Welcome to the first Support Your Local Saturday thread - which we will be trialling for the first time today.
The premise is a thread to talk about your local team - something of an amalgamation of the Saturday Non-PL Daily Discussion Thread, and a “match-going fan” thread.
This does not necessarily mean that only comments from fans going to their local that day - but the spirit is a Discussion Thread for people who support their local team, and especially teams from lower or non-PL leagues - who can get drowned out in the pre-existing Daily Discussion Thread.
There is a small but dedicated following in the Non-PL DDT, and we were hoping that something of a re-brand may boost participation and help to build the excellent sub-community there.
We want to keep the focus to Non-PL teams, to prevent it being drowned out by Big 6 fans - but we will soften this slightly, in that comments of PL-supporting fans are valid, providing they were “at the match” that weekend.
It may not work, but worth giving a go, eh…
Rules:
- Discussion must be of your local team - whether they were you local growing up, or are your local now
- Discussion of PL teams is allowed only if you are attending the match that weekend - and hence focused on the match day experience
- Keep a high bar. This is not the DDT. If you want to troll, bait, or shit-talk like it’s Football Twitter, use the DDT. Or even better - Twitter.
For my birthday I visited my grandparents who live in Sutton (also where I grew up) and went to my first Sutton game (at Gander Green Lane) since the 4-3 victory against Port Vale.
In a way it was a similar dynamic as our opponent Bradford were much better with the ball and could actually control the midfield, but also looked like they would shit themselves when experiencing actual serious pressure from the opposition. Ultimately, Sutton had the drive and luck to win the game in our stronger periods. I’m not surprised that Bradford were a side that recently sacked Mark Hughes considering how prone their defence was to pressure.
It was weirdly quiet from the Sutton fans - nothing like the games during the first season in League 2 - but I have missed the rustic lower league atmosphere. Hopefully I can make more games, particularly as Sutton might not be long for the world of EFL football