Sutton raise the benchmark again
BENCHES borrowed from Surrey County Cricket Club’s Oval headquarters were needed to pack in more fans the last time Sutton United hosted Leeds in the fourth round of the cup.
That was 47 years ago next Tuesday and Sutton chairman Bruce Elliott remembers it well, as he helped haul the wooden benches around the perimeter track at Gander Green Lane.
The National League side’s historic late win at AFC Wimbledon on Tuesday night was yet another chapter in the club’s superb cup tradition. Everyone remembers their most famous moment – beating top-flight Coventry in 1989 thanks to Matt Hanlan’s goal.
This latest victory means they will face Championship side Leeds at the Lane on Sunday week – and the memories will flood back for Elliott. Don Revie’s Leeds were the best in the land when they arrived at Sutton in January 1970.
They were the Football League champions and a full-strength line-up included Peter Lorimer, Billy Bremner, Johnny Giles, Allan Clarke, Jack Charlton, Paul Reaney and Norman Hunter.
Leeds ran out 6-0 winners against the part-timers, Clarke scoring four goals and Lorimer two.
Elliott was then a 22-year-old member of the Supporters’ Committee. “I remember the club hired in some benches from the Oval and we placed them on the inside of the perimeter fence – that would never happen these days,” says Elliott, who is now an accountant.
“I don’t know why they picked me to help – maybe they thought I was one of the more sensible ones.
“We had 14,000 there that day. Times have changed. It’s pure nostalgia.
“There’s an enormous amount to do between now and next weekend. But we won’t be putting up any temporary stands. We will have 5,000 fans in – we will need extra stewards and police – but we will be fine.”
Elliott, who has been chairman of Sutton for 20 years, admits that he remembers little of that 1970 meeting. “Not much,” he says. “I remember sitting on those benches! The Leeds side of that time was reckoned to be probably the best club side in Europe.
“I remember the team that they put out – household names, all of them. Bremner, Charlton, Giles, Reaney, Lorimer, Hunter. You knew everything about them. We lost 6-0. But that proper team.”
Sutton turfed out League Two Cheltenham in the second round this season and Wimbledon became just the latest in a long list of Football League victims on Tuesday night, when late goals was their from Roarie Deacon, Maxime Biamou and Dan Fitchett secured a 3-1 replay victory and a chance for revenge. “I’ve still not really come to terms with it,” says Elliott of that 6-0 thrashing.
And despite Leeds currently lying in third place in the Championship, manager Paul Doswell has warned that on their artificial pitch, Sutton can be a match for anyone.
“We’ve got so little time to get things ready,” says Elliott.
“It is mayhem right now. But that Wimbledon game showed that we are not just a decent side on our 3G pitch. It showed we have some good players.
“Every year our ambition is just to get to the first round, so you find yourselves in the fourth and it is magical.”
Sutton’s players and management celebrated long and loud at their clubhouse on Tuesday night and Elliott winced as he recalled the evening. “I was there until 1.15am – and they were still going strong,” he says.
“Some of them camped there the night, I think. But if you can’t enjoy an occasion like this, when can you?”