There was a moment during Saturday’s game when I realised just how different this season already feels.
Last season, sitting on a 1-0 lead in a fairly scrappy game would normally have had me wondering how we were going to find a way to throw it away. Against Altrincham, I never really had that feeling. They had plenty of the ball, we certainly weren’t at our best, but there wasn’t that horrible sense of inevitability we became far too familiar with.
And, perhaps more importantly, we won.
In this week’s Sutton United Talk Time on Podcast I’m joined by Carl and Paul for a look back at the first home game of the season, a 1-0 win over Altrincham that could hardly have been more different from the 3-0 opening-day victory at Woking. Two games, two wins, four goals scored and none conceded. I make that 4.34% of our promotion-winning season successfully negotiated. Not that I’m getting carried away or anything.
Before we get anywhere near the football, though, there is lavender.
Looking good in lavender
Both Carl and Paul arrived sporting Sutton’s new third shirt, although Carl may have received slightly more “encouragement” from Vicky in the club shop than Paul did. I’m a big fan of it. The club has had some fun with the third kits over the last few years and the lavender connection gives this one a nice local twist.
There was a brief discussion about whether lavender really belonged to Carshalton rather than Sutton, which Paul subsequently researched and discovered was an argument he was having largely with himself. It turns out lavender fields were very much part of the wider local area, so everyone can stand down.
We also discuss the launch video, including Megan’s slightly awkward performance. Apparently they were specifically instructed not to smile, which must have been hard. The end result was a really nice bit of club media and another example of being willing to have a bit of fun with the Sutton identity.
There are also a couple of bits of supporter housekeeping. Coach travel is available for some of the longer upcoming away trips, including Gateshead, Barrow and Halifax, and I would definitely recommend checking the Fan Zone for the details if you’re planning to travel.
More importantly, Sarah has apparently decided that normal methods of travelling to away matches are far too easy.
She is cycling to every Sutton United Women’s away game this season to raise money for the women’s team, covering roughly 520 kilometres, or around 320 miles. The money isn’t being raised to cover the normal running costs of the team, but to help provide some of those extras that can make a difference as the women’s side continues to develop. It is a fantastic challenge and one we’ll undoubtedly be mentioning again as the season progresses.
gofund.me/1c8fd7e0b
Then we get onto the small matter of the football.
Winning ugly?
Woking was fun. Three goals, pace, attacking football and the sort of opening day that makes it very easy to start making ridiculous predictions about the next nine months.
Altrincham wasn’t that.
Saturday was scrappy. Neither side really managed to get going for long periods and, while Altrincham saw plenty of the ball, they rarely looked particularly threatening. Sutton weren’t exactly carving them apart at the other end either.
The phrase “winning ugly” gets thrown around during the episode and I’m not entirely convinced it was an ugly performance. It certainly wasn’t a particularly entertaining one, but there is a difference.
We scored early and then managed the game. Altrincham huffed and puffed without creating very much and, despite the inevitable nerves that come with protecting a one-goal lead, Spike Brits wasn’t exactly being bombarded.
That leads us into one of the bigger questions from the episode. Can this Sutton side win in different ways?
Last week we saw that they could win well. This week they showed they could win when they weren’t playing particularly well. Carl had actually asked Steve Morison during the summer whether this team could “win ugly”, and Saturday provided some early evidence that perhaps they can.
For me, that’s important.
There have been far too many games over the last couple of seasons where Sutton have played some decent football, failed to take advantage of it and eventually found a way to lose. I’ve said several times that one of my hopes for this season is simply to arrive at matches expecting that we might win, rather than wondering how we’re going to manage to lose this particular one.
Carl summed it up nicely. Would you take 46 1-0 victories?
Of course you would.
We all want to see great football and four or five goals, but nobody is going to complain about grinding out victories if the alternative is playing beautifully and losing.
Maybe there isn’t just one Sutton style
Something else is beginning to emerge from the opening games.
Last season there were times when it felt as though Sutton were determined to play in a particular way regardless of what was happening in front of them. Playing out from the back became almost an article of faith, occasionally with fairly painful consequences.
This season there seems to be more flexibility.
Against Altrincham we were quite prepared to go longer. That makes considerably more sense when you’ve got Temi Babalola up front giving defenders something substantial to deal with, but it also appears to be part of a wider approach.
Carl makes the point that the management team had studied Woking several times before the opening game and had done the same homework on Altrincham. Rather than imposing one Sutton style on every opponent, we may see different formations, different personnel and different approaches depending on who we’re facing.
That might not always produce beautiful football, but if it produces points I’m perfectly happy to live with it.
There was also something quite encouraging about the manager’s reaction afterwards. Six points, four goals scored, none conceded and he was still talking about things that needed improving.
He’s right. There is plenty to improve.
But there’s something rather nice about needing to improve when you’ve already won both matches.
Finally, someone else did it
The goal itself was particularly enjoyable for anybody who watched Sutton regularly last season.
We’ve seen that goal before at Gander Green Lane. A team tries to play out from the back, gets itself into trouble and presents the opposition with a wonderful opportunity.
The important difference this time was that it happened at the correct end.
The Altrincham goalkeeper essentially presented the ball to Temi, but what happened afterwards shouldn’t be overlooked. Temi didn’t panic or simply lash at goal. He looked up, assessed the options and found David Ogbonna, who calmly finished.
Paul makes the point that Altrincham’s goalkeeper had already shown some vulnerability and Sutton’s willingness to press him may not have been accidental. Whether the mistake was entirely forced or not, we were in the right position to take advantage of it.
Ogbonna now has two goals from the opening two league games, having come off the bench to score at Woking before being rewarded with a start against Altrincham.
Not a bad way to begin your season.
The defence looks different
Perhaps the biggest positive from these opening two games isn’t the four goals we’ve scored. It’s the zero at the other end.
Will Nightingale inevitably gets plenty of praise during the conversation and rightly so. He already looks like an important part of this side, but it isn’t simply about one defender.
Carl talks about mistakes being cleaned up before they become chances. Someone loses the ball and another player is there. Someone gets beaten and there’s cover behind them. Balls entering the box are being blocked or dealt with rather than turning into panic.
Dan Urpens looks remarkably comfortable for a player of his age, Alex Kirk is returning and the whole defensive unit simply looks more robust.
I joked that it would be wonderful to reach the end of the season still not knowing whether Spike Brits is actually a brilliant goalkeeper because the defence hasn’t allowed anyone to properly test him.
I’d happily take that particular mystery.
What happens without Jake?
We also had an early test of the squad when Jake Taylor went off with a groin problem.
There was a point last season where losing Jake would have felt catastrophic. He brought experience, intelligence and leadership to a young side and there were games where it felt as though he was dragging everyone else along with him.
On Saturday he went off with Sutton 1-0 ahead and we managed the remaining hour without falling apart.
That doesn’t mean we didn’t miss him. Both Carl and Paul make the point that Jake’s influence goes beyond what he does with the ball. But there is now a difference between missing an important player and being completely dependent on him.
As Carl says during the episode, you don’t win promotion with eleven players. You need a squad. We’re only two league games into the season, but there are already signs that Sutton have one.
Options. Actual attacking options.
That becomes even clearer when we start talking about the forward line.
Temi gives us physical presence. Ogbonna has started with two goals in two. Jermaine Francis never seems to stop running. Sam Folarin offers pace. Brandon Njoku gives another option and Charlie Carter will add even more when available.
For once, we’re talking about attacking choices rather than trying to work out who is fit enough to fill a position.
Temi is particularly interesting because his presence changes what Sutton can do. Going long isn’t simply giving possession away when you’ve got someone capable of competing physically with centre-backs, holding the ball and bringing others into play.
It also means opposition teams have to prepare for him.
And perhaps that’s where this squad becomes particularly interesting. They prepare for Temi and Sutton could change it completely. They prepare for pace and we could go physical. They prepare for one formation and the manager could pick another.
Two matches in, I’m not sure I could name our strongest eleven.
I’m increasingly thinking that’s a good thing.
So, are we actually good?
Don’t worry, I asked.
After Woking we were 2.17% of the way through the season. We are now a massive 4.34% through it, so clearly it’s time to start drawing conclusions.
Carl remains firmly in the ten-game camp before he’ll start taking the league table particularly seriously. His expectation before the season was a play-off push and that hasn’t changed, although the opening two matches have certainly done nothing to discourage him.
Paul is a little more cautious, particularly given Sutton’s budget compared with some of the bigger clubs in the division, but even he can see reasons to believe this side could outperform those financial expectations.
The interesting bit for me is that the players themselves haven’t arrived talking about mid-table consolidation. Several of them have made it very clear, publicly and privately, that they came here expecting to challenge.
That still feels slightly strange as a Sutton supporter.
I’ve therefore done the responsible thing and checked how much notice the council requires for road closures and an open-top bus parade.
Apparently it’s several months.
Just mentioning it, Tim.
A cup game nobody is pretending to love
Before next weekend we’ve got Leicester City’s youngsters in the National League Cup.
I know the competition divides opinion and Paul makes his feelings fairly clear. Unfortunately for him, he’s also commentating on it, so he has a few days to manufacture some enthusiasm.
I’m probably somewhere in the middle. We’re in it, there is prize money available and the manager wants to win every competition we enter. It also offers genuine value for players needing minutes, particularly someone like Alex Kirk as he works his way back.
Would I be devastated if the competition disappeared tomorrow? Probably not.
Will I suddenly become extremely interested if we reach the quarter-finals? Absolutely. That’s how football works.
And then Hartlepool
Saturday lunchtime could be our most interesting test yet.
Hartlepool have also started with two wins from two. They’ve scored three, we’ve scored four and neither side has conceded. Something, therefore, has to give.
It feels like our first opportunity to measure Sutton against a side expected to be somewhere around the upper reaches of the division. We’ve talked about needing more games before deciding exactly what this team is, and Hartlepool should provide another useful piece of evidence.
They’ve recruited experience and size. So have we.
There is also the Sam Folarin factor as he comes up against his former club, although both Carl and Paul rightly point out that Steve Morison is unlikely to select somebody purely because they’ve got a point to prove. If Sam fits the game plan, he’ll play.
That’s perhaps the theme running through this whole episode.
Two games have produced two very different Sutton performances and two very different victories. We still don’t really know what our strongest eleven is. We don’t know exactly what our preferred style is. We certainly don’t know where we’ll finish.
But we do know we’ve got six points.
We know we haven’t conceded a goal.
And we know that, unlike Saturday’s performance, this start hasn’t been ugly at all.
The full episode is available now. Have a listen and let us know where you are after two games. Still far too early to judge, quietly encouraged, or have you already joined me in researching open-top buses?