The drive back from the Bristol game took us pretty close to Solihull and as Moors had a National League fixture with Sutton United kicking off at Sunday lunchtime, I timed our journey back North to be able to take it in.
Jen was undecided on whether to go for a stroll in the adjacent park or attend the match and do some knitting. When she learned that tickets for a fifth-tier game were twenty-one quid a pop she opted for the strolling and decided that if any knitting were to be done, it would take place in the car.
Solihull’s Damson Park stadium opened at the arse end of the last century, but apparently the main stand has since been developed. It’s hospitality only upstairs and regular seating in the lower tier. There was uncovered seating opposite and small sheds for standing behind each goal. The fixture wasn’t segregated and of the near nine-hundred crowd, there was about a hundred and fifty from Sutton.
At half time the fans behind each goal switched ends so that they had a better view of their team attacking. That’s one of the perks of lower-level football.
Solihull were the better side but not much happened until Sutton took the lead a few minutes into the second half. Conceding seemed to shake the home side into action and within ten minutes of going behind they had rattled in three goals in quick succession to turn things around.
There were a few Sutton fans sat around me and they were not at all happy about the poor game management from their team. A consolidating spell of keeping the ball and a couple of tactical injury breaks would have served them better after scoring rather than going toe to toe with the home side at the restart.
Any hopes that Sutton had of getting something from the game probably ended a few minutes from the end when they had one of their defenders sent off for what might be termed a robust challenge. As they continued to push forward Solihull hit them on the break in added time to make it four-one.
Trail of the Lion King 