VBS Community Stadium

Gander Green Lane,

 Sutton,

SM1 2EY

Sutton play at Gander Green Lane – VBS Community Stadium

This is about 13 miles south-west of London, midway between Wimbledon (Tennis) and Epsom (Derby horse racing).

Crystal Palace Women’s football team are playing their home matches there.

Sutton United received the seats for the grandstand at Gander Green Lane from the remodelling of Stamford Bridge and were given to them by Chelsea F.C.

Away fans will be based in the Parkside Terrace – different to last season where supporters were based behind the goal.

This section is Standing ONLY.

Please enter through turnstiles 5 and 6 which is by Gate B. Enter through the park off Collingwood Road.

If you’re travelling from West Sutton Station walk down Gander Green Lane, and enter the park to Gate B.

Further stadium update 2024-25 – Sutton United Football Club

Note the 5:30pm kick off time as this match is being televised – Sutton United match chosen for live DAZN coverage | WE ARE FGR

Getting There

By Supporters Coach – The easiest way to get there.

For full details of Away Travel: –

Click here: – FGR Away Travel – Forest Green Rovers Supporters Club (fgrsc.com)

Away Travel 2024/25 | WE ARE FGR

Book your coach ticket with your match ticket from FGR.

Discount for FGR Supporters Club members. Supporters Club Members need to book by phone or in person to get their discount.

Coach departure times and other useful information –

Tickets and Travel | Sutton United (A) | WE ARE FGR

Click – Tickets | WE ARE FGR

Revised departure times following change of kick off time –

The Coach will leave Stonehouse at 12pm (midday), with pick-ups at Dudbridge (12.15pm) and The New Lawn (12.30pm).

By phone on 0333 123 1889 Monday to Friday, between 9am and 3pm.

Please try to book as early as you can.

By Train

Trains leave Stroud every hour and take a little over 3 hours to get to West Sutton.   Trains usually go via Paddington and normally involve 3 changes.

With the later kick off time check train times carefully.

Sutton United recommend using Sutton station as trains are more frequent (from Victoria & London Bridge) than West Sutton.

Sutton Railway Station is only one stop (or two minutes travelling time) on the train away from West Sutton station that adjoins the ground.

West Sutton is within about 200 metres of the stadium.  As you come out of the narrow station entrance, turn right and the entrance to the ground is down on the right.

Sutton station is a 20-minute walk to the ground.

By Car

Ground Post Code – SM1 2EY

Travel to Sutton by car will take a little over 2 and a half hours (about 110 miles from Nailsworth).

Leave the M25 at Junction 8 and take the A217 towards Sutton. On nearing Sutton you will reach a small roundabout where you bear left continuing on the A217 towards Central London. At the second set of major traffic lights (the Gander Inn is on the left-hand corner) turn right into Gander Green Lane. The Borough Sports Ground is about 200 yards up this road on the left-hand side.

Car Parking

There is a car park at the ground, but this is for permit holders only.

Away fans should park in Gibson Road the local municipal car park (SM1 2RF). It takes no more than fifteen minutes to walk from Gibson Road to the stadium

Click here for map & charges etc. – Gibson Road multistorey – Sutton Council

There is street parking available, but it is further away from the ground due to a local residents parking scheme, so please check signage on lamp posts for restrictions

Disabled parking is available for blue badge holders, but should be booked in advance by emailing info@suttonunited.net giving as much notice as possible please.

Disabled Supporter Information:

Disabled Supporters – Sutton United

Food & Drink

Outside the Ground

The nearby Plough pub has now closed down. Around a ten-minute walk away from the ground at the traffic lights on the main A217 is the Gander pub.

The pub options in the town centre are numerous if somewhat uninteresting.  There is a Wetherspoons called the Moon on the Hill, an ‘All Bar One’ and a handful of other options clustered at the top of the High Street all within five minutes’ walk of Sutton railway station. One of the better options may be ‘The Old Bank’ immediately to the right of Sutton station as you exit. There should be something to cater for most tastes and all the usual High Street restaurant chains are also present.

No. 265 the Winning Post pub (formerly Red Lion) is a piece of rock music heritage. It was here that Charlie Watts and Bill Wyman played their first gigs with the Rolling Stones in 1963, the impresario Giorgio Gomelsky spotted the band at this pub and booked them for his Crawdaddy Club.

In The Ground

Fan Zone – At the away end with food and drink served throughout the match.

Sutton are moving to being a cashless stadium – therefore please bring card for any payments.

Manager

Steven Morison started his career at Northampton at the age of 16,. He made his first-team debut in 2002. Morison joined Conference South club Bishops Stortford for an undisclosed fee in November 2004. After just under two years playing regularly at Stortford, he signed for Stevenage for a “small four-figure fee” in August 2006. During his first season with the club, Morison scored the winning goal in the 2007 FA Trophy Final the first competitive cup final to be held at the new Wembley Stadium. He also helped the club win the Fa Trophy again in May 2009, in what was ultimately his last game for the club.

Having scored 86 times in 151 appearances during his three seasons at Stevenage, Morison joined Millwall for £130,000 ahead of the 2009-10 season. He helped the club to secure promotion to the Championship in his first season there. He signed for Premier League club Norwich City in June 2011. After scoring 12 goals in 59 games for Norwich in the top tier of English football, Morison signed for Leeds in January 2013. He rejoined Millwall on a season-long loan after just five months at Leeds. He returned to Leeds for the 2014-15 season, before signing for Millwall on a permanent basis in August 2015.

Morison scored the winning goal in the 2017 EFL L1 Play Off Final to help Millwall achieve promotion back into the Championship during the 2016-17 season. He played over 300 games for Millwall over his two spells with the club, scoring 92 goals, which ranks him in third place in Millwall’s all time goal scorers list Morison joined Shrewsbury on an initial season-long loan agreement in June 2019. Although the transfer was made permanent at the start of the 2019-20 season , Morison announced his retirement from playing in October 2019. Morison also earned eight caps for the England C team, scoring three goals. Morison qualified to play Wales through his Welsh ancestry, and made his senior international debut in August 2010, representing Wales 20 times and scoring one goal.

Having already gained his coaching badges whilst playing, Morison was appointed Northampton Town’s under-18 coach, before later joining Championship club Cardiff as the lead coach of the club’s under-23 team. Following a spell as caretaker manager, he was appointed as first-team manager of Cardiff in November 2021, a position he held until September 2022. He was appointed as manager of Hornchurch in June 2023 and then became the manager of Sutton United in January 2024. On August 2024 he signed a 2 year extension to his contract to keep him at Sutton until 2027.

 

Famous Fans

Sutton’s supporters include comedian and actor, Tim Vine, who promotes the club by wearing their shirt or talking about them in interviews. 

But Vine’s most well-known act was when he went viral for an song he wrote for Sutton ahead of their 2022 EFL Trophy final against Rotherham United.

In August 2024 ‘Married At First Sight UK’ matchmaker Paul Brunson, who was born in USA, became a co-owner of Sutton. He says he’s a “recent but devout fan” of Sutton United FC and decided to invest in the club after attending his first match in early 2024. Paul appeared on Channel 4’s Sunday Brunch and after the hosts heard he didn’t have a football club to support, Sutton United was picked out of a hat for him. Paul says he had a “life-changing moment” when he then attended a club match, saying he “instantly fell in love with the game and the sense of community it fosters”.

 

How are They Doing

last season Sutton were relegated alongside FGR.

Eastleigh 1 Sutton 1

Sutton 2  York 2

Wealdstone  0 Sutton 1

Sutton 5 Altrincham 0

Tamworth 1 Sutton 1

Sutton are currently in 3rd place with 9 points.

Ones to Watch

Midfielder Finley Barbrook on loan from Ipswich.  Finley was Ipswich’s Academy Player of The Year last season.

Following relegation from L2 at least 21 players have left Sutton with the following joining:-

Dillon De Silva (Wealdstone)
Siju Odelusi (Aveley)
Eduino Vaz (Aveley)
Jayden Harris (Carlisle United)
Jack Sims (Braintree Town)
Nana Boateng (Millwall)
Tyler French (Dundee)
Matt Rush (Maidstone United)
Jeremy Sivi (Middlesbrough)
Will Davies (York City)
Lewis Simper (Cambridge United)
Jack Wadham (Bournemouth)
Harry Ransom (Crawley Town)
Hayden Muller (Dundalk)

Finley Barbrook (on loan from Ipswich)

Josh Coley (3 goals) & Will Davies (2 goals) are the only Sutton players to score more than one goal so far.

Josh Coley

Rovers Connections

Goalkeeper Steve Arnold joined Sutton in the summer 2023. He played for FGR between 2014 – 2016. He made 43 appearances. His last match was the 3-1 defeat to Grimsby ln the Conference play-off final at Wembley.

Omar Bugiel will be remembered by many Rovers fans.  The German-born Lebanese striker played for Rovers between 2016 and 2018, making 35 appearances and scoring 8 times for FGR in both the National League and League 2.  After a move to Bromley, Omar moved on to Sutton (141 appearances, 22 goals) in 2019. He has now moved to nearby Wimbledon. He has represented Lebanon on 10 occasions, scoring once.

Adam May played on loan with Sutton from Portsmouth in season 2016/17. Adam made 29 appearances and scored 3 goals in all competitions. He was Sutton’s ‘Young Player of the Year’.

What Are They Thinking

Sutton United Fans Forum –

Fans’ Forum – Sutton United

Club History

Sutton Utd played the first ever EFL game in their 123-year history at The New Lawn. The match in Nailsworth was memorable – an opener from Matty Stevens on 30 minutes, an Omar Bugiel (ex-FGR) equaliser on 69 minutes, then an Ebou Adams winner in injury time securing a 2-1 win for Rovers. Sadly Sutton’s brief stay in the EFL ended last season when they were relegated alongside FGR.

It is Sutton’s FA Cup exploits that have brought them most fame.

In 1988–89, Sutton completed one of the biggest FA Cup shocks in the competition’s history, defeating First Division side Coventry (who had won the competition in 1987) 2–1 in the third round. On 28 January 1989 Sutton lost to Norwich of the First Division 8–0 in the fourth round.

Sutton made all sorts of headlines during the 2016–17 season. Starting with the 4th Qualifying round when they knocked out FGR.  They then reached the Fifth Round of the FA Cup for the first time in their history, beating three Football League teams, Cheltenham, AFC Wimbledon and Leeds Utd on the way.

They finally lost 2–0 at home to Arsenal but all the headlines that day were about their 45-year-old, 23 stone, reserve goalkeeper, Wayne Shaw. Wayne was pictured tucking into a pasty in the 83rd minute of the tie and became an almost instant celebrity.  But things took a turn when the Gambling Commission launched a probe and found that there were odds of 8/1 pre-match that Wayne would be pictured eating a pie during the game.  Wayne was forced to resign!

For a complete history of Sutton click here – History – Sutton United

Mascot

Sutton have one of the league’s more unusual mascots, and at 9ft, probably one of the tallest.  Jenny the Giraffe lays claim to being one of the very few female mascots and has been strutting her stuff around Gander Green Lane since 2009.

Jenny took part in the 2010 Mascot Grand National and finished 5th out of 41 runners.

Do not worry – Giraffes are not native to Surrey.

Things To Do In Sutton