In this week's episode of Sutton United Talk Time on Podcast, host Mike Dowling is joined by regular guest Mark to break down the latest from the club. From a shocking managerial change to a disappointing loss against Brackley, they don't shy away from the tough topics. The episode gives listeners a raw, honest look at the state of the club, its recent on-field performance, and what the future might hold.
Mike Dowling
Hello, and welcome to another episode of Sutton United Talk Time on podcast. It's the Sutton podcast in association with Lucky Star Gym. If you're a regular listener, welcome back, as always. And if you're new, we're going to ramble about whatever we like today, because no one's going to listen to this one.
Mike Dowling
Thank you, everyone, for listening. And I'm your host, Mike. And with me today, we have got Mark, after a few techie full starts this season, and a little while just now, but we got there. We love hearing from you, join the conversation, give us all your acts and likes and retweets, all the rest of it, you know, I love it, especially those little thumbs up.
Mike Dowling
But Mark, how are you?
Mark
Yeah, I'm pretty good. Obviously, football's not been great yesterday, but like most of us, you know, I've got other things in my life that you can turn to if the football's not going too well as it has been for or hasn't been for most of this season. So, yeah, I'm okay.
Mike Dowling
Good, good, good. I mean, you said you were struggling to think of a good thing from yesterday, but surely.
Mark
I have thought of something. I have thought of something. Oh,
Mike Dowling
good. Because I was going to say, surely the match being over
Mark
early is
Mike Dowling
stuff to do. So a bit of club news. Ladies team won in the FA Cup first qualifying round, Burgess Hill, 9-0. So that's extremely good.
Mike Dowling
I think that means they're in the first round. There was only one other real bit of Club News of note this week. I don't know if anyone picked up on it, but Steve has left. I just wanted to touch on this because I haven't done a whole big episode because he hasn't been with us that long.
Mike Dowling
that
Speaker 1
long.
Mike Dowling
But for me, I want to thank him and wish him well. I know he didn't have his lots of fans, and I know people found him quite divisive and whatnot, but personally he's always treated me very, very well in all the interviews I've ever done with him, the press conferences, and he's given me various bits of advice as well, and he's always been approachable so for me I really am gutted it didn't work out for him and he is a great guy and he really really wanted to do well for us. There were a couple funny comments I mean I saw some people saying he left he led us to relegation I was like, well, that's not fair.
Mike Dowling
I mean, yes, we did get relegated while he was technically in charge, but he almost got us out of it. The season ticket payments, again, people don't believe he put the money into it, which he did because I was told he was... People had said to him, no, we'll pay it, and he said, no, I want to pay it, because people don't believe me. There's things like, I know he wasn't comfortable, but he'd meet the manager's evenings, which I know you came to a couple of those.
Mike Dowling
He seemed to get into it a bit more, the fans match. Ultimately, as he said in one of those, he wasn't Matt, and therefore, from the start, people took it against him. He got abuse, including his family, which was just proper disappointing. Someone must be connected to the club, because it was in the red seats.
Mike Dowling
Basically, it was quite rude to Leanne and Fenton and I was kind of gutted that we couldn't stop that out. Best of luck to Steve in whatever he chooses to do next. Apparently, he's been an utter gentleman for this whole process. I mean, what are your thoughts on was it the right move?
Mike Dowling
Was it too early, too late? What are your thoughts on his tenure?
Mark
I think it looked a little ruthless, but I think the board probably remembered what happened two seasons ago with Matt, who they probably think they allowed to stay in post for too long. I know there are different opinions on that, but I think they felt if things drifted we get into a position where it is very difficult to get out. And they probably concluded that if there's going to be a change this season, best to make it sooner rather than later. And whoever the new guy is, most of the season, roughly three quarters of the season, it'll probably be to turn things around.
Mark
So I think that probably was the right call. I'm not one of those who is a great fan of Steve, but I've tried to give him the benefit of the doubt. I've never questioned his commitment to the club. I think he took the job very seriously and did his best.
Mark
But in the end, for reasons that are probably quite complicated and difficult to diagnose, things just didn't work out. You know, he did reasonably well in his first 12 months or so in charge. The last 10 months or so haven't been so good. Home form's been poor, been leaking a lot of goals this season.
Mark
and I think in that sort of situation where expectations are I think reasonably high, Yeah, the manager, head coach, as he was dubbed, pays the price. And that's, I'm afraid, that's the world we're in. He recognizes that he's a professional. He knows that professional managers and head coaches will get dismissed if the results aren't there.
Mark
He's no fool. He accepts that. And I think that probably explains why he's dealt with this in a mature and, as you say, gentlemanly fashion. Credit to him for that.
Mike Dowling
Yeah, I mean, I can't remember who it was, I think it might have been Dan in the group saying, well, it's a lot cheaper to change the manager than 15 to 20 players, so that's
Speaker 1
why it's always the
Mike Dowling
manager that gets the can. Yeah. I think... It's not just, it's been ruthless.
Mike Dowling
I think potentially he himself has been saying in interviews, we're trying
Speaker 1
our best.
Speaker 3
Everyone is
Mike Dowling
working to our best. And it's like, well, maybe as someone, I can't remember who it was, forgive whoever it was, said, well, if everyone's trying their best, maybe that's not good enough.
Mark
So
Mike Dowling
yeah, he kind of, you were sensing it, especially if you start looking back on the interviews, you were sensing it for the last few weeks
Mark
that
Mike Dowling
he was getting a bit frustrated.
Mark
If you look at the seven defeats that we've had in the league, including yesterday obviously after we left, all but one of those have been by a single goal margin. Most of the time we're not getting thrashed, but we're not scoring the opposition's score one, we score one, the opposition score two, we score two, the opposition score three. That's been happening repeatedly this season. Very frustrating for a manager.
Mike Dowling
Yeah, I think I said that as well, but I think it's Boreham Wood, wasn't Boreham Wood 4-2?
Mark
3-4, I think we ended up reading that one. We were 2-4 down, and then Pruty got that screamer in stoppage time. Yeah, the one where he just rolled forward and went, oh, he'll have a crack from the whole thing. See what happens.
Mark
Ooh, it's gone in.
Mike Dowling
That's nice and casual, do that a few more times. Yeah, I remember now, yeah. But yeah, you're right, it's just literally by the odd goal here or there. In another universe, every one of those games, we've come out on top, or most of those games have come out on top.
Mike Dowling
But if you count interim, we're now looking for our fifth manager in two years.
Speaker 1
That's a bit
Mike Dowling
harsh. But we do have an interim. John has kind of stepped up. It's always going to be a difficult thing for the assistant or the assistant head coach.
Mike Dowling
I don't know what title he's got because obviously you're part of the previous Backroom staff.
Mark
Interim head coach, I believe. And the Brackley program actually had that as his title on that page. They moved pretty quickly to get that in, so credit to them for that.
Mike Dowling
But he is part of the previous coaching, and obviously, if he had any wild ideas of how to solve everything, he would have come forward with it before now. So it's always going to be difficult, and obviously, even more difficult, because you don't know what's going to happen with a new manager. Would they then say, well, actually, I don't want any of these people around? So it's just a really, really tricky situation for everyone.
Mike Dowling
How did you go into this game with any expectations? Were you thinking we should win this, we're going to get the new manager bounce, which clearly is never a thing, and what did you think of the lineup?
Mark
I'd looked at Bratschi's results, I mean they're one of these sides that don't score many and don't concede many. They've had quite a few sort of 1-0 wins, 1-0 defeats, so I was expecting a tight game. which it was. Obviously you had a side win, I thought we had a reasonable chance of getting a draw out of it, but in the end we didn't even manage that.
Mark
As for the line-up, I was a bit surprised to see Nadders on the bench. In fact, when I saw that he wasn't in the starting 11, I thought I was injured and I spotted his name among the subs. So we started just with Brandon up front. And Bhutan was playing as a wide midfielder.
Mark
I think it was a 4-5-1, more or less, for the first half. And obviously, John had changed a few things that wasn't quite a Steve lineup. So he wanted to, as it were, put his own stamp on the formation, which, you know, is creditable. And you could argue that we needed to change something anyway, so you could justify that change.
Mark
But it is a formation that just didn't really work. Brandon was too isolated up front. He's obviously quite small guys up against some big defenders. Brackley were defending quite deep a lot of the time, so he didn't have much space to run into.
Mark
And we weren't really finding runners at all, even though we were playing down the slope, admittedly into the wind in that first half. So Brackley, a solid workman-like side. You can see why they don't score many and don't concede many. They did the basics quite well, but they weren't a particularly attractive side to watch.
Mark
very, say, very workmanlike. And, you know, we defended reasonably well in the first half, kept them out. They didn't actually offer a great deal. I think Jack made one good save quite early on in the day in the game, rather, and a couple of other more routine saves a bit later.
Mark
And then their attack sort of faded a bit as the half wore on. So that was the first half. It was a bit of a non-event. I said to somebody, anybody is watching this as a neutral on on Dazzone then switched off by now it's such a dull spectacle.
Mike Dowling
I've got to say on that obviously I'm delighted because I got to watch it but I then found out part way through that that Also, a 12.30 kickoff was Everton-Liverpool, Liverpool-Everton, whichever way
Speaker 3
that
Mike Dowling
was. The idea is to get more people having their eyes on non-league. You're kind of picking a really awkward kickoff. So hardly anyone's going to be watching it apart from Sutton fans, as Brackley fans would have been there.
Mike Dowling
And you've made everyone travel a ridiculous time in the morning to get there. Anyway, we don't know. So yeah, so John had a few little changes, a few little things up his sleeve. and then one of them was making a double substitution at halftime, which certainly confused the commentators.
Mike Dowling
They couldn't work out who'd gone off, they couldn't work out who'd
Speaker 4
gone on, and
Mike Dowling
suddenly they were like, about 10 minutes in, they were going, and Nadesan, when did he come on? It's like, oh my God. But how did you sort of feel then about that change up, because we switched them to a more
Mark
4-4-2? It was more like 4-4-2, yeah. We were better in the second half, not a huge amount better, but we were off a more goal threat. I mean, Nades was up alongside Brandon, so we had more of a threat up front.
Mark
I think Simpa moved out to the right wing. We sacrificed a midfielder and Junior came on for Aaron Jones. So we were more 4-4-2 in the second half. And yeah, we said we were better, but we were still making mistakes at the back, unfortunately, and that ended up costing us.
Mark
The best shot, I think, fell to Dylan, who sort of cut in from the left, and he had a very good, if he'd have been on target, I don't think the keeper would have got it, but it was hit with a lot of power, but it whistled just wide of the angle of post and bar. There was another chance where, yeah, go on. He had a couple of chances.
Mark
Not just
Mike Dowling
necessarily in the second half, but he had a couple of chances and just couldn't quite get his sight sorted. But, I mean, their goal, it was a scramble. I mean, it was a free kick, didn't get cleared properly, it kind of ping-ponged around a little bit, and then it, I mean, it wasn't a
Mark
screamer, it wasn't a... It was a free kick we should never have given away. There was no great threat at the time the foul was committed. I'm not going to name the player, but it was a bad, bad free kick to give away.
Mark
And then this has happened before the ball comes in. We just don't deal with it. There were about three attempts to clear it, and we just didn't get it out of our box. And then one of their players picked up the ball and smashed it into the net, and that was it.
Mark
And there was an earlier incident where they almost scored. I think the ball deflected off Jack onto the bar, and we then managed to clear it. So that was a warning sign. And that was after we'd had our best spurt of the game.
Mark
They went down the other end and had that chance. But the goal didn't come until I think it was the 84th minute. Yeah. And after that, our heads just dropped, and we didn't really look like getting an equalizer, I'm afraid.
Mike Dowling
Yeah, there was another, well, I don't want to say chance, but we nearly cause their own downfall with that back pass.
Speaker 3
Jack has
Mike Dowling
nowhere near the goal. So were you watching that with your head in your hands thinking this is going in?
Mark
Yeah, there was a moment of worry there. But luckily, it didn't lead to anything damaging.
Mike Dowling
But I mean, I don't think we had any actual shots on target, which is something that…
Mark
According to the non-league paper, we had zero shots on target. They did mention, yeah, one or two efforts were sort of blocked by defenders that might have gone in without the block.
Mike Dowling
Yeah. I was watching it and obviously I know I've got huge bias and I'm always looking for the most positive things I can ever find. I thought we were in it and I thought that we've got good chances to win this. And I was, when the goal went in, I was really gutted and like,
Speaker 4
my head
Mike Dowling
dropped. But seeing everyone else's comments, obviously you were there, wanna know what you were thinking, but other comments as well online saying it was really disappointing, and even Meanie was saying it was a disappointing game. And I'm
Mark
like,
Mike Dowling
I don't know what I was watching, because I thought genuinely we could have had this.
Mark
I think our best chances came from set pieces. We had a few corners and one or two free kicks in the second half. And there was one that Lewis took. It was just outside their area.
Mark
And there was a bit of a scramble. I think we had a couple of attempts that were blocked. But, you know, we looked at that moment as if we might actually get a goal. But then our threat sort of faded somewhat.
Mark
In open play, we didn't really offer a great deal. I mentioned the Dillon chance. There was another opportunity when Nadders was through and he could have taken a shot. I think he just had the keeper to beat, but he had a defender on his heels and he squared the ball.
Mark
Unfortunately, Brandon hadn't quite kept pace with him. He was about six yards behind and the ball was cleared by a defender. But I think that was confidence. I think a confident forward would have had a go.
Mark
But I think confidence is quite low at the moment for obvious reasons. And I think that's affecting decision making. And it's one of the reasons that we're struggling because the players haven't quite got the self-belief and the confidence to give it a go. They're working hard, but you haven't quite got the inspiration.
Mark
You haven't got the self-belief there that a winning team hasn't. We need to get that self-belief back. the sort of self-belief that you would have had after the Carlyle game.
Mike Dowling
Yeah, exactly. I mean, you're dead right. If it's a confident striker firing on all cylinders, even if that chance was only a half chance, they'd still take it, and anyone moaning in their blood,
Speaker 4
it's my chance, I'm going to try and take
Mike Dowling
it. Which is surprising a bit, because NAD has got two in the last four games. But yeah, I know, again, going back to the Steve thing, I spoke to a couple of different players, messaged them, and there's a lot of people being gutted and feeling that they should have done more. But I mean, It's a familiar story, and you've touched on this earlier with something about the results apart from one game.
Mike Dowling
Hard-fought loss. It was close, we gave what we could based on skill and confidence at the moment and we lost to a late goal. It does seem to be a bit of a recurring theme this season. Is it just confidence or do you think there's something more and how can they stop it?
Mark
Well, I wish I knew the answer to that. I mean, defence has not been very good this season. We've been making too many defensive errors and Steve himself acknowledged that. And, you know, I think some of the players that we've got, I'm not naming anybody, perhaps aren't quite up to the required level.
Mark
They may get there, they may not. But I mean, obviously, Steve brought in Aaron Jones and Harry Phipps, who are experienced defenders at this level of football. And they seem to have made a difference at first. But even with them in the back line, we've still been conceding goals.
Mark
So I think there's a bit of a lack of focus there from some of our defensive players. If you were scoring a hat for the goals, that wouldn't matter. I mean, our scoring rate's reasonable. but it's not great.
Mark
If we're only getting one or two goals a game and the opposition are getting twos and threes, then you're losing the games. So I think we do need to work on the defence. It may just be a case of working on things in training. It may be that we need to bring in one or two other defensive players.
Mark
Defensive midfielder, I think, is probably going to be a key signing. Obviously, Alex Woodyard was brought in to fill that role. As you know, he's out injured. He's not going to be back for a few weeks.
Mark
And because of his age, he's probably not going to play 90 minutes every game anyway, even when he is fit. So I think we probably need a sort of, yeah, a Craig Eastman or Nicky Bailey type player who can take control of the midfield and we haven't had anyone like that recently. That's a big
Mike Dowling
miss.
Mark
I don't know whether he's injured but he wasn't in the squad at all yesterday. He's not played the last few games. I mean, he's quite a small guy, but he's hyperactive. He's a strong runner.
Mark
So yeah, I think he's certainly got something to offer.
Mike Dowling
Obviously, you get coaches for different things. I mean, we've also lost our goalkeeping coach recently as well.
Speaker 1
But
Speaker 4
is there a
Mike Dowling
case for getting someone in on a short-term contract to get the goal or get the defense? Sorry, I don't know. What's
Speaker 1
George
Mike Dowling
Graham
Speaker 4
doing at the moment? Could
Mike Dowling
he
Speaker 3
give us a few hours to come out of
Mike Dowling
retirement for us? Just that sort of drilling and the confidence of, yes, you can do this, but sometimes make that decision to get it in row Z.
Mark
Yeah, I think there were four of us who went for a few beers in Banbury after the game and we were discussing this game and the situation generally and something that came up more than once was, you know, it's a difficult ball in your area, just get rid of it, don't try and play it out, don't try a short pass to a teammate, just hoof it upfield and it's not very pretty or elegant but it's what you need, you need to get the danger out of your box. And we've not been doing that enough. You know, we've not, as has happened with the goal yesterday, we're not clearing balls very effectively a lot of the time.
Mark
And that means we're bringing pressure back on for ourselves. I
Mike Dowling
mean, I think John hinted at it in his post-match, and he was talking about defending and not liking conceding goals. And he's a big fan of the Italian football, and I'm fairly sure there's Italian in him. So maybe we will start working on defensive matters. You mentioned chatting to people afterwards.
Mike Dowling
Obviously, the people who go away tend to be a bit more behind the team, a bit more vocal. Did you notice any shift yesterday? Were people getting a bit irritated or are they prepared to see this change through now? Because obviously it's 10 games now, just under a quarter of the season gone.
Mark
Yeah, yeah. I didn't sense any ill will or bad feeling. I think for a lot of the fans, this is a new ground for them. Obviously, we had played Brackley in the Trophy a few seasons back, but not all the fans would have got to that game.
Mark
So, it was a new experience for quite a few of them. But, you know, the youngsters were supporting the team. They were cheering them on as they do at home. Quite a few of them had made the games a bit of noise.
Mark
There were about 120 of us there, I think.
Mike Dowling
Okay,
Mark
okay, 140 something, yeah, out of a crowd of 800 and something. Yeah, it's pretty, pretty small attendance.
Mike Dowling
Yeah. But yes, good, good. 20% ish of
Mark
the crowd. Yeah. So that's, that's
Mike Dowling
pretty good. And I mean, where do we go? I know there's a process to select the new manager. Again, I know everyone hates hearing it, but money's going to come into it.
Mike Dowling
You're not going to be able to go poach someone necessarily from a club without paying some sort of compensation unless there's things in their contract. I mean, various names have been chucked around. What's your thought on who the new manager has to be or should be?
Mark
Well, I think it needs to be somebody with experience of this level of football and somebody who's a motivator. I mean, when you've got a managerial vacancy, it tends to be filled in one of two ways. Either, as quite often happens, the board have lined up somebody to succeed the incumbent. And then when the incumbent goes, the new guys announce within 48 hours.
Mark
That doesn't seem to be the case here. So it looks as if you're going to go through a similar process. as after Matt went, where you basically you invite applications. Obviously, it's time consuming.
Mark
It takes a number of weeks. At least we're not doing it over Christmas, as happened last time with Steve. But, you know, there was a comment from Dave Fairbrother on the planet earlier today, I think it was. It said, actually, there'll be quite a few decent managers interested in this vacancy.
Mark
You know, it won't be low quality. There'll be some decent people in the field there. So, you know, there'll be a shortlist drawn up and there'll be an interview. But I think the board, they probably wouldn't admit this themselves.
Mark
And we know that certain people on the board are more influential than others now. They privately ought to be admitting that they didn't make a great appointment with Steve At the time, we were in a hole, facing relegation. At the time, Steve may have been the best appointment we could have made. What I was rather puzzled by was why he was given the two-year contract after the relegation before the ball had even been kicked.
Mark
in the National League. And we talked about this at the time on the podcast. And I think giving him that two-year contract, I gather it was quite a generous contract, was a mistake, unless there were reasons for it that I don't know about, which is possible. But it does look like that was an error of judgment on the board's part.
Mark
So if that is the case, and they acknowledge that privately, That may well influence their approach to appointing the new head coach, but we shall see.
Mike Dowling
Yeah, I mean, a couple of things on there. I've been told that, yes, it's the same process, but it should be a lot quicker than last time because they've been through it. I know a lot of people did wonder about the two-year contract. Personally, I kind of thought, well, maybe they feel that they've got someone that they want to keep in place.
Mike Dowling
And the pedigree in the background, I mean, he has played
Speaker 1
at the
Mike Dowling
top level, so maybe they
Speaker 1
were like,
Mike Dowling
well, we want to have something in place because we think he's going to get poached at some
Speaker 1
point,
Mike Dowling
so we possibly wanted the compensation. But yeah, take the point. And a lot of people have obviously mentioned that as well. But for you, is there any names?
Mike Dowling
that have stood out or I mean we're not going to have any influence over them so don't yeah
Mark
not really I mean Adam Hinshaw would have occurred to me pretty much straight away it's occurred to other people but I've no idea whether he's in the frame or not whether he'd want the job whether he's a sort of manager that the board wants or whether even we could afford him prepared to pay what he wants. So I really no idea whether he's, he's a serious contender. It wouldn't surprise me if we end up appointing somebody who nobody has mentioned so far.
Mark
Somebody we've probably heard of, but who just hasn't occurred to anybody. Yeah, as being a likely new head coach. And I wouldn't be surprised if the appointment is somebody in that category. somebody.
Mark
Oh yeah, him. We've never thought of him. Oh yeah. I wouldn't surprise me if that's the kind of reaction we get.
Mike Dowling
I mean, Jarrah chucked out Ernie Howe.
Speaker 3
Yeah, there's a wicked sense of humor. Yeah, not sure. I think you mentioned Ian Hazel as well. Yeah, he
Mike Dowling
did. I
Speaker 3
don't think Hayes
Mike Dowling
would want it. Hayes is quite happy at the moment. Right, so we've flown through this, but I'm going to give you the good, the bad and the funny.
Speaker 3
OK. You
Mike Dowling
told me you've bought some things, so we'll do the jingle and be back to you in a sec. So, you haven't got anyone to bounce off, so no one wants to steal your ideas. What was the good for you yesterday?
Mark
Well, I'm going to hold it up. It was the Brackley program, which I think is one of the best I've seen in the National League. You can't see very much on here, but it's glossy, it's got quite a lot of content in it, it's well written, good use of colour and, you know, A lot of clubs, as you know, don't do printed programs, including us. So it's always, you know, I've been collecting programs for decades, as I know some of the other fans.
Mark
I know others don't bother with them, but I always like to get a program. And when you see a well-produced program like this, it does make you think a bit more, a bit better of the club, and they're doing the right thing here. And it's one I'm quite happy to have in my collection. So that was a good.
Mike Dowling
I mean
Mark
it was,
Mike Dowling
it's a difficult one for me because I stopped a long time ago because when I buy the program I tend to read it and then recycle it
Mark
and
Mike Dowling
a lot of the stuff, and I know if Lara
Mark
was
Mike Dowling
listening it would kill me, but a lot of the stuff that was in there is also on the, is out there as well so it's the same
Speaker 3
as
Mike Dowling
a lot of newspapers and stuff because I was reading the weekly magazine, I was reading something, I was like, oh my God, this is such old news. And then I realized it's not just old news, it's just I'm getting the instant news now, so everything is
Speaker 4
a little
Mike Dowling
bit behind.
Speaker 4
But
Mike Dowling
I also fully, fully, fully get how people really, really like the programs and
Speaker 1
want
Mike Dowling
them. I wish there was a way of balancing it up to say, right, if you want a program, we need to know. and we can make sure we've got enough print in advance, or something like that. Just to make absolutely sure people can get them.
Mike Dowling
But I kind of get both sides, and I have no idea which
Mark
way
Mike Dowling
I'd come down
Mark
on
Mike Dowling
that. But what was bad about yesterday?
Mark
Well, plenty of things. I think things we've already discussed, really. I think dealing with free kicks, just outside our box, we need to be better at defending them. We've already talked about this.
Mark
I think that's the thing that comes to mind most readily. There were obviously other aspects of performance yesterday I could have mentioned, but I think that's the one that came to me first.
Mike Dowling
Yeah, and we've got lots of big guys in there now, so we should definitely be...
Mark
Yeah, well, exactly. Yeah, yeah.
Mike Dowling
And what was funny about the day?
Mark
Okay, you know that dear old Francis likes to be photographed with the mascot.
Speaker 1
Yeah,
Mark
James. And when we got to the ground, the mascot was, I think, over the far side of the picture and then disappeared. Sure, I'm not going to get a photograph with a mask. And then Jenny spotted the mascot coming around and beckoned him over.
Mark
And the mascot was what the hell was he just a bloke. And what is he? He's not an animal, which most of the mascots are, a fox or a duck or a giraffe or something. It wasn't any of those.
Mark
Francis got the photograph, he wandered off. And I thought, oh, what's the nickname of the Brackley FC, Clifftown FC club? Oh, it's the Saints, because they play at St. James Park.
Mark
And I spotted this little mascot had a yellow ring on his head. Oh, Halo. So he's a saint. Sammy
Mike Dowling
the
Mark
Saint. Sammy the Saint, that's right. So I had to go over and tell Francis and Jenny because they hadn't quite worked that out. But they did, I think, acknowledge that later.
Mark
So that was Sammy the Saint.
Mike Dowling
Sammy the Saint.
Mark
Yeah. Brackley town mascot.
Mike Dowling
Right, excellent. So, we're looking ahead. I've written, the season is still young, and that's getting worse and worse every time I write it. Yeah, we've had seven defeats, two draws and a win.
Mike Dowling
So that's five points from 10 games. We need to start
Speaker 4
rolling this up and
Mike Dowling
cranking it up a little bit. Do you think anything needs to change for the next match? Do you think we should be, where should we be prepping? Or is it just a case of that confidence and it
Mark
will
Mike Dowling
come?
Mark
Well, that's the big question, isn't it? I think we need to start off with a more attacking formation than we had at Brackley. I think we need to start with maybe two up front. I don't think the starting line-up, as I said earlier, at Brackley was ever going to deliver very much.
Mark
I mean, our next three opponents have only been saying this sort of thing for a few weeks. The next three opponents are not, on paper, particularly strong. Woking, OK, we've got to go to their place. they didn't start the season particularly well.
Mark
And then we've got home games against Boston and Yeovil, who are, again, towards the bottom of the table. Obviously, they're all above us. You have to acknowledge that they started better than we have, but they haven't started particularly well. So I think we should be looking to target a minimum of five points from those three games.
Mark
So, Woking, yeah, I just think he's going to go on the front foot. We won there about a year ago, didn't we? On a Saturday game, 2-1, I think it was. And, you know, I think we just need to be as positive as we can and just go for it, you know.
Mark
All
Mike Dowling
right. What's your score prediction?
Mark
As usual, I'm just going to go for a draw. Because if you go for a draw, you're left with too much hair on your face if it's a win or a defeat. So I'm going for two all.
Mike Dowling
Two all, okay. With
Mark
Harry Beautyman to score for working, of course. Well,
Mike Dowling
obviously,
Mark
yeah.
Mike Dowling
AI, so I've started putting an AI prediction in
Speaker 4
as
Mike Dowling
well now, it's Gemini, and it's top of this prediction league so far. It's gone for a 1-1 draw and Nader's to score first, or score
Speaker 4
first. I'm not
Mike Dowling
going to be able to watch this one live because I bought Sally a birthday present which was tickets to Riverdance, ages ago, not thinking about Tuesday nights and certainly not thinking
Speaker 3
about Christmas
Mike Dowling
because it was ages ago. So she's chosen me to come with her, which I'm obviously going to love. And she can hear me. Oops.
Mike Dowling
So I'm going to go with a classic 3-4 win and the game going to be absolutely beautiful, wonderful ding dong match of football. And I'm going to pick Harry Phipps with a goal. Yeah,
Speaker 4
it's
Mike Dowling
going to be exciting game of football because I won't be watching that. My phone will be bing binging all the time as I'm sitting there watching it. But Mark, thank you very much. We are going to wrap up this episode of Sutton Podcast.
Mike Dowling
As always, we appreciate everyone's attention and feedback. Follow, like, and share this episode on social media with Sutton Podcast. Subscribe, give us a big thumbs up. Thank you to Lucky Star Gin.
Mike Dowling
Again, big thank you to yourself, Mark. And thanks to
Speaker 4
everyone for
Mike Dowling
listening. I hope you've enjoyed this episode of Sutton Podcast. Take care, and we will catch up soon. Bye bye.
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