Can You Be Disappointed After Coming Back from 2-0 Down?
That's the crazy question we were left asking after Sutton United pulled off a stunning 2-2 draw away at relegation rivals Morecambe. On this episode of the Sutton United Talk Time on Podcast, host Mike Dowling is joined by regular listener and US-based fan Nicholas to break down the dramatic match, the shifting momentum, and what this crucial point means for the Amber Army's survival fight.
Mike Dowling
Hello and welcome to another episode of Sutton United Talk Time on podcast.
Mike Dowling
It's the Sutton podcast in association with Lucky Star Gin. I'm your host Mike and joining me today we have Nicholas. If you're a regular listener, I say it all the time. If you're a regular listener, thank you very, very much.
Mike Dowling
I really do appreciate it. And if you're a new listener, you're most welcome. Any questions, fire them over to me and I'll blag my answers. We do love hearing from everyone, so join the conversations, like, retweet, share, comment, anything you like on all social medias at Sutton Podcast.
Mike Dowling
The likes, shares, and everything gets us in front of other eyes, so it's always worth doing that and engaging with other Sutton fans. Nicholas, you said a good morning to me as you joined. I'm looking out at pitch black, 6pm on a Sunday. How are you?
Nick
Not bad, Mike. Yeah, thank you. Thank you for having me. just gone 10am here on the west coast of the United States.
Mike Dowling
And it's Sunday.
Nick
Yeah, it's Sunday.
Mike Dowling
Yeah. So you've got the whole Sunday ahead of you. Amazing. So there wasn't much I picked up from the news, but you can see if you're watching, the beard has completely gone.
Mike Dowling
There is no more beard. I did promise it and it was gone within an hour of saying that. So that was a promise kept and Rosie hasn't moaned about it yet, so that's good. I'm just going to quickly dive in and see how the ladies did today.
Mike Dowling
I haven't been on any socials at all today. I wish I hadn't done that. So they lost 2-1 in the League Cup, which is their first defeat since the beginning of September, which is actually ridiculous. Unlucky for today, but that's an amazing run.
Mike Dowling
I'm sure they'll bounce back very, very quickly. I've lost everything. This is shocking. This is bad behavior.
Mike Dowling
Lost all my screens. There we go. We're going to dive straight into the match. Based on the fact we'd had three wins, counting the county cup, which some do, some
Nick
don't count,
Mike Dowling
but
Nick
Chris
Mike Dowling
definitely does. What was your expectations going into the match? It was 22nd against 24th, so perhaps not a classic expected, but what were your expectations when you went into the game?
Nick
It was a weird one. I mean, I think we're kind of at that stage of the season when there's almost like leagues within leagues. I mean, Agi would probably say something different that he's not talking about. But if it's a five-way competition, to compete for the fifth and bottom spot.
Nick
It kind of felt almost like a cup final, didn't it, in November? If it's a five-team competition between ourselves, Morecambe, Aldershot, Truro, and it would be Braintree with the other ones, for that, what would that be, 20th spot? I think most people would probably say, given that they're the two teams that have most recently come down from the Football League, ourselves and Morecambe are probably the strongest of those two. It did feel like a really important game.
Nick
The commentators on the game that I was watching from here, they were saying this feels big. So, I predicted a 1-1 score. I thought it would be a draw. I thought if we come away from a, you know, given that dynamic, and some people might quibble with that, including Addy, given that dynamic, I thought a draw might be quite good.
Nick
And so, yeah, I think that's what I predicted, wasn't it?
Mike Dowling
Oh, I can't remember.
Nick
Yeah,
Mike Dowling
I think so. When it came to the lineup, was there anything that threw you, anything that you thought, oh, that's a bit of an odd one?
Nick
Well, I was glad to see Prouts in there. I mean, I felt a bit bad that, you know, I'm kind of willing him to play. And I'm like, God, son, just a broken nose. Just run it off, like Adji said in his interview.
Nick
But I was glad to see him in there. Adji did say in an interview, either pre-match or post-Eastley, that there'd be changes ahead of this game. So I think we're expecting a few new fans. And Jake Taylor, wasn't surprised to see him come straight into it as well.
Nick
So by and large, it was what I thought might be the lineup, actually. Maybe, I mean, I suppose, you know, he seems to alternate between starting Brandon and starting Ash. So that's always a big unknown, isn't it?
Mike Dowling
Yeah, I think he
Nick
doesn't tend to start.
Mike Dowling
Yeah, I think he's tending to start matters at the moment with Brandon coming on. But then he said that afterwards he said that matters was injured. It was carrying an injury and that's why he didn't start today. Yeah, when I was watching it back, I had family and they're asking about Brute's mask and I was like, oh yeah, he's got a broken nose.
Mike Dowling
I said, what's interesting is we want him to play, he wants to play, so he's playing. And the manager said, I'm not entirely sure his girlfriend is very keen on the idea
Nick
because his face is a
Mike Dowling
mess. But yeah, it's one of those things, players want to play no matter what. It was an interesting, interesting game. I thought they were kind of, they were attacking and we were holding our own for quite a while.
Mike Dowling
I mean, they had lots and lots of corners. Were you, were you worried about these? Because I mean, it's generally a sign of defending that they have so many corners given away. But I don't remember any of them worrying me too much when it was taken.
Nick
No, I mean, they had 10 in the first half alone. I was apprehensive for the first two or three, but then we got to four or five, six or seven, and I thought, well, hang on, we've defended the first five perfectly well, so I'm kind of expecting the other ones to just be cleared, and sure enough they were. Yeah, no, the corners did rack up. Did we have a corner in the first half?
Nick
I don't remember us having one actually. But no, ten corners was quite something. But they just seemed to run out of ideas and they seemed to be playing them all the same way. They didn't seem to be varying it up a great deal
Mike Dowling
either. I mean, luckily, the players and defenders aren't like us being a bit blasé about it. They're
Nick
not going to do anything with
Mike Dowling
this, and they actually properly defended them. They had 12 overall, and we had five. So we must... I don't know if it was in the first half or not, but we had five in total, so...
Nick
Probably
Mike Dowling
had one or two in the first half. Yeah. But, yeah, I mean, they were doing some nice attacking, but I was feeling that we're going to get into the halftime and have a nil-nil, have a little bit of a sort of a regather and work out what to do, and then... Then they scored.
Mike Dowling
Just before halftime, how were you kind of feeling at that point? And were you kind of, oh, here we go? Or were you still confident?
Nick
Well, I mean, first of all, I think we got, it was one heck of a finish, isn't it? I mean, it's kind of, they've let him drift a little bit and he's kind of all alone, but he's still got a lot to do. But I kind of thought, well, you know, if you're going to give away a goal, at least make it a good one. Yeah.
Nick
Make it a good one. Yeah. Few, few swear words, you know, as that one went in, but they might just have shaded. I think they probably just shaded the first half.
Nick
So, you know, put myself in the United stance to one side and thought you know that they probably might have deserved that but still you know that's it's I mean it's a cliche but it's probably true you know it's the worst time to conceive it probably came from although Brandon's afford it came from just after us taking Brandon off and bringing Ash on don't know how much that factored into it at all You know, it kind of like messes with the team's rhythm. It might mess with the team's rhythm a little bit. I don't know.
Nick
I don't know. But like I say, one heck of a goal.
Mike Dowling
So you're blaming Nadders for the goal?
Nick
I'm not blaming Nadders.
Mike Dowling
I agree. I mean, everyone kind of says, oh, it's a bad time to score. Sorry, bad time to concede. But I was thinking, well, actually, at least it didn't happen straight after halftime, which is worse, because at least the manager's got a chance to say something to kind of pull it all together a little bit.
Mike Dowling
And I was like, I was justifying it, I was like, oh no, you know what, it's all right, it's not the end of the world, and then we came out for the second half and conceded really early again, so I was like, oh, that's the worst of both worlds. So it was then two, suddenly two nil
Nick
early in the
Mike Dowling
first half, and we left ourself a mountain to climb. Obviously, you cling to hope as a Sutton fan. You're like, well, we were 2-0 up and threw it away a couple of weeks ago. But were you in any way thinking it's going to happen or were you like, oh, we've just got to hold on here?
Nick
Well, funny, I don't know. If you look back, I look back at some of their games and there's such an unpredictable quantity. So when we went 2-0 down, I did think, I mean, they were 3-0 up against Wildstone, and I think they went on to lose that one 4-3. That might have been a way, I can't remember.
Nick
But at 2-0, you know, I mean, I think you've done a podcast before where, I think it might have been just after the Hartlepool game, when we were 2-0 up there. And I think it was said in that podcast that it's a really deceptive scoreline, because as soon as they've got one back, then, you know, all of a sudden you're nervous as hell. So I wasn't... I did think, you know, we've got to mount it at a climb here, this is not ideal, we might have to just like limit, damage limitation, do damage limitation.
Nick
But at 2-0, I don't know, the point at which I did think, my thinking did change, and I don't know whether this was on the highlight, this wasn't, I don't think on the highlights real, and I don't know when it happened, but one of their players, Robbed the ball, I think it was off of Oggy, around about the halfway line. And it was one of those things where the player wins back possession and thinks, right, I've won back possession, I'm going to hog the ball. And it was bearing down on goal.
Nick
And he probably should have squared it one or teed up a play. And I thought, you know, because I was thinking this is 3-0, this is 3-0. And he took a swipe at it himself because he thought, well, I've won the, you know, I've won it back. And that was really the point that I thought to myself, hang on a minute.
Nick
you know, that might be the turning point, you know, do you know what I mean? I mean, everyone will say the penalty was the turning point. In many ways, it was. But that was...
Nick
Sorry? Yeah, you've got
Mike Dowling
to win the penalty. You've got to have the confidence to be running into the box and all the rest of it.
Nick
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Mike Dowling
Yeah. I mean, before we get into the comeback, there were a couple of other performances. I mean, Junior, very early on, there was an absolutely outstanding tackle which, again, Chris mentioned afterwards saying he injured himself. How impressive has Junior been for you, considering he's come from the academy?
Nick
He's been super. You've watched him grow throughout the season. Is he 19?
Mike Dowling
I think he is 19.
Nick
He's 19, isn't he? He's really good. He's almost like, he's an attacking fullback. And, you know, in the modern game, that's what, you know, that's what, no, there's always been attacking fullbacks, haven't there?
Nick
But it's such an out, it's such a great outlet to have, to have somebody coming down that left wing. And also doing the hard right, I mean, yeah, it was, the tackle that he put in, they were claiming a penalty for I think in the first half, weren't they? But it was a clean tackle, it was a brilliant tackle. Yeah, brilliant tackle.
Nick
So yeah, he's going to be really good. It's one of those things, it's like with Jack, however, that you know, don't get too good. Don't get too good, yeah, exactly. Because we want to keep holding you.
Nick
but yeah no
Mike Dowling
really good player yeah yeah that tackle is i mean we've said it before with some of the goals and stuff if that was on the premier league on sunday everyone be raving about it yeah fantastic tackle i mean you've got to remember he's playing on the opposite side to where he normally plays as well so uh yeah it's even better um but yes we did get back into it um No, sorry, before then, Tommy Reid made a few saves as well and kept us in it. There was one excellent save which I think could have been 3-0. Yeah,
Nick
the one he tipped onto the
Mike Dowling
bar? He tipped onto the crossbar, absolutely. How well has he played? He's sort of come in and suddenly had to pick up, get straight into it.
Nick
Yeah, yeah. I'll be honest, I think their first corner, I thought he could have held it and he kind of put it out for a corner. And I thought, hang on, have we got a problem in the goal? But that was really, I mean, he couldn't have done anything about the first goal.
Nick
That was just too good. The second goal, he put it where he only could have put it, really, from that kind of distance, couldn't he? and there were a couple of goldmouth scrambles as well including one right at the end that he gathered he could have spilled really good so that first corner aside yeah he's he's looked good i mean let's see do we know when he's being recalled because we've only got kai until january don't we Is he in for this?
Mike Dowling
I don't know.
Nick
I mean these are
Mike Dowling
the kind of things that they often can be easily extended because
Nick
he's a
Mike Dowling
goalkeeper and often the clubs are quite happy for their goalkeepers to play.
Nick
So
Mike Dowling
while he's playing it'll be
Nick
good.
Mike Dowling
We don't know what's going on with Jack's back injury.
Nick
We don't know. But that save that he tipped onto the bar that he was at full, I mean it was fingertips full stretch. Yeah, really.
Mike Dowling
Yeah. Again, on his highlight reel. Yeah, definitely have that. But yeah, we got back into it.
Mike Dowling
Well, let's talk about Brandon's injury. So he was down holding his shoulder and it didn't look great at all. So we did have to make that change, which is an odd one, because you sometimes think, well, the halftime is literally just coming up. Is it not worth it?
Mike Dowling
waiting to see what it's like at halftime, but obviously they knew straight away this wasn't going to happen. Chris, I love the fact he let his intrusive thoughts get in during the interview with, oh I've just thought of something really appropriate that I should say that he should run it off. It was like, if you thought it was inappropriate, don't say it, just saying this is inappropriate. But I've checked in with Brandon and the words were along well I can't find it now but the words were yeah it's fine my shoulder popped out and they just had to pop it back in and I'm like yeah they just popped his shoulder back in he says
Mike Dowling
he's absolutely fine.
Nick
I mean they were saying on the commentary that that's a dislocated shoulder how they knew that I mean they it was local radio team it's one of these um yeah i
Mike Dowling
think it's dave salmon
Nick
yeah yeah
Mike Dowling
he's very good though to be fair
Nick
yeah they were good yeah yeah and um so i immediately you know, chat GPT, how long does it take to recover from a dislocated shoulder? Well, bugger, you know, two to six weeks minimum. That means we've lost it. But then as you said something, and then, you know, and I laughed along with the, with the, with the Jack, I mean, a lot of relief, you know, yeah, the running off Jack, more out of relief, you know, that, that, it looks like we are going to keep
Nick
him but hang on a minute that's so you have to actually dislocate
Mike Dowling
your shoulder and pop it back in
Nick
nice i'm
Mike Dowling
sitting there going i'd be literally milking that for months let alone
Nick
yeah it's funny my grandfather could actually do that uh as well he could he could take it out So I've never seen him do it, but I have it on good authority. So it's quite a party trick.
Mike Dowling
Yeah, nice. Good luck. Thank you, Brandon. Yeah.
Mike Dowling
If you're listening. You've got a week to go. You've got a week to Halifax. It's fine.
Mike Dowling
Yeah, but then we did get a penalty. Junior, I think it was, it was brought down and I was wondering who was going to take it. An upstep Lewis Sims and a very calm penalty. Were you confident as he stood up or were you like, oh, here we go?
Mike Dowling
What's going to go on?
Nick
Nervous, nervous as hell. Nervous as hell with that one. Absolutely. You know, even it being Lewis that was taking it.
Nick
I think they were trying to put him off behind the girl with mobile phones and everything like that, so well done Lewis for not... He probably thought they were just filming him. Of course, yeah. But no, he's an accomplished penalty taker, isn't he?
Nick
If he's missed one, has he missed one since he's been with us? Oh,
Mike Dowling
I have no idea. I'm not going to get
Nick
back into that. But yeah,
Mike Dowling
that's his eighth for the season. Another one, you're kind of sitting there going, just calm down
Nick
a
Mike Dowling
little bit. Just chill
Nick
out. Yeah. I think with Lewis, we've got a We've got to start thinking that, that we'll be very lucky if he plays however many games there are in a season these days. I mean, you know, probably looking at close to six, no, 55 or thereabouts.
Nick
So we've got to start thinking, I hope they're probably aware that, okay, look, one man doesn't make a team, but he is our best player. And, you know, a lot of the time we are looking to him to, you know, make that little, for that little spark. You know, as good as Lewis is, and he just seems to get better all the time, I am also thinking, shit, what are we going to do if and when that, you know, two, three week layoff comes? But, you know, players will step up, you know.
Mike Dowling
Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, we've obviously lost Jack for a while, which is one of the replacements for him, but we've got Mo, we've got Jake
Nick
now, we've
Mike Dowling
got Woody, so we
Nick
have got
Mike Dowling
options. But yeah, you're quite right, at the moment, you just need well anyone who can if they see the prediction league is literally most people are picking Lewis or Dave to score first because that's what's been happening recently so yeah we are very very very lucky to have him at the moment. We then got back into it straight away.
Mike Dowling
So 2-1, and you're like, oh, here we go, get the tails up. And before that thought has even came into my mind, we're attacking again, and Nader's this time with a head up, got a goal. How were you feeling at 2-2? Were you excited?
Nick
Well, they were just, they were ragged, weren't they? I mean, you could, they're, like I say, they're an odd team, but you can see why they're in the predicament that they're in. I mean, they're even more unpredictable than we are, I think you could say, couldn't you? They can put in sublime performances, like at Boston, but 2-2, I thought, no, come on, this is, we can go on.
Nick
But then, given that we come from 2-0 down, given that, you know, we're away from home, I kind of thought to myself, you know what, I think this will do, you know, I'll settle for 2-2 and don't leave the back door open, you know, don't go, don't, and I think that, I don't know, maybe, maybe that was maybe what the team was thinking because they, did relent a little bit, didn't they, after 2-0? It was an
Mike Dowling
odd 20-ish minutes, I think. It was both some of the best and worst football you've seen. It wasn't two teams at the bottom of the league.
Nick
Both
Mike Dowling
teams were playing well and they did weather the storm because we were going at them. But then, as you say, there was a little bit of tempered of, well, hang on a second, let's...
Nick
I do
Mike Dowling
remember... shouting
Nick
a
Mike Dowling
little bit of like, guys, what got you back into this game? Keep going, you get three, four, five. We had chances to win that, we had chances to lose that. So possibly 2-2 on reflection is probably a very fair result.
Mike Dowling
But as Aggie said, you're coming away disappointed after being 2-0 down. you're kind of a little bit disappointed we didn't finish the job. Was that your overriding feeling or do you still take a step back and go, actually, no, we got a point on the road?
Nick
Yeah, I mean, really mixed emotions because, like, you know, to come down, like I say, I mean, my interpretation of the game is that it is a five, it might be a five team, you know, maybe teams like Brackley I'm looking at might come into it as well. There might be a few other teams that might be dragged into relegation but at the moment you're looking at those five teams and you know to go to your probably your nearest uh competitors for that for that fifth and bottom spot away from home to come from two nil down and to have them on the back foot for large parts of it i thought you know well i'll take that you know and i i i'd have taken i i i'd have taken a draw before the game as well you know i think that win was was going to be a tall order and the a draw away from you know team that which has come down from Elite 2.
Nick
they've had problems off the pitch and everything. So yeah, on the whole, I was pretty happy actually with the 2-2 draw.
Mike Dowling
Yeah, I think someone on the forum had said something about hoping that we got the free point, but then feeling that that was being really greedy.
Nick
So
Mike Dowling
it was kind of, it's an odd one, but it's another moment ticked off for the team. So we've come back from one goal late and come back, but we've come back from two goals down and we could have won it so it's another one of those like guys you can do this this is what this is what
Nick
we're talking about
Mike Dowling
um did you think the half-time change where he took uh will tizard off and put the more attacking um jayden on was a big change or um do you think that it is just something had to change and um
Nick
I mean, it's Jadon's pass that puts Junior in, isn't it? And so he did. I've sung Jadon's praises on this pod before, but I thought that he was slightly at fault for their second goal because he's got caught slightly ball watching and he gives the player a little bit of time. you watch it back there's a couple of players that they maybe he's thinking like he's not going to shoot and he's not going to score from there but there's a couple of players that they don't shut him down and I thought you know you need to but he
Nick
had a good game like I said I've seen him play better but yeah I think you know Will played badly, he didn't play badly, did he? No, no, no, I think he's just,
Mike Dowling
he's just more defensive-ish player. You could argue that maybe they wouldn't have scored their second goal had Will been on,
Nick
but then
Mike Dowling
you could also argue we couldn't, we wouldn't have got back into it.
Nick
We wouldn't have
Mike Dowling
got that. Yeah, so do you, what did you think of Jake Taylor? So debut, coming in with his experience, how do you think he did on his debut?
Nick
I think that Claire said on Wednesday or Thursday that he's a really nice guy off the pitch, bit of a bastard on it, and he probably, the commentators were up in arms because he didn't get a yellow in the first half. And I thought he probably should have done. I mean, they were two really cynical fouls. But, you know, so clearly knows what he's doing there.
Nick
Comfortable on the ball, calming. Yeah, really good. I saw a comment on one of the one of the social media posts that he might be the missing piece of the jigsaw. So it's another person in midfield that can just sort of steady the ship a little bit, isn't it?
Nick
Yeah. And he's got that experience. So, yeah, between him and Woody, we've got, you know, lead to experience and plenty of it. But, yeah, he was he was good.
Nick
He's a good, good football player. And
Mike Dowling
Again, Aggie said that in his post, where he was saying, look, we've spoken about his leadership, what the calmness he's going to bring to the side, what he's going to bring in that side, because what we haven't spoken about is his football ability.
Nick
He's a very,
Mike Dowling
very good footballer.
Nick
So
Mike Dowling
yeah, he may well be able to kind of take over that Eastie role that we've been missing. One that people, winds the opposition up, do you like that?
Nick
Commentators nightmare though, Jake Taylor and Jack.
Mike Dowling
I did say we just need to find someone now called Jay Taylor. Yeah, we'll get a Jay Taylor, Jake and Jack. That'll really make people happy.
Nick
By the way, just on the commentators, they weren't impressed with our away kit that It's a nice pattern but you just can't tell the numbers on the
Mike Dowling
back. Some of our fans have said that and said actually it'd be so much better if we could have the black with a white trim around it or something because then it would stand out on the green. But yeah, that's been said already by our own fans. Do you think, sort of, with all your expectations going into the game, being 2-0 down, do you think this was two points dropped or a point gained?
Nick
I think it's a point gained. And just to harp on a theme, I think it's an important psychological point. If we're in a relegation battle, you had somebody on a few weeks back who said that fifth from bottom would be an achievement. possibly the case, but you know, if we're up against Morecambe, then that's, I kind of thinking that they would have been really pissed off, you know, dropping a two goal lead and having to cling on.
Nick
So I thought it was, the most important thing was this sort of psychological victory that that constitutes over, a team that we might well be going up against for survival at the end of the game. But I didn't think it was two points dropped. I didn't come away with
Mike Dowling
that. One, I mean, it's a minor thing because we're still in the relegation zone, but one other thing is we went from 22nd to 21st, so it's
Nick
another game where we've
Mike Dowling
moved up the table a little bit. So it does look like there's a bit of a gap, as you sort of mentioned, to sixth from bottom,
Nick
but I
Mike Dowling
don't think it's surmountable. I think once we start clicking, and this is now our fourth undefeated since Wildstone, we will definitely start picking up a lot more points. Do you, again, Aggie keeps talking about momentum, do you agree with that, that it doesn't matter the match, the momentum is what's more important? Because as I say, he's kind of come in and made the Surrey Senior Cup as important as the FA Cup.
Mike Dowling
Do you sort of agree there or do you think, oh, that's just another game that players could get injured in?
Nick
Yeah, I think I think the priority has got to be survival in the National League. I think going down another division, I think if we're going to play the cup competition, then, you know, elevate it. Can you do that? I mean, are you allowed to bring players up from the academy to give them a run out in there?
Mike Dowling
In the county cup, we were basically playing academy sides with every now and we were putting some of the first teamers in who need to run out. And then sometimes it was a mix.
Nick
Yeah. So
Mike Dowling
it wants it to be a first team.
Nick
Yeah, I don't think people are that bothered about the County Cup. I think if you're going to give players that aren't getting regular minutes, like Mo, give them a run out to get some minutes in their legs and give academy players a chance in that competition as well. But no, we really can't afford to lose players to injury at Crucial. I mean, you know, it's another bloody cliche, isn't it?
Nick
But every game now feels like a cup tie, doesn't it? I mean, I'm looking at Halifax next week and thinking, you know, this is a big game. What are we on, 13? If we get to 16, we're out of the zone, assuming that all the shots that they don't win.
Nick
And then we're in touching distance of teams that are on about 20 points after that. So, yeah, it's... Yeah, but but nice, you know, he's the
Mike Dowling
oldest shot are also on 13. So
Nick
yeah, it's gold difference,
Mike Dowling
isn't it? So, yeah, I mean, if we if we beat their result next week, I don't even know who they got. If we beat the result next week, we think
Nick
they know. So I think more coming at York, aren't they?
Mike Dowling
Rochdale they got, so away to Rochdale, so
Nick
that'll
Mike Dowling
be
Nick
a tough
Mike Dowling
one. So yeah, if we can beat their result, we then move out, obviously assuming that Braintree and the rest don't do better than us. I mean, when you say the County Cup, no one really cares. We are on 16 wins with Dulwich, and I know there's at least one person who cares very much that we'd like to win it at least once more so we could be on our own.
Mike Dowling
But yeah, I do kind of agree. I did mention to Aggie that it's not a first team fixture. So if a player gets a red card, it affects the first team. But if you've got someone on a red card, suspension doesn't count for that game.
Mike Dowling
So it's always there. But yeah, we had 87 fans make the long trip up, and as the guy mentioned on comms, it's a quite difficult place to get to from us, and Aggie made an absolute, he always does make
Nick
a
Mike Dowling
big point of the crowd, which is Not funny, but it's odd for me, because obviously, when we're that time in the league, everyone's saying, oh, crowds are small and tiny and blah, blah, blah. And he's like, absolutely amazing. The number of people coming, you're like, yeah, I've never really thought about it like that before. What do you feel about the crowds?
Mike Dowling
I mean, I could definitely hear them at points over the Morecambe fans.
Nick
Yeah, no, it's a huge, I mean, you know, I'm obviously, It's difficult for myself to make these, but it's real dedication, isn't it? He always makes a point in every single interview, it seems, of highlighting what they do. I don't know whether they leave on the Friday or they set out on the Saturday morning. I suppose it varies, probably, doesn't it?
Nick
Did they do an overnight? So it's a huge financial commitment as well, isn't it? Some of them did an overnight. Some of them
Mike Dowling
regretted the overnight on Saturday morning, but some of them did an overnight.
Nick
Yeah, yeah. But yeah, I mean, I suppose Morecambe nice part of the world, I suppose. I've never been myself, Morecambe Bay, you know. So, you know, I suppose if you can make a weekend of it.
Nick
Last time I was over, you know, I went up to Boston for the, you know, you can make a weekend of it, you know, see Lincolnshire and what have you. So there's that. But no, I mean, you know, at a time when not everyone's doing, you know, economy's not great at the moment in the UK, I understand. So, you know, for people to put their hands in their pockets, and travel, it's really good.
Nick
I like to myself, like I say, limiting in terms of the number of games I can attend I'm thankful for I'm thankful for people doing that and also for filling up going the green lane as well
Mike Dowling
you know yeah you live quite far away people like me that don't have any excuse just like I'm not doing I was I I cannot I'm not traveling for all that time
Nick
but that might come off as a sort of uh you know subtle subtle push to for people but no it was wasn't
Mike Dowling
intended
Nick
So
Mike Dowling
when I spoke to Claire on Thursday, we were kind of having a little brief chat of asking where we need to be at the end of the month, and I very optimistically said, well, if we could get 10 points, it'd be amazing. So we've got one, and now we've got three games left. Where do you sort of see us needing to be? I think I did come back to reality and said, actually, if we can get eight points, it'd be good.
Mike Dowling
But we've got Halifax. who are, I think, the 10th now, they were 9th. Then we've got Truro, who are now 24th. And that's the way, that'll be another nice weekend for a lot of people.
Nick
And then
Mike Dowling
we've got Gateshead, who are 19th. So, if we could drag back, we could be within touching distance or very close to Gateshead
Nick
and that'll be
Mike Dowling
another six pointer although it's only three points but if we were to win against Halifax and Truro we could even be level with Gateshead at that point. Do you think that's reasonable or do you think that we might need to temper those expectations?
Nick
I'm just looking at the form guide myself actually because yeah I mentioned that Brackley a team that I've got my eye on, that might, just because they've recently come up. But yeah, I overlook that Gateshead have had really poor form, of like, so have Yeovil as well. So yeah, Halifax, Halifax at home, Truro away. Truro Stadium is not the most...
Nick
I mean, that's the other thing, by the way, about Morecambe, that I imagine it's not... it's quite, you know, lead to stadium. I imagine it's... they got quite a big crowd out as well.
Nick
So I don't think Truro will feel like an away... apart from, obviously, the travel, but I can't imagine it being that hostile, shall we say, an atmosphere. I don't know, you know, I don't know about that one. And then Gates said at home, so, I mean, it is possible, you know, a three game, three game win.
Nick
What was your prediction, 10? I think... I was hoping for 10, I don't think... You're hoping for 10.
Nick
I think I said 8. Well, I think you said you're hoping for 12, obviously, but... Yeah, yeah, obviously, yeah, yeah. Yeah, we're all hoping for 12.
Nick
Three wins and a draw would be nice. I think, like, when I heard that, I thought to myself, I'd settle for 8, you know, two wins and two draws. um which might be I don't know I don't know I don't know I'm I'm gonna say A and I'd be I hope at 12, but my heart says 12, head
Mike Dowling
says 8 for that one. Just looking at Gateshead as like a mini target, their next two games are Forest Green and Boreham Wood. So thinking they may not pick up an awful lot in those two games. If we could pick up those points,
Nick
we
Mike Dowling
would definitely put pressure on them and we could even continue rising and stop looking at this bottom five and start looking at the mid-table. And
Nick
just on that, I'm looking at Aldershot have got Rochdale away, like you say, but they've also got York away as well.
Speaker 3
Yeah,
Nick
which is which is a tough one. So yeah,
Mike Dowling
so hopefully we'll start picking it up. Let's. I didn't prepare you for the good, the bad, and the funny. I'm not going to do the link, but Rory, who was supposed to be on, but couldn't make it, he did send me that one thing that was funny, and it was with his boy Toby, who saw one of the Morecambe fans in a bright yellow coat and was
Mike Dowling
asking why I was in the away end, because obviously no one else in the world is allowed to wear a bright yellow coat. But
Nick
looking ahead... Before we came on, I was watching the Man City Liverpool first half and there was a bloke in a bright yellow coat in the crowds. Just thought, hang on,
Mike Dowling
what's he doing there? Famous! So, an early prediction for Halifax. Obviously, as I said, they've just dropped down a couple of places.
Mike Dowling
They must have lost all tour on the weekend. Now AI, who got the 2-2 but didn't get this didn't get the scorer, has gone with a 1-1 with Nadas the score. You can obviously change your opinion or your thing right up until kickoff. What's your early prediction?
Nick
They have not won, I'm looking, since in they've had one win from five and they're away. I think it was 3-0 last year, wasn't it, to them. So I suppose you can't go too much off of last season, but I think we might be able to win this one. I think this one is winnable, yeah.
Nick
I think that the form has picked up, and our form's good, and their form's not great. So I think you've got to go, and we're at home, they've got a way to travel, coming down from Yorkshire. So I'm going to go for two, it's always it's 2-1 every time, so I'll go for 2-1.
Mike Dowling
Okay, that's
Nick
what I wrote
Mike Dowling
down as well. I wrote 2-1 with Simba to score.
Nick
Simpson. I'm going to go for Nader's actually to score, you know, because I think, I think he's, you know, I'm hoping that yesterday was potentially a turning point that, you know, he's going to now pick up a lot, but I think he's only got two in the league season. I think
Mike Dowling
he's got three. Has he got three? Not in the National League Cup, but I think he's got three.
Nick
In the
Mike Dowling
league? I think. Oh, no, I think one of them is in the FA Cup.
Nick
Yeah, he got one in Altrincham, was it? Yeah, he got one in Altrincham and then one yesterday. So I'm hoping that this is the turning point in his season. Just to be clear, I'm not blaming him for giving away Yeah,
Mike Dowling
he's blamed you, Nadas. Sorry, mate.
Nick
He said, when Nadas came on, we conceded a
Mike Dowling
goal. I heard it. I heard it. Excellent.
Mike Dowling
Well, we will wrap up this episode. We've got a bit of a week's break now, so we should... more Aggie ball during the training and see more come through rather than just the play, play, play. But we're gonna wrap up this episode of Sutton Podcast.
Mike Dowling
As always, we appreciate everyone's attention and feedback. Follow, like, share, as I said, on all social medias. Subscribe, leave us a review, leave me the thumbs up on YouTube. Thanks to our sponsors, Lucky Star Gym.
Mike Dowling
Thanks to you, Nicholas, for flying solo. And thanks to everyone for listening. I hope you've enjoyed this episode. Take care and we'll catch up soon.
Mike Dowling
Bye-bye.
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