Mad, bad, and dangerous to play. How Sutton United got a memorable draw against Stevenage.
As I arrived at Stevenage Football Club, I was living life to the Lamax. In my bag I had my contraband, a flask of Bovril and a water bottle. Both were confiscated, its policy the security staff were doing their job. More drama was to follow, a second half described by the many as footballing madness, but will I hope, be remembered as a testimony to a Sutton United team that does not give up. This was a below par performance by Sutton. The first half was not dramatic and more like The Play That Went Wrong. Error strewn, Sutton lost the ball easily, Stevenage got the ball but they too would lose it quickly. The difference was that Stevenage when the ball broke, they took it into the Sutton box with just a little more skill and threat. As ever Suttons Bouzanis used his core goal keeping skills to save with his hands. The first half ended with Stevenage leading two nil. You can legitimately in some cases attribute this to poor refereeing which is a comfort blanket that keeps out the cold fact that Sutton had a poor half. Having left the stands to stretch my already well walked legs having walked from Stevenage Town centre to the Lamax I said to another supporter ‘do I have to go back,’ as a football pessimist and from what I saw in the first half not much grounds for hope. This would be just one of those days.
Then the kaleidoscope began to shake with Smiths volleyed goal, Sutton two one down, order was restored with Reid scoring for Stevenage. Minutes later the man in the middle whom some Sutton thought would change his ways, did just that by awarding Sutton a penalty. Milsom dispatched it in the way he always does.
The game stood at three two for Stevenage who played with more anxiety so much so that they needed to lie down to rest from time to time. Substitutes walked on and off the pitch like participants in zombie marathon. All this would come back to haunt them later with the referee adding eight minutes of added time. Time enough for an equalizer? Yes, please, and how it came was amazing, especially the composure of the players involved in the goal. When Harry Met Sally was good but better was when Barden’s pass met Ajiboye, remember this is the ninety-eight minute has the composure to chip it in for the Bennett to use all the power in his neck to get his head to it, blasting it into the Stevenage net. The Sutton players charged to the corner flag in celebration while the travelling Sutton fans leapt up, shouted but it was just noise coming out of their mouths, nothing coherent just pure unalloyed joy. We took a point from a game where we looked like we would not get any, yet we celebrated it like a famous win that may enter Sutton United folklore as a tale of a team that doesn’t give up. Chapters in this tale will. Include a goalkeeper running free with the ball at his feet going past Stevenage players like he plays down the wing regularly. Gifting a goal to Stevenage that YouTube would categorise in the comedy section. Being awarded a penalty, which was generous of the referee but an offer we could not refuse. Then the lights went out, as one if the floodlights were packed in. A few phone torches were held aloft as we waited for a Celine Dion song from the PA system.
The game finished; I left the stadium in a daze. Walking through what was the second underpass heading back to the town centre only to remember I forgot to collect my confiscated flask of Bovril and water bottle. I went back, the stewards were still around the away end. They kindly got my confiscated contraband then I was off on my way swigging Bovril from my flask.
Stevenage was a memorable away day. I arrived at Stevenage Station, crossed the road bridge. I paused to look at the oncoming cars with two things going through my head. The first was the theme music from the BBCs The Office, handbags, and the glad rags. The second one was Ballard, a writer who took inspiration from the roads around Uxbridge. The new town of Stevenage has a sprawl feel to it, as if everything were put down with building crowding each other out. As a contrast, after the match, I headed to the old town in search of Amber Aleman’s pub recommendations. The old town was quaint and simplistic in the style of that one road towns teeming with pubs and restaurants. Whatever the town old or new, like Glasgow, People Make Stevenage not the architecture.
I headed back to Sutton via Finsbury Park. On the train I could hear Sutton sing, this was not one of them, but I have heard, sang in irony before but now is it ironic? I am not going to sing ‘we are going up; we are going up’ at least not yet but what I will sing with confidence is that ‘we are staying up.’ We look very much at home in EFL2 but who knows we might accidentally move home and go to a new league. It is an unpredictable world, Sutton United just live in it. Onwards.
