Is being a Sutton United fan the ultimate emotional test? Join host Mike Dowling alongside Gabriel and Neil as they navigate the extreme highs and lows of a packed six-game schedule. From the "nightmare" 5-0 defeat against Morecambe to a performance against league leaders Rochdale that left fans feeling "the angriest they've ever been" due to a sense of injustice—this episode covers it all.
Mike Dowling
Hello and welcome to another episode of Sutton United Talk Time on podcast. It's the Sutton podcast. It's been a while. We're an association with Lucky Star Gin.
Mike Dowling
If you are a regular listener, thank you very, very much. And I'm sorry for the gap. I will explain in a moment. And if you're a new listener, you're very, very welcome.
Mike Dowling
I'm your host, Mike. And with me today, we have Gabriel and Neil, who are going to run us through a ridiculous number of games to catch us up to the present day. We love hearing from you, we love you joining the conversations, stay connected, give us a thumbs up, likes, give us your thoughts, comments, retweets or whatever it's called on each of the episodes, chat with other fans. And we're on all social medias at Sutton Podcast.
Mike Dowling
All those things do help the algorithm put us in front of other eyes and it makes us get more listeners. And to those who do it already, thank you very, very much. So Gabriel, how are you? We can see your face this time.
Gabriel
Yeah. Yeah, maybe I put on some kilograms since last time. It's better not to see me.
Mike Dowling
How have you been?
Gabriel
Good, good. I've been to the last game before yesterday. I've been to the Morakiam game, which is a very bad memory. I even had some friends coming over from Romania, directly from the airport to see that game.
Gabriel
And yeah.
Mike Dowling
We'll blame them.
Gabriel
Yeah, I totally blame them. Yeah, that's it.
Mike Dowling
And Neil, we caught up very quickly yesterday, but how have you been?
Neil
I've been fine, thank you Mike. Trying to find distractions from football because I need something to keep me sane.
Mike Dowling
Let's be honest, I think it's a good thing that I haven't done each week so far, because I'm able to look at the whole period as a general, instead of having those ridiculous up and down rollercoaster emotions. But very, very quickly, there is a brilliant event tomorrow at Sutton United in the evening. Sorry, Neil, I don't think it's going to be streamed, but Mickey Joyce and Mickey Stevens are going to be telling some stories from the olden days. And there's a rumor that Joycey might even mention his nine goals in one match.
Mike Dowling
I'm not sure. I'm not sure if we'll ever get to hear this story, but it might come up. Who knows? But yeah, if you're going along, or if you haven't booked a ticket yet, I think it's five pounds off the top of my head, and it's tomorrow evening, Monday evening.
Mike Dowling
So it should be actually brilliant to have such legends talking about their time at the club. There was a little bit of a break from the Hartlepool game was the last time I actually covered one. There was a lot of work issues and I lost my dog and I really didn't care about anything. So it was basically, yeah, I'm not doing that.
Mike Dowling
But there are quite a few to buzz through. Gabrielle has already mentioned the Morecambe game. I said to Rory and Sarah, and I think Rory agreed with me, that we beat Hartlepool and wouldn't it be very subtle to go and lose tomorrow? And we didn't just lose.
Mike Dowling
Gabriel, briefly sum up that game for us.
Gabriel
Well, it was terrible. I was on the gate and by the time I was trying to get back to the... I finished my duty on the gate and I was trying to get to watch the game. They already scored.
Mike Dowling
and within five minutes they scored again and then they scored again and so on yeah it was really really bad yeah and they just didn't hit stop yeah I was I was working and it was like oh I could make the second half and I looked at my phone and it's like that's not even half an hour how are we five nil, four nil down and a man's eight off but Neil were you at the game or did you get to watch it afterwards or what was your view of that
Neil
Sadly, I was at the game. Yes, I was standing next to Jenny and it was like... They say when you're about to die your whole life flashes before you. That was a bit like my entire football life flashing before me.
Neil
It seemed to be all of the bad Sutton moments distilled into 25 minutes. It was like living a nightmare.
Mike Dowling
Oh, I think it extended out to the 29 minutes, because I think that's when Junior got himself sent off for something he admits should never have. OK, so we had a high of Hartlepool, then we had a big low of Morecambe. Then we had a high away to Scunthorpe. Another big result, Neil.
Mike Dowling
Did you watch that one on The Zone?
Neil
Yeah, that one I watched on DeZone, yeah. So, went into that with very low expectations. The pitch was not great. And, but, you know, they really bounced back.
Neil
They, you know, they really, really, really pulled it all together. And I felt as more up than I'd felt, you know, down after the Morecambe match. It was such a pickup.
Gabriel
Gabriel, how were you feeling at the Stamford game where we won 2-1? Not very positive because in the talks after the Morecambe game it was brought up the issue of the fatigue of the players and that we had so many games and so many games away, far away from one another. So if we lost on Saturday because we were tired, we would expect that we're still tired also on Tuesday. So no reason for optimism for me.
Mike Dowling
Well, how did you feel after that game when we won that 2-1?
Gabriel
It was great. I'm following because when we lost to MoraCamp, we brought them back apparently into the fight, into contention to escape relegation and to draw us instead of them. And also Gateshead was in form. And yeah, so I was following not only our result, but also the others.
Mike Dowling
Another big result for us, you mentioned Gateshead. obviously it's difficult to think back with um with just the eyes we had at the time but there were quite a few people after the draw with gateshead who were sounding quite disappointed um but with the results since i think they've they've won three out of four and they yeah definitely three one yeah the result since the point there doesn't look anywhere near as bad as perhaps people were making out at the time but how are you feeling after the gateshead match when we drew that one one one
Gabriel
It was a good result, especially that we obtained it in the last few minutes. They were up 1-0 for almost all the game. So that would have been a really bad result. We didn't know at the time that Braintree is going down so badly and losing all their games.
Gabriel
So Gateshead looked to be able to put us beyond them. So it was crucial that we got that equalizer.
Mike Dowling
Absolutely. And Neil, another away game, but we got to watch that one on the zone again. What did you feel at the time? Were you disappointed with the draw?
Mike Dowling
And obviously, with the benefit of hindsight, you now change your mind a little bit.
Neil
I'm glad we got something out of it. You know, as I'd forgotten, as Gabriel said, that was 84 minutes. So we'd sneak the scumthorpe one after 95 against the run of play that, you know, And... If I'm being really honest, I didn't think we played anywhere near as well at Gateshead as we did at Scunthorpe and we didn't look as if we were going to get anything out of the game and possibly could say that we didn't really deserve to get anything out
Neil
of the game, but we did. That was a super shot from Eze for his debut goal for us. And then, as everybody's quite rightly said, putting it into the context of Gateshead, who are now only three points behind us in the table and look as if they're going to escape. It was a far better result than we thought at the time.
Gabriel
Just one second, because ever since I watched the highlights of the Gateshead game, I want to say this. Their stadium looks so, so, so Eastern Europe, like it could be anywhere in Romania, that stadium.
Mike Dowling
I think it feels like it as well with the weather up there as well. Yeah, they've got the track around, haven't they?
Neil
Yeah. Isn't Romania closer?
Gabriel
No, still three hours flight away.
Mike Dowling
It wasn't that much different to go up there. But then we followed up those two positive away games with a nice, easy game against a team struggling at the bottom of the table.
Neil
I mean, rock bottom of the table.
Mike Dowling
Neil Truro. Were you at the game? I don't remember seeing you.
Neil
No, I was. A dear friend of ours lost her husband. a new year, so we'd gone up to help her sort a few personal things out, and my son, who's a bit of an IT geek, needed to unlock passwords and phones and iPads and computers and things like that. So I didn't watch the match.
Neil
I logged on at quarter past five. We were driving home in the car from York, ironically, seeing all the York fans coming out of the stadium after their They looked happy, so I presumed they'd won, so they'd won 6-2 in the end, but I switched off all notifications. I watched the game live, driving back – my wife was doing the driving – driving back down the M1 and just got more and more and more depressed.
Mike Dowling
I mean, there's something I'll come to afterwards, but Gabriel, what were your thoughts on the Truro game?
Gabriel
Luckily I didn't get to see it myself either because I had some friends over at my house.
Mike Dowling
We decided not to bring them this time.
Gabriel
We can't blame them. But I was very disappointed, especially for the fact that we tried so hard to bring so many people there by making those cheap tickets and to have a sold-out stadium and to eventually get some new fans out of that. And certainly they weren't too convinced by the game.
Mike Dowling
Yeah, no, it was, I mean, there's lots of ways you could dress it up, but I wrote the word debacle. I hadn't seen them before because I hadn't been possibly paying attention, but there was some vocal abuse, I'm going to say, or maybe not quite abuse, but some anger directed towards Aggie and some people calling for him to go because he's out of his depth, which is a bit bizarre because of the other results that we've had since. I think since he's come in with probably, I did work this out the other day, I think since he's come in with probably, if the league started when he came in would be 10th, or 10th or 11th or something like that.
Mike Dowling
But, we'll then go to Eastleigh, Gabriel. the rollercoaster again took another climb up. How were you sort of feeling after the easily match?
Gabriel
Well, I was following the score only, I didn't look at the game, but I saw that they got a red card in the very first minutes. I also saw on the highlights that Probably, you know, you don't have to tell when the referee makes a decision in your favor. You always should ignore it and pretend it never happened. But 8 referees out of 10 probably would have used the alibi that the aggression happened.
Gabriel
in near the throwing line. So it was not a direct opportunity to score because there were defenders in between. So probably 8 out of 10 wouldn't have given the red card there.
Mike Dowling
That's my opinion. I think seeing it, I mean, I saw it from an angle that a referee wouldn't see that though, and it did look quite aggressive and quite nasty to be fair, and potentially for the way the ref saw it, it may have even looked even worse because he was, I was looking at it from the opposite angle. But yeah, you're quite right, a lot of referees might have just kind of copped out and given the yellow card and the free kick there because they were covering defenders.
Mike Dowling
But how were you feeling overall when we did get that victory?
Gabriel
Very important victory again. I'm looking at the other teams, they are losing, so I'm thinking, okay, we're almost over with the relegation battle after this evening. I still think the same. I had a look in preparing for the podcast today, I had a look in six games, Braintree and Brackley, they just made two points, so I don't think they will reach even the 46 points that we already have.
Mike Dowling
Neil, what about yourself? How were you feeling after the ECG and watching it as well?
Neil
It looked like a game we were never going to lose. It was played at such a pedestrian pace. It was almost like I've seen faster games of walking football. And we just, because the tempo of the game was so poor, we lacked penetration.
Neil
I thought we were going to struggle. to score. I thought it looked as if it was only going to be set plays that we would score from. And of course, Kai scores with his second Olimpico of the season.
Neil
So the fact that we got that Possibly the only way we were going to get another one is if Eastley started to throw the kitchen sink and leave gaps. And that's virtually what happened. Sort of a lot more space opened up on the pitch. It's always difficult to play against 10 men because there was literally no space to play the ball into.
Neil
Thought we managed the game very well and deservedly, which of course gave us 10 points out of 12 for four away games on the trot, because that was the Hartlepool, Scunthorpe, Gateshead and Eastleigh. So, you know, 10 out of 12 points is absolutely brilliant. If we hadn't got those 10 out of 12 points, we would actually be right in the relegation mire.
Mike Dowling
That's the next thing I'm going to go on to, but I do love the fact that everyone seems to know now what squalling from a corner is called an olympico, which I don't think anyone knew before. I didn't, I didn't know.
Neil
Aggie didn't know because Aaron said it in the interview and Aggie goes, is it?
Mike Dowling
Has anyone actually checked what Aaron said?
Neil
Because Aaron could have just made that up.
Mike Dowling
Who knows? Right. It was a rollercoaster and I'm not sure it is actually healthy for people to be like this because every loss we've had has been an absolute disaster. It's the worst thing in the world.
Mike Dowling
Then we win a game and everyone's like, yeah, fantastic. That's it. We're amazing. Blah, blah, blah.
Mike Dowling
And then it goes on and on and on. And Neil kind of hinted at it with just the away games. But out of those six games, I'm ignoring Rochdale for the moment, the Hartlepool, Morecambe, Scunthorpe, Gateshead, Truro and Easley. I think if we just said, if we looked at it and said, look, actually, we should get eight points out of these games, because you'd expect the wins over Morecambe and Truro, and you'd hope for a draw.
Mike Dowling
with Gateshead and Easley maybe, and in fact we got 10 out of it. I know those two home games didn't go anywhere near as planned, but we beat Scunthorpe and Hartlepool instead, so had it been those results opposite, people probably wouldn't have been so dramatic about the overall number of points we got in that period. Looking at it as a whole, Gabriel, does it seem that's a fair return on those games?
Gabriel
Overall, yeah, sure, it's a great return, but you can understand also the people, because we have 2,400-500 people at the home games and 100 at the away games. So most of them only see the home games and the teams look really bad. especially. Not yesterday, not yesterday, but before that.
Mike Dowling
Yeah, very fair point on that. Neil, what do you think of the overall points haul? Is it fair to go actually, we've got 10 points from those games?
Neil
I'm not so sure, you know, we've played, you know, it's very frustrating. You look back, you know, pretty well We were outclassed Truro and Morecambe, and we shouldn't have been. In all the other matches, we potentially could and should have won all of them. It's playoff.
Neil
Potentially, since the beginning of February, that's pretty well playoff form, and that's really what we've got the potential to aspire to. Since the Boston game, when we were abominable, we have been pretty good. We shouldn't have lost the Yeovil game. We should never lose to Morecambe and Truro in terms of just raw ability.
Neil
And then, and all the other games, well, we all know, you know, and then we come to yesterday, which put the whole thing into context as potentially how good we are.
Mike Dowling
Yeah, well, just before we get on to yesterday, Aggie said something in the pre-match before Truro, I think it was, and he said in his 12 years managing coaching, he's never had a team that's anywhere near as unpredictable as we are with the ups and downs. And I then got to thinking that actually it's, prior to our relegation season we'd had 12 years of nothing but success so a lot of our supporters have grown up on nothing but us winning winning winning winning going up up up up and and now this has come as a bit of a a bit of a bolt for them um but yeah apparently he'd never lost more than two games in a row In fact, he might have not played two games in a row, he's never lost two in a row before coming to Sutton, which is interesting.
Mike Dowling
But Neil, not much to talk about from yesterday, it's a bit of a dull match. Before the game though, we had three new inductees to the Hall of Fame. Some things aren't always clear when we're in the stadium, but we had Jimmy Dak for obviously his playing and coaching and Academy we had Cat Chambers for all she's done the physio side. I mean six sixteen years.
Mike Dowling
She's been with us which makes me feel incredibly incredibly old and And we had Tony Dolbear as well. I love the fact that when we do our Hall of Fames, it's not just about on the pitch. There's a lot of stuff that goes behind the scenes as well. What did you think of those Hall of Fame inductees, Neil?
Mike Dowling
Did you even know it was happening?
Neil
Oh, I did know what was happening. I was very surprised about Tony because I thought he would have been in there already.
Mike Dowling
I think Tony was on the original panel, so I don't think he would have allowed it. All right. Yeah, I'm not sure, but I think he would have went.
Neil
No, we'll move on. Secondly, very deserved for Kat, but I was gobsmacked. I didn't realise that she'd been associated with the club for so long.
Mike Dowling
And she only looks like a 12-year-old anyway.
Neil
Yeah, she still looks as if she has only just left school. So that was that. And Jimmy Datt, very, because, you know, a great player, but also what he's done for, you know, making the Academy so strong, that can't be, you know, that really can't be understated how important that has been and will be for us. So I thought that was very, thought that was very deserved.
Neil
And it's the first time I've actually known all the three inductees as well.
Mike Dowling
And importantly, if Jimmy Dac hadn't turned down the job of manager of Sutton United, we would never have employed Paul Doswell. And so on and so on and so on. See, Jimmy was the catalyst to all of this by saying no. Gabriel, did you know that was going on?
Mike Dowling
I mean, you were obviously in the ticket booth at that point.
Gabriel
No, no. I even been a bit late to my position because I had my son having a chess tournament in Epsom in the morning and in Epsom. They have roadblocks at both ends of the city, roadworks, and traffic was horrible, so I arrived 15 minutes late, I ran to get my turnstile scanner and went back. the scanners and stay there up to the end of the first half actually.
Mike Dowling
Oh okay, right. So you're not going to be able to have a lot in the first half then, so we'll come back to you in a second. Have you watched it back or not?
Gabriel
Not the full half, I watched the highlights and I watched a bit because after 10-15 minutes nothing is happening at the gate anymore, only 3-4 people are coming.
Mike Dowling
What did you think of the first half? You can tell me what you thought the first half and what your expectations were prior to the match.
Gabriel
I was hoping for a surprise. They had some good results and you cannot lose all the games at home. So I was hopeful, even though they are the leaders and they're under pressure to win the games because there's this duel that they have with York City.
Mike Dowling
How did you feel on the bit in the first half you did get to watch?
Gabriel
they didn't create much, they only had that chance when they intercepted a ball at the edge of our area of course there was this issue that Kay and Foyo just left when they were playing at their best Yeah, but the team looked good and we blocked them very well and we created some chances. Also, because of the angle, I was at the main gate from the under green lane, I couldn't understand if Njoku was offside at that moment, somewhere at the middle of the first half. So, but they haven't seen that moment anywhere.
Mike Dowling
I think I remember and I think he was.
Gabriel
He was?
Mike Dowling
Okay. I think so. I think a lot of people put their hands up and I'm sitting there going, I'm not sure. I think he probably was.
Mike Dowling
But actually, thank you for raising the point about Kai and Fayo, because I didn't mean to mention that. Kai was fantastic for us and he scored some goals.
Gabriel
He was just starting to play his best, I think.
Mike Dowling
I mean, I understand it from Wimbledon's point of view, because it's their players, they're basically safe, so they might want to have a look at them for next year when they've got some injury things. But it seems that Wimbledon wanted them back at the weekend. We asked if we keep them till Tuesday night to play against Eastleigh and they said, yeah. So Winfred did us a favour, even though they've called him back, they did us a big favour.
Mike Dowling
So Neil, that's three things for you to run through. What were you expecting before the game? A little word on Kai and Feo, and how you sort of felt we did in that first half.
Neil
Okay, so Kai and Feo... Lot of potential but you know Always seem to pass when he should shoot and then shoot when he should pass but that's that's immature as he will get better He's a bit of a he's a presence and he's got terrific work great So I think you know, he's got a future in the game Kai Jennings I would go as far as to say he's probably The best lonely that we've had he's bait better than Finlay and we thought that we'd never have a lonely that was better than Finlay. Ten goals says it all, so I think Kai is really going to shine.
Neil
He's a great player. In terms of the line-up, I got 10 out of 11. I'd had Rodari starting and not Ogbonna. got all the subs right, so I was correct in that respect.
Neil
So I was feeling very pleased with myself about that. I thought the pressure was beginning to get to both Rochdale and York, so I thought possibly we were going to be a banana skin. So I was cautiously optimistic, but put on my prediction league, we only ever seem to win when I predict us to lose. So therefore I predicted us to lose, even though I sort of felt that we would get something out of the game.
Neil
Yeah, and then as I said to you at halftime, apart from the little wobble at 38 minutes, that was probably the best 45 minutes that we played. Probably even, you know, better than against Shrewsbury. You know, the passing, the football, we made Rochdale look really ordinary. We outpossessed one of the highest possessing statistics-wise teams in the division.
Neil
They just couldn't get the ball. And Brandon and David Bonner just literally ran their socks up and they really were pestered, you know, they pestered. They made Rochdale very uncomfortable at the back, you know. They don't have the height, but It just shows you don't necessarily need height to be an absolute nuisance.
Mike Dowling
No, absolutely. I mean, you actually told me at halftime if a neutral was watching this game, they would struggle to tell you which team was top of the league and which team was struggling.
Neil
I think I said they would definitely think that we were the top of the league and the other was struggling. Yeah. You know, it was a it was a brilliant half. So, yeah, well, I
Mike Dowling
we set up a kind of carried on and i'll be dino said himself it's like they came over and and they keep the injured obviously that's a little chat and midway through the first half and they they changed everything and he said i don't think they've changed and that how they play for anyone this season which is obviously a big kudos to us i missed charlie's goal cause i was like right it's not a lot happening here i'm gonna go out and check the fifty-fifties if i want any money But Neil, about 15 minutes to go-ish. Wasn't it 80 minutes?
Mike Dowling
78 I think. Talk us through his goal from your view. Passed out from the back.
Neil
Passed out from the back. Brandon had got the ball on the stand. I think it was on the stand side. Yes, on the stand side.
Neil
Had three of their players around him. He managed to fall over, still retain the ball, broke away from them all, still with the ball. which is unusual because normally he loses the ball when he's got three players around him, and great interplay. And then Charlie hit the most sublime shot.
Neil
If the keeper had had notice of where it was going, there was no way he could get to it. It was the perfect shot. And I thought that was a fantastic goal deserving of winning any game.
Mike Dowling
Yeah, there is an apology to Charlie. Because literally, I think about three minutes, four minutes before that, I said he's about to get booked because something had happened. I saw him being angry. And I was like, he's about to get booked.
Mike Dowling
And the last time I did that with a player was Nikki Bailey years and years ago. And I was like, he's about to get booked. And he scored a screamer about 30 seconds later as well. So I might try that more often, saying players are about to get booked because they'll score.
Gabriel
But Gabrielle, how was your view of Charlie's golf? It's worth mentioning that just before their goal, Rochdale had a goal that was cancelled, disallowed because of offside. Just before that. So the build-up of the goal of Charlie Bell started from the...
Gabriel
our goal with the free kick awarded for that. Amazing goal, amazing shot. We all jumped up in the stands, up of joy. I wonder one thing, because just before the goal, Rochdale looked happy with the 0-0 score.
Gabriel
They looked to be the ones who... So I wonder if the goal that didn't happen, if we were going to have a 0-0 A peaceful nil-nil and with both teams happy rather than this dramatic ending.
Neil
Dramatic ending? What do you mean?
Mike Dowling
Okay, you've alluded to it. 90th minute, 89th, 90th minute, they scored an equaliser. Another great goal. How were you feeling at this point, Gabriel, when they'd equalised right at the death?
Gabriel
I don't want to sound like a criticism, but a few minutes before, the coach has taken out Simper and Ogbonna. And when I look at that moment, I'm thinking, Jack Taylor is already out, and I'm thinking, OK, who's going to hold the ball for us anymore? Because there's five minutes left, and I totally understand that the players are very tired, because we have a very limited squad, and they played, with the exception of the week between Gateshead and and Truro, I think. They played twice a week, every time.
Gabriel
Yeah, for a long now. And I understand, but maybe you should have left at least one of them to represent a threat. I think Rosedale noticed where the threat is. The threat was between Simper and Okbona.
Gabriel
That's where all our attacks were going. So when we took them out, they felt that they can go out attack without without caring anymore.
Mike Dowling
Yeah, absolutely true. So at the equalizer, were you fearful we could go on and lose or were you thinking, okay, we've got a draw?
Gabriel
At first, I thought we will try to win. It looked like we would try to win, but we didn't have the resources. Rudari was fighting. I'm not criticizing him, but he's fighting.
Gabriel
He's more of an aerial player rather than a ball holder, as I said. Besides Harris, I didn't see anyone to carry our ball and to create some danger. So we basically started to drop deeper and deeper and sometimes football punishes you for that.
Mike Dowling
So Neil, how were you feeling at the equaliser? A similar opinion that the substitutes had possibly taken something out of our stride?
Neil
I think Simps had to come off because he'd been booked and then he'd had another niggle. I think we were worried that essentially he was going to get a second yellow card. So that might have been to protect him from that. And poor David O'Bonner, I think he was just basically out on his legs because he had literally run himself into the ground.
Neil
So I can see why it was done. It's always very easy with hindsight to criticize any substitutions, and it shouldn't have made a difference, because in effect, the way we'd slightly changed our formation anyway, it was almost a like for like, because we'd gone into a more, we'd gone back to having a back four, take a drop to forward back and then putting the extra players into midfield to basically take the space away from Rochdale. So most times it would have worked, I don't think.
Mike Dowling
I do genuinely see both sides of it, where Gary was saying that actually the people that were the threats that they were worried about and putting players on, suddenly weren't there anymore. So they were like, well, actually, if these guys aren't good enough to start, are we going to be worried about them? But I can see how it also buoyed them as well. And also, as you said, Neil, it shouldn't have made that much of a difference.
Mike Dowling
Because if you're coming on, you should be ready, tight, and ready to stop everything.
Neil
I think also Rochdale had got news, therefore, that Yorke had got a penalty and taken the lead. So I think that I think they were no longer happy with the point. So they did literally have to throw.
Mike Dowling
And I think that is very similar time to the five added announcement of the five added, which kind of buoyed them quite a lot as well. Do you, I mean, we've had it to ourselves, when you're chasing the game and you get these seven minutes or whatever minutes added, you think, yes, come on, we can do this. It does lift the players a little bit. How do you feel about the added to the added until they scored?
Mike Dowling
Are you, we keep playing until they scored, camp, or are you, that was minimum time, it's down to us to defend this?
Neil
Are you asking me?
Gabriel
Yes.
Neil
I can't see why they added. I know this is, you know, it's confirmation bias that I think the whole world's against this, but I genuinely couldn't see any justification for adding the added time on. If there was any, it was the referee being very good about insisting that throws were taken from the right place, which he was consistent throughout the match, which was very good. And that was really good.
Neil
But you don't add time on for the time it takes to take a throw in. So therefore, in effect, the referee was eating up his own time by Rochdale not taking it from the right place. So I don't think there was any justification for adding that time on. And I had predicted once they equalized, I said, we're going to do a Yovo here.
Neil
And sadly, we did because we, you know, this is the second time that we've blown a lead going into, you know,
Gabriel
added time. and I was very agitated at that moment but I saw him maybe one minute in the extension time I saw him pointing at the watch because we were delaying some Sims was delaying the throwing the ball back in the game. But I don't feel that he should have added one minute. All we needed was to send the ball away.
Gabriel
It's that moment of the throw in which he looks like actually pushing the guy to take a long throw. He was willing to take a short throw near him, to one of his teammates. And the referee stops him. pushes him to go a few meters more to the end of the pitch and keeping him like this makes him think that he needs to take a long throw.
Gabriel
Unlucky. We have, from that long throw, somebody, probably junior, hits the ball with the header to Eze. Eze tries to run with the ball, but loses it. And he doesn't take it too far away.
Gabriel
We don't have time enough for the referee to end the game. You need to take the ball away, because in his mind is, I will let a last attack. Yeah. It even happens at PlayStation.
Gabriel
If you don't send the ball away in Football Manager, they don't stop the game. If they are attacking, they will leave the game going until the attack ends.
Mike Dowling
So it's almost, I mean, again, hindsight is a wonderful thing. Instead of trying to carry the ball forward, should have just launched it.
Gabriel
Yeah.
Neil
I was so excited I threw my headphones off. Yeah.
Mike Dowling
Should have launched it forward.
Gabriel
Yeah.
Mike Dowling
Okay. So, We'll do the nice bit first. We've basically come away from a match with the league leaders, the very likely champions, with massive disappointment that we didn't get something or win the game. How important is that, Gabriel, for the last five games of the season to say, well, actually, we know what we can do.
Mike Dowling
Is this the bar that we have to set now? And will there be no excuses going forward?
Gabriel
Yeah, I actually came from the game excited and I'm thinking I look forward to next season if we have the same coach. It's a different game. The team of last year I didn't like watching. Now I do like watching the games.
Gabriel
Depends a lot, of course, if we get to keep the good players from this year. I wouldn't like to lose Simper, first of all. We already lost Jennings. Yeah, it doesn't make much of a difference if we finish 12th or 17th.
Gabriel
The relegation is almost avoided. Yeah.
Mike Dowling
I'd say, I'll be honest, fairly blasé about it the whole season. I didn't think we ever were going to be, but it's easy to say. But I do think, as you say, even if we didn't pick up another point, I don't think the others are going to pick up eight points on us. Neil, how do you feel, what message do you think it is that we've come away from that game gutted that we didn't beat the league leaders and probable champions?
Neil
I went away probably the angriest I think I've ever walked away from a football match, angrier than losing 5-0 at home to Morecambe, which is ridiculous, isn't it? It's, you know, the sense of injustice and had quite a bit of banter with some of the Rochdale fans who were leaving, but there were some really nice guys that were trying to find the Robin Hood pub. But as they sort of said, all of them just said, unlucky, they said, we thought we were going to get nothing from that game. You basically outplayed us for 90 minutes.
Neil
We were, you know, we were very lucky, but we've been all season finding a way. finding a way to win, he said, and then they had to say, what a beautiful pitch and you played beautiful football. You know, they were saying, you know, that it was, they were lovely. And the pitch, you know, for the end of the season, it does look super superb.
Neil
So they were crowing about the pitch and how well we played. And they were just saying, how the hell are you down at the bottom of the,
Mike Dowling
There was a comment the other day on the forum, and I can't remember who said it, but it did make me laugh, I wasn't in the right place to argue it, but they were, um, it's a terrible time for us to get into a run of bad form, and I'm like, our results have been like this, what form are you talking about, because we've been good, bad, good, bad, good, bad, so, um, but yeah, it's a difficult one, you kind of can't criticize the players because you've got to be proud of that performance. If anything, you can't, you know, where's it been? Where's that performance been?
Mike Dowling
Why have we not been able to do that before?
Neil
But the other talking point, the little... Before we get to that, Mike, could I say that I think it showed me that we need four or five experienced players, four or five experienced players adding to that lot. And that's the top five side for next season. I don't have any, I don't have any doubt.
Mike Dowling
Fair enough. Gabriel?
Neil
That we will be at the other, you know, we'll be five, you know, within five of the top rather than within five of the, of the bottom. We're missing that one ingredient. Yeah.
Mike Dowling
Do you agree or?
Gabriel
Yeah, definitely in defense we need an experienced player to coordinate better the team. We're making some errors that are costing us a lot.
Mike Dowling
Right, Gabriel, I'll ask your view of the scenes at the end of the game. There were two in particular. What did you think? I think we've got Aggie getting a second yellow, a red, and I think, well not I think, Hayden was also.
Mike Dowling
I'm not sure if that was the second yellow or straight red.
Neil
It was the second yellow.
Mike Dowling
So both second yellows and reds. But what did you feel about that? Do you feel it shows passion? Do you feel it shows ill-discipline or something in between?
Gabriel
I haven't watched the scenes after the goal I just left. Oh, OK. But I saw them on your group, podcast group afterwards.
Neil
that Twitter post.
Gabriel
Yeah, it's a bit disappointing that we get into this kind of fights because they will cost us in terms of penalties, in terms of suspensions. We had a very bad discipline record, so probably they will hold it against us and it will be harsher punished. You can understand, again, you can understand, as you can understand the replacing Bona and simpler you can totally understand their reaction after a game that they fought they Deserved much more definitely they deserve if not to win at least the draw would have been a fair result in no Circumstances Rochdale deserve the win.
Mike Dowling
Yeah, I think some of the Rochdale players were coding some of the Sutton players and that's kind of started it and I think a separate incident was um Aggie trying to talk to the referee and the referee backing off and Aggie kind of going well hang on a second and then the ref goes so it looks it doesn't look great but I might I don't think it's anywhere near what it looks like but Neil have you watched it at all or what did you think of it at the time well if he it all goes back to what started around about when their goalkeeper had cramp on 23 minutes
Neil
with the water bottle, they spat some water over us or squirted their bottles at us. So that started a bit of bad feeling between the teams. It wasn't a dirty match. There were no sort of dirty, there were very few sort of really bad fouls in the whole match.
Neil
It was a very clean, a very clean match. The other thing which really goading was when the entire Rochdale bench and all the subs invaded the pitch and ran across the pitch, which… That isn't allowed. In theory, if any of their officials leave the technical area, that's automatically a yellow card, so they should all be on yellow cards. But to think about all the people running onto the pitch, I think that is...
Neil
Because they literally ran through our players to get over to their fans, so that basically... incensed us. Then, of course, there was that sort of sense of injustice. There would have been the huge young players so deflated that we've run ourselves into the ground and we've got nothing to show for it.
Neil
So they were feeling really sorry for themselves. However, I don't think there is any substitution for what happened. I'm afraid Hayden, I think he's probably going to get more than three matches because it was premeditated. He ran onto the pitch afterwards and looks as if he's punched that guy.
Neil
So I suspect Hagen will get a big fine and probably four matches, or he might get three with, you know, with a couple of, you know, suspended. But he's got he is going to get one hell of a bet, which, again, we don't we don't need.
Mike Dowling
Absolutely.
Neil
And I think he's silly, you know, and I think, you know, and he deserves, and I think also actually the club needs to find him because it's, it's silly. He needs to learn from that. Junior needs to learn, basically. Too many of the players need to learn to shut up, they need to learn to walk away.
Neil
The mature thing is never, it's easy to say, but it's never to get embroiled in a fight or a controversy. You need to take the moral high ground and walk away and have the better attitude because in the end, your game from it and we won't get, you know, suspensions and things like that.
Mike Dowling
We've lost Gabriel. He might come back.
Neil
Yeah.
Mike Dowling
Yeah, I also was thinking if Aggie wants to watch the game from the stands, which I know he enjoyed last time I was woking, I think he could do that. He doesn't need to get a red card to do that. He could just come up and watch it in the stand. It's absolutely fine.
Mike Dowling
Oh, he's back. So mathematically, It hurts me to say this, but the playoffs are gone. That's it. We can't make the playoffs.
Mike Dowling
We absolutely can't make the playoffs. But we are only two points off 12th. It is then a bit of a gap. Neil, we'll start with you.
Mike Dowling
Would 12th be a good finish? If we could get up to 12th, same as last year, on the whole season, would you say 12th is actually a good top-half finish?
Neil
12th this year is better than 12th last year.
Mike Dowling
Would you agree, Gabriel? Would you say that if we could get to 12, that's a great season?
Gabriel
I think Neil put it great. Yeah, 12 means much more. Remember that we will last for the whole start of the season. So 12 would be a great finish to me.
Neil
Yeah.
Mike Dowling
Now I know there are some people still now looking back over our shoulder. I know we've kind of said it's unlikely. We're 8 points above relegation. If those people want to look at those 8 points behind relegation, they've got to then look and go, well actually we're only 8 points off 12.
Mike Dowling
Sorry, 10th. So we've got about as much chance of being relegated as we have of getting into the top 10. How do you feel about that? Do you think if we could get above 12, it'd be an amazing season, really, with improvement last year, but I think it's unlikely.
Mike Dowling
I think the gap is a bit too much now. But very quickly, let's just fly through the next couple of games, some predictions, early predictions. I don't know if either of you saw it, I have finally caught up on the Prediction League, and sorted out the tables, about 11 games behind, I think it was, but I finally sorted that out, and I've even updated the players, even though Fayo has been gone since I last updated the players, but I've done that, so we're all back to normal now.
Mike Dowling
But, Neil, briefly talk us through what you think is going to happen against Aldershot, which is looking like a very big game. They're a game behind us, and is it one point behind us?
Neil
Two points behind us?
Mike Dowling
So that's looking like a very big game at their place and then Southend at our place. Southend still have those hopes of the playoff and in fact could secure it, I think, if they win the next two. But how are you feeling about those next two games?
Neil
So Aldershot has never been a particularly happy hunting ground for us. from what I recall, so I'd hope we'd get something from the match, but again, it's the psychological effect of, I think the psychological effect of losing to Rochdale and everything that's gone on is going to be more of a psychological handicap than losing to Morka Mortruro in a perverse sort of way.
Mike Dowling
Do you?
Neil
Yeah.
Mike Dowling
I would hope that they would be buoyed by that.
Neil
No, I think I think they're going to I think they're going to be feeling very sort of flat and, you know, and all that sort of thing. Probably more likely to beat Southend because they're the better team. And, you know, I hope we can't lose four home matches on the trot. That's what we did last season.
Mike Dowling
Gabriel, what do you think about the next two games coming up?
Gabriel
It's hard to anticipate. If you look at the away form, we might be winning. On the other hand, I'm on the same opinion with Neil and with what he says that it's more likely to finally win a game at home because you cannot keep losing and losing. It's not that bad.
Mike Dowling
OK, well, I spoke very briefly about Prediction League, there's going to be possibly something new next season which is going to be a lot less work for me to do, because another company has contacted me with a football fantasy type thing, but apparently you can have it as just your own club, not Premier League and stuff, so I'm talking to them this week, and hopefully I'm going to get something organised that I don't have to do an awful lot on, and we might be able to test that in the World Cup. But gents, thank you very, very much. We're going to wrap up this episode of Sutton Podcast.
Mike Dowling
As always, we appreciate everyone's attention and feedback. Follow, like, share this episode, give us a thumbs up on YouTube and all the other channels. And as always, thank you to our sponsors, Lucky Star Gin. Thank you to everyone for listening, and hope you've enjoyed this episode of Sutton Podcast.
Mike Dowling
And guys, thanks for getting me through six matches. I'm not going to let it go that long again, because that was mad. Take care, everyone, and we'll catch up soon. Bye-bye.
Share this post