IT'S the moment that all fans dread. After waiting patiently all day to get your football fix, the heavens open an hour before kick-off.
Those in the queue outside Gander Green Lane on Tuesday night are hardly strangers to walking through the turnstile to see a soggy referee rolling a ball on their turf to discover if the pitch is fit for football.
Times though at Sutton United have changed. Gone is the worry of a pre-match downpour, because gone is the grass. Weather watching in the build up to a match is a sport not needed in these parts any longer.
The National League South club opened their fantastic new £400,000 3G pitch in front of over 1,500 spectators as the ribbon was cut by Alan Pardew as his young Crystal Palace side did the honours.
Brollies were in the air but finding shelter was their only concern – not if the game was going ahead or not.
Chairman Bruce Elliott is a proud man, but not proud enough to admit his initial feeling about putting down the plastic was the wrong one.
“I'm a grumpy old man,” he smiles. “A part of me thought football should be played on grass. But then you think about it, and you think about it some more.
“Then you remember that twice in the last few years we have had a period in the season where there was no football at the ground for five weeks. Even in good weather, it was only suitable to host one game every two weeks.
In-house
“You always remember that our reserves and youth teams never got to play at Sutton United, facilities were so much of a problem that our first team were forced to train in Guildford.
“There was a big cost involved in hiring grounds for our sides to play and practice at and the club was becoming fragmented. Everything is back in-house and it's bringing all Sutton United teams home.”
Palace ran out 2-0 winners in the drizzle, going ahead when defender Dean Beckwith headed past his own goalkeeper midway through the first half.
New stopper Ross Worner, 25, saved the Eagles' early second-half penalty but Keshi Anderson, signed from Southern League Barton Rovers in February, followed up after fluffing his lines from 12 yards.
The game, of course, was secondary. Vice-chairman David Mathers said the pitch, put down within eight weeks by specialists S&C Slatter, will revolutionise the way the U's operate.
“Sutton United can now become a seven-day-a-week operation,” he said. “It's fantastic. Our first competitive game on the 3G pitch is Maidstone United on August 8. It's perfect!”
