Sutton cash in on promotion but fear prospect of relegation

Sutton United were running a promotion for this match. Season-ticket holders at Premier League and Championship clubs could pay £10 to come and watch. The south London club started the day bottom of League Two, so it was a call for all rubber-neckers. If you were a Crystal Palace, Fulham or Millwall fan, say, it was a chance to see how the other half are living. Or struggling.

On a day when Matt Gray’s side were the only London team in the Football League playing at home, it was also a sensible piece of marketing and a clever idea to get a few more fans for their most important game of the season. And it worked, as more than 3,500 came along, their biggest gate in this campaign.

Tranmere, without a point away from home before kick-off and on their second manager this season, Nigel Adkins, started the day two places and two points away. In other words, catchable and vulnerable. Yet it was their supporters singing: “How shit must you be, we’re winning away,” after Rob Apter’s 16th-minute goal deflected past goalkeeper Dean Bouzanis off Ben Goodliffe.

A win for the hosts would have meant hopping off the bottom and out of the two relegation places. And a chance to catch their breath, as Gray talked about before this game. Instead, despite this draw, thanks to Louis John’s 88th minute short-range poke, he has got a whole lot more talking to do to get his team out of their rut.

How has it come to this? Gray got the manager’s job at the fan-owned club in 2019 and two years later they were champions of the National League and promoted to the Football League for the first time in their 123-year history. By 2022 it seemed as if Gray, who was on Tottenham’s books as a schoolboy, could do no wrong. They reached the EFL Trophy final at Wembley and were leading Rotherham 2-1 in stoppage time. Six minutes later the Millers had equalised and went on to win in extra time. Sutton were denied a first senior trophy. Nevertheless, the matchday programme and lineups from that afternoon hang proudly outside the boardroom.

Gray was earning the club a reputation as a Football League upstart – they finished eighth in 2022 – given that Sutton are known principally for their FA Cup achievements. Beating the 1987 FA Cup winners Coventry in January 1989 will never be forgotten at Gander Green Lane – or in parts of the Midlands.

Then came 2017, and another Cup run, including wins over AFC Wimbledon and Leeds, and the unsavoury events of the fifth round. Their kit man and reserve goalkeeper, Wayne Shaw, in their televised game against Arsenal, was seen eating a pasty, which it transpired was linked to a very public betting offer.

He was sacked and several months later fined for influencing a betting market.

Fast-forward six years and last season they finished 14th – safe but something of a sophomore slump – and now after a summer of player upheaval they have the worst defensive record in League Two. That is something picked up on by one fan, Andrew, 57 and a season-ticket holder: “We haven’t got the same defence we had last season. That’s our crucial failing. We need to shore up the defence and get more solid in midfield and if we do that we’ll be OK.

“As for the manager, this is Sutton – we’re not going to sack him. It’s too late. I would have liked to see a change earlier on when things were going bad for us. I don’t see the point in sacking him. We need to get to the end of the season and see where we are. It’s been a disappointing season. It hasn’t been great. If we do survive, we’ll be in the bottom half.”

Lucy, another regular fan, has a glass which is half-full: “They’ve got a great manager and everyone believes in him. I do. He took us into this league. People want change but you always get that. You can’t please everybody all the time. They’ve had bad form before and turned it around.”

Gray said this was Sutton’s worst performance in their past six games but was still looking up: “It would have been nice to gain ground on Tranmere but the most important thing is we didn’t get beat when we were losing at half-time. You can see how the players believe in what we’re doing. It’s not been a great start for us but I feel we’ve turned a corner.”

Round that corner is a trip next Saturday to Grimsby, who are three places and six points away. Sutton – and Gray – will just have to make sure that corner doesn’t lead down a blind alley.