Our first meeting may have been in ’84 – but Sutton United became familiar faces in our Diadora League Premier Division days. In losing 4-1 during that first-ever encounter (the Hitachi Cup), our next match programme held the Us up as the yardstick for where a growing Boro’ needed to be. It took some time. But we got there. There was another cup defeat for us before reaching the Diadora League Premier Division in 1993.
The Us weren’t long back from the Conference; relegated in 1991 and very much in the mix for a return in the first few seasons back down a level. In both campaigns that we were in the Premier Division, the Us ended in fifth place. It’s just that, in the second of those, we ended as champions and left them behind. We’d go on to be reunited once again, of course, after the Us came back to the Conference in 1999-00. But we were on different levels at the time.
And that was that too… until their historic promotion into the Football League in summer 2021. Are we the yardstick for where a growing Us need to be? Or are we going to find ourselves back at their mercy? Unless you’re from the future, we just don’t know that yet…
