To say that Sutton United have adapted well to their newfound Football League status would be a considerable understatement.
Last season’s National League champions find themselves right in the thick of a promotion battle, wedged between Tranmere Rovers and Northampton Town in 3rd position in League Two and are eyeing a historic Wembley appearance ahead of tonight’s quarter-final meeting with Harrogate Town in the Papa John’s trophy.
Reaching such lofty heights would have been far from manager Matt Gray’s mind when he was mapping out the club’s survival mission last summer amid plenty of upheaval on and off the pitch.
Sutton were forced to replace their money-making artificial surface with a grass pitch at Gander Green Lane and make numerous costly adjustments around the stadium in order to meet EFL regulations, while Gray was tasked with consolidating and improving a squad that had performed so well the previous campaign.
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“For Sutton United it’s the first time in 123 years to be a Football League club and we want to stay there,” Gray told i when asked whether expectations had evolved since August.
“We had such a short turnaround in the off season of only four weeks. We had so much to do on and off the pitch with laying the new pitch, [improving] floodlights, turnstiles and stands and finding a new training ground as well as moving everyone from three-quarter time contracts onto full professional contracts.
“It was extremely tough to do all of that in a short of space of time. It’s still not a finished article behind the scenes at all and we’re still working extremely hard day by day to get it as we want it as an established football league club.
“I wanted to keep 18 players from last year’s squad and we managed to do that. We had to make our squad a little bit better and recruited six and kept the hardcore 18 and I think that’s been the main catalyst for why we’ve managed to kick on.”
Centre back Ben Goodliffe was a key figure in Sutton’s title-winning campaign, earning a place in the National League’s Team of the Year for his efforts and he has been a virtual ever-present this season too, starting in 24 of the club’s 26 league matches.
The 22-year-old has had a far from typical start to his professional career, yo-yo-ing from Tottenham‘s academy where he spent seven years to Boreham Wood to Wolves‘ U23 development squad where he shadowed Conor Coady, before joining Sutton in 2019.
Goodliffe is also a qualified personal trainer, earning his level three qualification while starting out at Boreham Wood. The defender found solace in his second vocation when non-league football became a victim of the pandemic. “It was good for myself being out and about doing something different rather than just sitting on my sofa after training,” he tells i.
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“I felt the Wolves deal was the best thing that could have happened as it helped me develop further again in better facilities and an environment that was similar to Tottenham. Originally it was with Paul Lambert and he was helping youngsters come through and then there was a change of manager and all the Portuguese players came in and to be honest, there was no real path for any young players to progress there.”
Although Goodliffe is grateful for the footballing education he received at Spurs and Wolves, he believes his grounding in non-league has helped him adapt to the rigours of League Two this season.
“It was probably a blessing in disguise that they [Spurs] let me go because I’m on the path and the journey that I’m on now. Don’t get me wrong, everyone’s ambitions are to play as high as they can and with Tottenham being a Premier League club obviously you want to stay there but it was good for me to go out and enjoy my football again.
“We’re sitting higher than what we may have imagined at the start of the season, but if we can carry on that journey who knows where can we end up and what we can achieve because the group that we have is second to none.”
Goodliffe has certainly enjoyed being part of Sutton’s ascension and like his manager will be eager to earn a shot at playing at Wembley. Standing in their way of the Papa John’s trophy semi-finals are Harrogate, a club that has served as an inspiration to Sutton by surviving comfortably in League Two in their maiden Football League campaign last season.
“I don’t think there’s a massive gap and it goes to show you the strength in depth of the National League that teams who are promoted can easily hold their own in League Two,” Gray argues. “Harrogate had never been a football league club before as well as ourselves. With the right leadership from the top and a nice healthy structure within the club, anything is possible and you certainly can make that step. Harrogate are no different from ourselves.
“They’ve come up, adapted really well and are an ambitious club. They’ve played at Wembley a couple of times, won the play-offs and played the FA Trophy there so have had that taste of big finals. We haven’t and it’s something that we really want. The prize money is huge for the football club generally let alone this season with what we’ve had to spend and it’s a competition we’re taking really seriously.
“Sutton haven’t played at Wembley in many, many years and I know it’s a big ambition for the chairman to see his side walk out at there again. It means so much to so many people and of course, everyone connected to the club would love to have a Wembley cup final.”
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/3H1ZL0y
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