's going to be like, is it going to be the lovely little frame photos again that I can
Speaker 2
37:07 - 37:27
get my big head into? We've got the big Her Game 2 photo frame, we're going to try and take lots of nice pictures for social media. It's about the visibility of the campaign, having the logo out there just so people know that we're there. So we're going to be doing that, anyone who wants them, we have little flags to give to kids to wave and stuff like that because they love to join in and it's great.
Speaker 4
37:31 - 37:42
How can everyone join in these initiatives? Is there any ideas or something that you think, if only I could get a bit more support behind me for this, is there anything that you'd love to be able to do?
Speaker 2
37:43 - 38:11
Well, clubs feel supportive, actually. Whenever I have an idea that I'd like to do this, they tend to be very supportive of it. We don't always manage to get the wheels in motion, and a lot of the time, actually, that's because people aren't interested in doing those things, which is fair enough. I think one thing that makes my job as a Hergain 2 ambassador easier than other clubs' ambassadors, but also, in a sense, harder, is that we don't really have a massive problem with sexism at Sutton compared to other clubs. I'm not saying it doesn't exist.
Speaker 2
38:11 - 38:45
I've seen it. I've been on the wrong end of it. There isn't a right end of it really. I've been on the receiving end of it. I've certainly not been on the dishing out end of it. So, you know, Emma and I have discussed before having things like a sort of safe space area for women fans if they're feeling intimidated, haven't been to a match before and they've got an idea in their head that I'd love to watch football but it's going to be just a bunch of men and it's kind of scary and it might be a bit tribal or weird.
Speaker 2
38:46 - 39:20
And when we talked about kind of doing a safe space for women, I did do a sort of open space where women could come in and talk and not a single one turned up, which I was kind of, not disappointed, I was in a sense glad because it meant that nobody felt they needed it, which was great, but it did have this nagging doubt, sort of, what if people just didn't know, or what if, you know... I thought, it's too stupid. The thing about, one thing that comes up again and again is, I wouldn't say anything because it just felt like a stupid little thing.
Speaker 2
39:20 - 39:35
I don't know why it bothered me, it shouldn't have bothered me. Nine times out of 10, you're perfectly justified to be bothered by something that happens. It's just stuff that we don't talk about. Because people say, oh, it's banter, it's nothing, you're overreacting. And we kind of internalize that a bit.
Speaker 4
39:36 - 40:03
Yeah. It may also be nothing, but the fact you've mentioned it off your chest to someone may also make you think, oh, I'm not doing that churning around anymore, at least. But I do know that there's been a couple of things you've asked the younger lot, especially with some of the stickers, and they kind of went, oh, yeah, okay, all right. And they've understood how it can be seen. Yes, it's all banter and ranta, but then the education side is
Speaker 2
40:03 - 40:27
They're a good bunch, really, the lads that we come to see. They are a good bunch, but they've picked up stuff that they've seen online. They've not had the experience where it's really occurred to them that actually there's a reason why this could hurt people. To be fair, there's been a couple of times where they've chanted things that are not very nice, and I've kind of had a word, and they've stopped doing it. They've changed the words, which is nice.
Speaker 4
40:27 - 40:37
Yeah, it's the education of it. But yeah, excellent. I'm very much looking forward to it. No,
Speaker 3
40:37 - 40:37
because of snow.
Speaker 4
40:38 - 40:39
I've
Speaker 2
40:41 - 40:59
heard there is a forecast of snow. I hope that's complete rubbish. But no, I've just picked up my phone. It says 10 day forecast, Thursday 40% snow. Saturday looks about right. How
Speaker 4
40:59 - 40:59
do you
Speaker 3
40:59 - 41:00
see it going?
Speaker 4
41:00 - 41:07
Do you see any tactical adjustments or are we going to stick to four central midfielders?
Speaker 2
41:18 - 41:42
Yeah, I think I think there are going to be a few adjustments that is entirely unpredictable. Goodness knows what we'll say when we look at the lineup. And because it is very different, it's got it does need a very different approach. And to be fair, because I've been busy planning the whole game to stop, I haven't really thought that much about the match. But at the same time, I think I feel like we do like one of those hard fought wins against a good side. And I want to go for that a hard fought win against a good side.
Speaker 2
41:42 - 41:43
Excellent.
Speaker 4
41:47 - 41:50
Give us a scoreline. I know you don't play for Prediction League, so...
Speaker 2
41:50 - 41:51
Oh, you know what? I
Speaker 4
41:51 - 41:51
think
Speaker 2
41:52 - 42:01
it's about time we had a really good win, even if it is a hard-fought win. So, a win by at least two clear goals. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. It's 3-1. Go on.
Speaker 4
42:01 - 42:16
3-1. Excellent. Lovely. We said last week, if Alex had his way, predicting 4-5 nils every week, and we'd be winning the Champions League, the World Cup and everything.
Speaker 2
42:16 - 42:18
Well, no, these won't actually come true, would they?
Speaker 4
42:21 - 42:30
Neil, how do you see it going? How do you see the not-less-than-predictor line-up and give us a prediction, which obviously, as I always say, you can change as we get to the day.
Speaker 5
42:33 - 42:48
I suspect it's probably going to be a one-all draw, and then that will give a symmetry of goals scored, played one, won one, drawn one and lost one for the last three games then. Three goals scored. Do you say three goals scored, three goals conceded? But
Speaker 4
42:49 - 42:54
we can't have that for the lead table because we're plus one
Speaker 5
42:55 - 42:55
at
Speaker 4
42:55 - 42:56
the moment.
Speaker 5
42:56 - 42:59
But if Forrest Green had beaten us 2-0, then it would have been.
Speaker 4
43:00 - 43:09
Yes, yes, it would have been perfect. But we're top half, we're plus one. These are important, important details. We're 12th, not 13th.
Speaker 5
43:10 - 43:19
Yeah, actually, I think I'm more mindful thinking towards, you know, we are, somebody is going to get one hell of a beating. So, you
Speaker 4
43:19 - 43:19
know, the
Speaker 5
43:19 - 43:21
famous Norwegian commentator.
Speaker 4
43:22 - 43:23
That's what Jenny said. She said a
Speaker 5
43:23 - 43:30
tonking, not a beating, but a tonking. It's got to happen at some stage. It does.
Speaker 2
43:31 - 43:39
We've already had it, it's auctioned, that's it, it's happened. Well, I'm going to go with 2-0.
Speaker 4
43:40 - 44:04
I'm going to keep a clean sheet and we're going to score early and then have us all spend the rest of the game panicking and worrying and hearts racing and all the rest of it. So that's what I'm going to go with. I'm going to wrap up. I know you've actually both got lots of things to do, so I've kept you long enough.
Speaker 2
44:05 - 44:06
Mostly.
Speaker 4
44:06 - 44:39
We appreciate everyone's attention and feedback. Get involved in Knowing Me, Knowing You. What question would you ask the club's management and why? Follow, like, share this episode on some podcasts and social medias. Give us the thumbs up and all the rest of it. We will be back after the Halifax match with Paul D is definite and possibly Neil M, but we will see. As always, thank you to our sponsors, Lucky Star Gym. A big thank you today for Sarah and NEIL. And thank you to the listeners. I hope you've enjoyed this episode of Sutton Podcast.
Speaker 4
44:39 - 44:40
Take care, and we'll catch up soon. Bye-bye.
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