Potted History Of Our Wembley Opponents

Rotherham United will take on Sutton United in the Papa John’s Trophy Final this weekend which will be the first time the teams have ever met.

So what do we know about our opponents?

Currently playing in League Two the U’s were formed in 1898 when two teams – Sutton Guild Rovers F.C. and Sutton Association F.C – merged becoming a senior side twelve years later.

1921 saw them elected to the Athenian League and two years after being re-elected won the championship. After the war Sutton won the League again plus the Surrey Senior Cup. 1958 saw them get a third title and win the London Senior Cup and five years later they found themselves at Wembley in the FA Amateur Cup losing out to Wimbledon. The summer after that Wembley appearance saw them join the Isthmian League which they won in 1967. Two years later they were at Wembley again in the Amateur Cup again losing this time to North Shields. In 1970 they progressed in the FA Cup and got a home tie against Leeds United who put out a strong team and not surprisingly won six-nil.

In 1979 Sutton won the Anglo Italian Cup beating Chieti FC, the only time an English semi-professional club won this competition, going on to finish runners-up twice more in the competition with a trip to Wembley in the FA Trophy Final losing to Bishop Stortford in-between. 1983 saw them win the Surrey Senior, London Senior, and Hitachi Cups and went on to win the Surrey Senior cup another five times.

The club won the Isthmian League again in 1985 and again the following year when they redeveloped the stadium and were promoted to the Conference. They got through to the Fourth round of the FA Cup in 1988/9 losing out to Norwich City at Carrow Road but two years later were relegated back to the Isthmian League before returning in 1999 only to go straight back down the following season.

Sutton won the Surrey Senior Cup again in 2003 and the following year became founding members of the Conference South league and stayed there until 2008 when they returned to the Isthmian League Premier Division. Two years later they were promoted as champions losing to Welling United in the play-off final that first season back and again two years later this time to Dover Athletic. The 2015/16 season saw them top the newly named National League South and moved into the National League for the following season.

2017 saw Sutton reach the fifth round of the FA Cup for the first time after beating Championship side Leeds United one-nil but couldn’t overcome Arsenal who beat them at the Gander Green Stadium two-nil. There was an incident at the game where reserve ‘keeper Wayne Shaw ‘won a bet’ by eating a pasty on the bench during the game and afterwards was fined by the FA and banned for two months for breaching the betting rules. Sutton reached the a play-off semi-final in 2018 losing three-two to Boreham Wood.

After the Covid pandemic saw football halted Sutton went on to win the 2020/1 National League title meaning they would start this season in the Football League for the first time ever and saw Manager Matt Gray, who took over in May 2019, named National League Manager of the Year.

So far this season the club are holding their own in League Two and are currently in tenth position with sixty-one points with David Ajiboye and Isaac Olaofe joint top scorers with seven goals each while former Miller Rob Milsom is one behind them with six goals.