Football does have a wonderful habit of bringing you back down to earth just when you are starting to enjoy yourself.
Four National League games, four wins, top of the table and all of us doing our very best to pretend we were not getting carried away. Then Wealdstone arrived at the VBS Community Stadium and reminded us that this season probably isn’t going to be quite as straightforward as 46 wins from 46.
So the dream of 138 points is over.
As I pointed out to Sarah on this week’s Sutton United Talk Time on Podcast, 135 still sounds quite nice.
More importantly, one defeat does not undo what came before it. Sutton have made an excellent start to the season. The question now, borrowing Dean Hammond’s post-match words, is simple.
It’s what you do next.
A bad day, or something more?
Sarah had actually called the danger before kick-off.
Wealdstone arrived without a league win and with Sutton sitting at the top of the table, which made it exactly the sort of match football has a habit of throwing back in your face. Despite their early results, Sarah felt they looked a much tidier side than their league position suggested.
That proved to be the case.
There wasn’t any attempt on the podcast to pretend Sutton were unlucky. Wealdstone were the better side on the day. Whether they were quite as “utterly dominant” as their own report suggested was debatable, but Sutton rarely looked capable of taking control of the match.
The statistics tell much the same story.
Sutton had almost 60 per cent of the possession, but very little came from it. The first serious attempt on target did not arrive until stoppage time, while the expected goals numbers were roughly 0.4 for Sutton and 1.9 for Wealdstone.
That is probably the most frustrating part.
We had the football.
We just did not really hurt them with it.
Sarah described the performance as feeling as though something was missing. Not necessarily a major systemic problem, and certainly not reason to panic after one defeat, but there was a flatness that had not been present during the opening four league victories.
As she put it, one match does not win you the league and one match does not lose it either.
How much did Gateshead take out of us?
There is also the unavoidable question of the previous Friday night.
Sutton had travelled to Gateshead, played a significant part of the match with ten men and then made the long journey home before turning around for another fixture on Monday.
Dean Hammond mentioned that in his post-match interview without using it as an excuse.
I was perhaps slightly more willing to use it as one.
You can argue that every club has difficult journeys and congested schedules, which Sarah quite rightly did. But there is still a difference between looking for an excuse and recognising that travelling back from Gateshead in the early hours after playing with ten men might take something out of a team.
Sarah was less convinced.
Her point was that teams regularly play Saturday-Tuesday schedules and have to deal with similar recovery periods. She wasn’t willing to let Sutton hide behind the journey.
The truth is probably somewhere between the two.
Wealdstone deserved to win.
Sutton also looked tired.
Both can be true.
How much did we miss Will Nightingale?
Perhaps the more interesting explanation was the defensive reshuffle.
Will Nightingale was unavailable after carrying a knock, while other defensive options were also missing. That meant Dan Urpens moved into central defence and Jermaine Francis filled in at right-back.
Nobody is suggesting Francis cannot defend. Quite the opposite. His defensive work from a more advanced position has been one of his strengths.
But playing as an actual full-back is different.
It also meant changing two positions rather than simply replacing Nightingale with another centre-half.
Sarah felt Sutton’s defence lacked some of the organisation we had seen during the opening weeks. It certainly was not a return to some of last season’s occasions when the back four occasionally looked as though they had been introduced to each other in the tunnel, but something was not quite clicking.
The opening goal rather summed it up.
Urpens’ defensive header dropped straight to Micah Obiero, who finished the chance. With slightly clearer communication, perhaps the header is dealt with differently.
Perhaps it isn’t.
But Sutton had looked unusually vulnerable before the goal and Wealdstone had clearly identified areas they could attack.
It also serves as a reminder of just how influential Nightingale has already become. His value might not simply be in the tackles and headers he wins, but in the organisation he provides around him.
Give Wealdstone some credit
One thing Sarah was keen to point out, and something we sometimes forget as supporters, is that there was another team involved.
It is very easy after a defeat to analyse everything Sutton did wrong.
Wrong formation. Wrong player. Wrong substitution. Wrong pass.
Sometimes the opposition just play well.
Wealdstone arrived with a plan and executed it.
That was particularly painful given that I had spent the previous episode telling everybody how impressive Agi’s pre-match tactical explanation in hospitality had been. He had explained how Sutton expected the game to go.
Then Wealdstone declined to cooperate.
Rather inconsiderate of them.
But Sarah was right. They deserve credit for disrupting Sutton and making the afternoon uncomfortable.
Possession without a cutting edge
The attacking side of the performance is perhaps the biggest area to examine.
Having 60 per cent of possession sounds positive until you look at what happened with it.
Not much.
Sutton had very little threat inside the box, Wealdstone dealt with the long throw and Temi Babalola was not able to have the influence he had enjoyed in the previous couple of matches.
It also raised another question we had discussed before the game.
Are Sutton still one striker short?
The squad has attacking options, but there is a difference between having players who can play centrally and having another recognised centre-forward available if something happens to the existing options.
There was also a discussion about David Ogbonna’s position. Sarah would prefer to see him operating wider, where his pace and direct running caused so many problems last season, rather than being used alongside Temi through the middle.
And then there is the long throw.
Everyone knows about it now.
That does not automatically make it ineffective. Knowing where a ball is going and actually stopping it are two very different things.
But Wealdstone did stop it.
That means Sutton may need to keep finding different ways of exploiting it rather than allowing opponents to become comfortable defending the same delivery repeatedly.
Discipline. Again.
This is probably the part Sarah is much less willing to dismiss as a one-off.
We spoke throughout last season about Sutton’s disciplinary record and the damage caused by cards, suspensions and penalties.
This season was supposed to be a clean slate.
Then Noah Nzuzi was sent off at Gateshead.
Against Wealdstone we conceded our first penalty of the season.
And Agi was sent off from the technical area.
Sarah’s concern is not simply about one decision. Suspensions affect the team, fines have a financial impact and repeated disciplinary problems eventually become part of a club’s reputation.
Her solution was beautifully straightforward.
Behave yourselves.
I suggested reward charts and stickers.
Sarah suspected Phill Tattersall might favour the stick rather than the carrot.
There is obviously a serious point underneath the joking.
Agi had only recently returned following a previous touchline ban. Whatever was said to earn another dismissal, it was avoidable.
Sutton cannot spend another season making matches more difficult for themselves.
Are we still allowed to be excited?
Absolutely.
One defeat does not change the fact that Sutton have started the season brilliantly.
Would we have accepted four wins from the opening five league matches before a ball was kicked?
Of course we would.
Sarah certainly would.
The fact that a home defeat to Wealdstone feels so disappointing probably says more about how quickly expectations changed than anything else.
We were not expecting to be top after four matches.
Then we got there.
Suddenly losing felt like somebody had taken something away from us.
But three points are three points regardless of whether they come against a promotion favourite or a team expected to struggle. Likewise, a defeat costs the same whether it comes against the champions or the team at the bottom.
Sarah’s view remains sensible: the league table is not telling us an awful lot after five matches.
Ask again after ten.
I probably will.
Sarah’s slightly ridiculous away-day challenge
We also took a break from the men’s team to catch up with Sarah’s cycling challenge supporting Sutton United Women.
She is attempting to cycle to all 11 women’s away league matches this season, raising money for the women’s section along the way.
Two are already complete.
The first trip to Aylesford proved slightly more adventurous than intended after Google Maps decided that a muddy path through the woods was an entirely reasonable route for a long-distance cycle.
The second, to Ashford Town’s ground near Heathrow, was rather more straightforward.
Apart from being chased by dogs.
Naturally.
The next challenge is Eastbourne, which is more than 100 kilometres away. Even better, Sarah plans to attend the men’s game at Barrow first, travel back and then get up the following morning to cycle to Eastbourne.
Suddenly my argument that travelling back from Gateshead makes you tired does not seem quite so ridiculous.
Sarah’s fundraising target is £1,000, and when we recorded the episode she had already reached around £610 after only two rides, with further pledged sponsorship expected to take the total considerably higher.
You can follow Sarah’s cycling adventures here:
And if you would like to support the challenge:
And next... Barrow
Which brings us rather neatly back to Dean Hammond.
It’s what you do next.
Sutton now travel to Barrow, another side who have started the season without the results they would have wanted.
And yes, that sounds suspiciously familiar.
Before Wealdstone, you might have looked at Barrow’s early form and quietly fancied Sutton to come away with something.
After Monday?
Perhaps we’re all slightly more cautious.
Sarah certainly is.
There is also that familiar Sutton supporter feeling around Barrow away. The journey, the memories of previous visits and that slightly irrational belief that we never seem to get much there.
As Sarah pointed out, those historical records probably mean very little. Different players, different managers, different circumstances.
Football supporters just like patterns.
The more important question is what reaction we see.
If Nightingale is available again, Sarah expects him to return. She would also like to see Ogbonna moved back towards the wide position where she feels he is at his most dangerous.
But she does not expect Agi to tear everything up because of one defeat.
Why would he?
It was a winning formula until Monday.
And if somebody offered Sarah a point at Barrow right now?
She’d probably take it.
Which led to the clip from this week’s episode.
I asked whether performance or result mattered more right now.
Sarah wants both. She pays good money to watch football and would quite like it to be entertaining.
But when everything is finished, there is only one thing that really matters.
Would she take a magnificent 4-3 defeat?
No.
Would she take an absolutely dreadful 1-0 victory?
“I’d take the win. I would always take the win. I’d hate it, but I’d take it.”
That probably sums up Barrow quite nicely.
Forget the unbeaten run.
Forget being top after four games.
Forget Wealdstone.
Get a result.
Then start another run.
Because whether you win, lose or draw, the most important thing is always the same.
It’s what you do next.