Sutton United: Paul Doswell
Chris Wood, Monday 30 January 2012
‘I like a challenge. When I came here the club was at its lowest point. It had lost its way.’
Sutton United Football Club’s successful manager, Paul Doswell was reflecting on the state of the club’s fortunes at the end of the 2007-08 season, when he was invited to take the helm at the Gander Green Lane club.
Paul was quite a catch for the south London club. He had already made a name for himself for his achievements at Eastleigh, where he had won the BBC South Sports Award 2006 for his achievement in guiding the Hampshire club from the Wessex League to the Blue Square South League in just three years. In the short time he has been at Gander Green Lane he has rejuvenated the team and guided them to promotion from the Ryman Premier League to the Blue Square South. He’s also seen his players go on an impressive FA Cup run this season. OK, not quite the sensational results like the 2-1 win against Coventry City back in 1989, but an honourable defeat to League opponents Notts County in the second round – and some useful cash in the kitty, following live coverage of the game on ESPN TV. And, alongside all this, the ‘Us’ are currently riding high in the Blue Square South, with promotion again a realistic target. ‘In football, if you’re in it you want to win it,’ says Paul, ‘but promotion is a double-edged sword. In the Conference we would have the lowest budget by far. With all the extra travelling involved, I’d say getting promoted this year would be a season or two too early, but we’d take it!’
So, if budgets are tight, how could Sutton United afford to bring in more quality players to keep them in the Conference, if they get there? Paul’s answer is simple enough – ‘We improve our younger players; this may mean bringing them through the youth teams and then loaning them out to professional league clubs to develop them.’ The idea has obvious merits and it hints at a much more significant and wider role Sutton United FC is forging for itself in the community, though Paul is at pains to point out that the club’s various community initiatives are driven by a whole team of dedicated volunteers.
‘We want to get many more kids enjoying their football,’ explains Paul. ‘It’s not only a way of finding new playing talent, but also a way of developing a base of younger supporters for future years. A high percentage of our regular supporters are over 50; getting youngsters interested in the club and its progress is a good way of building a younger fan base.’ Paul points to current player Tommy Kavanagh as a shining example of a local youngster who has progressed through the junior ranks to regular first team football. Incredibly, Paul informs me that the dedicated band of community workers do not get paid – including Paul himself! They all do it willingly, often with a professionalism they bring from their day jobs or jobs they’ve recently retired from. ‘Ideas are OK,’ Paul reminds me, ‘but you need people to implement them. Without them nothing would happen and this work is vital to the survival of the club. Our Chairman, Bruce Elliott, for example, must do about forty hours a week for the club – on top of his own job.’
Many Sutton residents have still to take ownership of their football club as one of their finest community resources and everyone at the club is working to put that right. Not only are the junior and youth teams thriving (for boys and girls) but the club recently unveiled an exciting five-year Football Development Plan which, among other proposals, is introducing football pitches and state-of-the-art sports facilities in to the adjacent Collingwood Rec, as part of a plan to make the whole site the centre of sporting activity in the borough. ‘We want to make this site the central point to meet,’ says Paul.
Sutton United believes that the 5-11 year-old group is absolutely crucial to embedding basic skills, enhancing enjoyment of the game, developing healthy lifestyles and creating a new generation of talented players. For this reason the development plan aims to provide a top quality football environment by investing in the development of coaches and thereby raising the standards of football across all age groups and abilities, from 5 upwards. The £2.5 million development plan is dependent on money from a number of sources, including the FA Foundation, but Paul reminds me of the part ordinary fans play in everything that the club achieves. ‘We have one girl fan, Sarah Bleksley, who cycled to every away game last season to raise over £3,500 towards the development plan fund.’
Everyone, it seems, especially the fans, have been right behind Paul in everything he’s achieved since coming to Sutton United. The council, too, has played a key role in getting football back into Collingwood Rec. and approving the Football Development Plan. With the run of the ball, that important bit of luck and Paul Doswell’s expert managerial know-how Sutton could soon be hailing both a Conference team and a community sports facility second to none.
Centre of sporting excellence
Sutton United is fulfilling its potential to becoming the community’s centre of sporting excellence. December 2011 saw the club’s first-ever Disability Awareness Day, in association with Sutton Mencap and the Communication Workers’ Union. Through its Football Development Plan Sutton United is committed to developing opportunities for those with wide-ranging disabilities to participate in sport. A residents’ Day back in October was designed to bring those living nearby in to the club, to see exactly what happens on match days – and between matches; and a Community Fun Day at the beginning of the season, in partnership with the local Met Police Safer Neighbourhood Team, attracted its own, bigger than average crowd.
