Yes, Surrender....

Sutton Common Rovers, a relegation six pointer with everyting resting on it's outcome..... And yet it was a total capitulation. A game that should have seen our players fighting for survival against the club above us in the league, a chance to claw back points and self pride. Instead we witnessed a game that seemed more like a pre season friendly or a end of season mid table clash between two clubs just seeing out the last few matches. Sutton Common Rovers have not had a good season, however they have done the double over Tooting in what probably were their easiest matches of this campaign. 



Tooting have lost a large number of senior players over the last few weeks. Were they pushed or did they jump. Who really knows. A number of them turned up to watch from the stands along with ex managers and coaching staff. What must they have thought ? The new players drafted in made no difference what so ever. They played with no passion perhaps knowing they weren't going to be here for too long before the end of the season and the relegation for which we now need miracles of almost Biblical proportions to avoid. Bringing so many new players in so late in the season who have no idea about the club and have no relationship with the fans looks to many watching as a pointless exercise. One of our ex-players now banging in goals left, right and centre at Farnham just rubbing salt into some very open wounds, while we struggle to even trouble opposition keepers.

There are people at the club who must now look at themselves in the mirror and look at their own role in this car crash of a season. Do they fully understand the part they themselves have played in the clubs demise. Is their lack of self awareness of the dreadful situation that was allowed to take place on their watch gone straight over their heads. Supporters concerns raised earlier on dismissed as if their views were not important. People spoken to as if they were employees not fans. If we were shareholders in a company going through such a dreadful spell would they still be in a job.

No matter where we end up next season and even if we do hopefully avoid the drop, this will take years to sort out on the pitch, behind the scenes and on the terraces and stands. It will take far more than inspirational twitter posts and hash tags to win our missing fans back 

Clubs at all levels take supporters loyalty for granted, but Tooting, seem simply naive to the fact that our fan base is shrinking with every game. The large away support that followed the club now getting smaller with each trip. A crowd of over 200 at the SCR game made up of many who travelled down the A217, and supporters from other clubs whose games had been postponed. Very few standing on the Bog End. Possibly the quitest they have ever been. Our normal vocal support resigned to yet another awful home performance. Morale crushed yet again as relegation seems a mere formality. 

Sitting in the bar after the game with the supporters of this great club, all looking stunned and at a loss to explain what was allowed to happen. As I said in my last blog. We are a community on the terraces and stands, united by their support of The Terrors. The club prides itself on it's work with local communities. Yet, we seem to have been forgotten. 

We Go Again... and again and again and.....

Well, just as you think things are starting to turn around and just as you think that there is light at the end of the tunnel, reality jumps up and kicks you straight in the nuts. 

In the world of Footballing quotes and sayings you can honestly say that Tooting and Mitcham have trumped anything “Spursy” that Tottenham Hotspur can do. But “We go again” at the next game (Spoiler Alert, we never do). The “club of progression” is firmly anchored at the foot of the league, seeming happy that the progression is into either the Combined Counties League or some other crappy Kent based division where there will be even less rivalries that in the division we have ended up in now. I’m as “sick as a parrot” which really does not tell the absolute story of how bad I feel watching our club sink faster down the footballing pyramid. 

The truth is. It doesn’t matter they we have played well against W&H or Basingstoke this season. We have still lost. When you look at the league table there is not a separate column saying, “Played Well” or another column saying, “we go again”. There is just a glorified spread sheet showing the simple fact is that we seem unable to win games, score goals or fight our way up the table. The changes made by bringing Andy Hunt in to work alongside Ashley is beginning to look, as many of us have said, too little and too late. If the club knew that Ashley needed help and support, why wait so long to bring it in. As I have said on Twitter and other Blogs the writing was on the wall after the away fixture at SCR. 

At the time of writing, we have 10 games to save ourselves. Not impossible but with our form and inability to get any form of run of results going…. Well, it doesn’t bear thinking about. 

The club is fond of bringing up it’s links with the various communities in and around South London and Surrey. But there is one community that seems to have been forgotten in all of this. It’s the community of people that follow the club both home and away. The community that watches games from the stands and terraces at Fortress Imperial. The community that in some cases travels to games from deepest Essex and Hertfordshire to watch Tooting. People within the community that also travel up from Surrey and Sussex for games, as well as those who live nearby. The community that has donated so generously to collections for the ongoing war in the Ukraine, the earthquake in Turkey and Syria and closer to home, local food banks and children’s hospitals., St Georges Hospital, the MS Society, and other local charities. The community have has volunteered to help out at match days. The community that has put their hard earnt money into the club. The community that has helped the social media profile of the club grow over the last few years. The community that helps run web pages, Twitter and Facebook accounts and other online platforms. A community of people for whom watching Tooting and Mitcham is an important part of their social life. A chance to meet up and chat to friends. A place to have a drink and watch football. A chance to support local issues. A community of people from across Europe who have come together at games to support The Terrors and developed friendships with others whom without this (our) club may not have ever met. For a few, being a part of this community is the only social life they have. 

To the hierarchy at Tooting and Mitcham. Don’t ignore these people or disregard their views, Don’t just treat them as an endless supply of cash. Don’t just class them as an endless supply of unpaid volunteers. Don’t treat them as idiots who don’t deserve to be told what is happening behind the scenes….. because if we do get relegated. You are going to need these people, this community more than you’ve ever needed them before. 

Come On You Terrors !!!!!!